Friends of Memorial Park Task Days in 2012
Here are details of our task days in 2012.
Task Day 9 June 2012
Unfortunately it rained so much today that the camera never came out of its case. Quite a few volunteers still turned up and we were able to prune in the shrub beds and crown lift several trees whose branches were getting very low over the main footpath but sadly no photos this time. We also continued management and planting in the woodland area behind the library and everybody got very WET indeed! What a wonderful summer.
Task Day 26 May 2012
Beautiful sunshine meant that we could make good progress on our big painting task and we managed to get approximately half of the outside of the Infants Play Area fence painted cream. Other volunteers made great inroads into some much needed management in the Breathing Places woodland area. In addition, another two wooden benches were stripped, sanded, treated and refitted on the main path through the park. Also the backless bench on the driveway had yet more graffiti removed from it.
Task Day 20 May 2012 (Marple Spring Clean)
As part of "Marple Spring Clean" organised by Marple Business Forum, Friends of Memorial Park were pleased to be joined by volunteers from the local community to begin painting the Infants Play Area fence. This is a pretty big task, it had taken several weeks to get the fence prepared and our volunteers did very well to get all of the inside of the fence painted cream. We even managed to make a start on the outside too. There is quite a lot of work left to do and we plan to tackle this in smaller sections during out normal task days over the coming weeks.
A special thank you to All Saints' Church, who made up the majority of the volunteers working on our "Spring Clean" task.
Photos by Arthur M. Procter
Task Day 12 May 2012
Blimey these task days do come round quick when there's two a month!
This time we continued jet washing the Infants Play Area fence, restored two more wooden benches, tackled a tree in the Breathing Places Area that had been blown down in the high winds, weeded the ornamental beds, did some management with the wildflowers in the Breathing Places area and planted some more plants in the War Memorial beds.
Task Day 28 April 2012
Well we were lucky with the weather today and managed to plant some more wildflower plugs in the Breathing Places area behind the library, tidy, weed and plant up the War Memorial beds and also remove the dandy lions from the cinema bed too.
Not may photos taken during this task day though as the photographer was busy jet-washing the Infants Play Area fence to prepare it for painting towards the end of May and there's still a long way to go!
Task Day 14 April 2012
For our first ever mid-month task day we were joined by young people from Community Outreach who helped us to prepare the Infants Play Area Fence ready for painting later in the year. This was part of a special 3 day event organised by All Saints' Church called "Get Out and Love Marple", where 50 young people from all over our community spent 3 days doing random acts of kindness all over Marple. We were very grateful for all the extra pairs of hands to help us sand and scrape off all the loose paint and we were very pleased to get around two thirds of the fence done as it is a BIG job! Whilst this was going on other volunteers tidied shrub beds around the Council Offices too.
In addition, the Sensory Garden bench, which was only refurbished during the February task day, and also the new bench on the driveway into the park fitted in March were both rubbed down again and re-treated because of graffiti.
Task Day 31 March 2012
A lower turn out this month but once again those who did come along excelled themselves! The reading circle bed and borders in the Breathing Place were weeded and wild flower seeds were sown in the circular border. Perennial seeds were sown with Annuals so that we should have a show of colour this year but next year should be even better when the Perennials flower.
Wild flower plugs were also planted and wildflower seeds sown in the square bed next to the library and the never-ending task of weeding the ornamental beds was started for this year. It's great to see everything springing into life again after the winter.
As well as gardening tasks we continued our on-going project to care for the park's benches with the sanding and treatment of two more benches near to the Bowling Green. The Tree Sculpture was also given a jet-wash to remove all the green growth so that it can be given its annual treatment with preservative next month.
Task Day 25 February 2012
Kind weather and a really good turnout of volunteers resulted in an exceptionally productive day! Successes included transformation of the bed in front of the Toilets to celebrate the success of our campaign to stop them from closing. The straggly Hebes were mostly removed with a few being replanted at the back of the bed or elsewhere in the park. Polyanthus from the future Diamond Jubilee Bed were removed and transplanted to the Toilet Bed and other locations in the park.
The square bed next to the library and the Reading Circle behind it were re-weeded, forked and hoed in preparation for planting of wildflowers in the spring. One of the shrub beds bordering Hollins House and the car park was also weeded and tidied.
In addition, as part of our on-going project to care for the park's benches, the Sensory Garden Bench was dismantled, sanded, treated with preservative and reassembled. Also, the refurbishment of the notice board on the library wall was completed so that we can now start telling library users about our new Diamond Jubilee Project.
Task Day 28 January 2012
We were lucky with the weather on our first task day of 2012 - it could have been like yesterday's hail and thunderstorms but the winter sunshine was very pleasant. We installed new perspex in the display case outside the library in preparation for the start of our new Diamond Jubilee Project, more about that will appear on the site soon.
We cut some paving slabs ready for a new base that will be laid for a commemorative bench recently purchased by a local family. More about that will appear on our Caring for Park Benches page when it is installed.
We also carried out extensive pruning to the shrub bed alongside the path approaching the Park Cottage and that is now looking much tidier and will soon be full of new growth. Spring is just around the corner and the park is coming back to life!
