Friends of Memorial Park Task Days in 2016
Here are details of our task days in 2016.
Task Day 31 December 2016
The last task day of 2016 was a chance for fresh air at the end of a festive week and it was great that so many volunteers made the time, especially while there seems to be a lot of colds and flu doing the rounds. We hope those under the weather will be better soon and we'd like to say a very big thanks to everyone who has helped in the park in 2016 - it's been a good year!
On this New Year's Eve task day we focused mainly on planting the last of the bulbs we were given by the council, which included bluebells and snowdrops planted in the woodland areas and 500 hyacinths planted in various beds. We also planted some whips donated by a local resident to fill some gaps in one of the shrub bed borders, carried out maintenance along the canal-side walk and picked up four bags of litter from all corners of the park. Instead of our normal refreshments in the park, at lunchtime we headed to Samuel Oldknow's for an early start to New Year's Eve celebrations and received a warm welcome and free soft drinks. We could certainly get used to this!
Park users placed over £20 in our donation bucket, which means more than £385 has been raised this way in 2016. This money goes into our general park maintenance pot and is a most welcome boost, thank you all!
Task Day 26 November 2016
On a beautiful bright sunny morning, our volunteers planted 5,000 crocuses provided by Stockport Council to commemorate those from Stockport who lost their lives in the service of this country (all conflicts). This was part of a mass bulb planting across the borough at seven sites to represent each of Stockport's regions. It was kicked off by Cllr Sheila Bailey, Executive Member for Communities and Housing, with children from Alexandra Park Primary School, who paid their respects by planting bulbs in Alexandra Park on Armistice Day, Friday 11th November.
The 5,000 crocuses donated to Memorial Park were planted in scrolls on one side of the path, all the way from the park entrance to the main flowerbeds near to the War Memorial. This compliments the 4,000 bulbs donated by Marple and Goyt Valley Rotary to remind us about the fight against Polio that were planted in scrolls on the other side of the path last year.
Some work was also done on pruning of the shrub beds and management of the woodland walk area.
Park visitors left almost £27 in our donations bucket and we received many positive comments. For the second year running a lady also donated £50 that she insisted is spent on our volunteers, not the park itself. As last year, we will spend this on tea, coffee, cakes and snacks for our volunteers during our task day tea breaks - it should last us nearly all year!
Task Day 12 November 2016
It was all hands to clearing leaves and pruning shrub beds this time, as we prepared the park for the Remembrance Service tomorrow morning. The council has been supporting us all week too, with clearing of leaves on a daily basis, and cleaning of the flag poles, which was a tricky task! Friends of Reddish Vale Park came to our aid with the loan of a leaf blower after ours started to smoke, so thanks to them and the council for their help over the last week.
Work was also done on Jubilee, Infants Play Area and Toilet flowerbeds too.
Park visitors left over £25 in our donations bucket, which is brilliant considering the weather was pretty grotty.
Thank you to Arthur Procter for taking photos today!
Task Day 29 October 2016
A very damp day and autumn now has a firm grip with a golden display of leaves in the park - they look great but are hard work to clear! Tasks today included planting of wall flowers kindly donated by a local gardener, management of the woodland areas, tidying of flowerbeds, pruning of shrub beds, litter-picking and clearing of leaves. Also pruning of roses in the Charles Ingham Bandroom garden. Despite the damp over £12 was collected in our donations bucket, so thank you to park visitors once again!
Task Day 15 October 2016
It was most hands to the flowerbeds today as we do our best to keep everything looking good leading up to Remembrance in November. There was also some regular maintenance done on the Bandroom garden, maintenance along the canal-side woodland walk, some planting of roses in borders and the inevitable litter-picking, which is a never ending task. In addition, one of the Bowling Green benches was found to have graffiti so was given a rub-down and coat of preservative.
Around £26 was collected in our donations bucket, so thank you to park visitors!
Task Day 24 September 2016
We focused mainly on the Woodland area behind the library during today's task day but also litter picked throughout the park, shifted last year's composting leaves to make space for more later this year, trimmed shrubs in the Infants Play Area and weeded, edged and raked the French Boules Court too.
Our mini plant-sale and collection was particularly successful with over £35 being donated by visitors to the park.
Task Day 10 September 2016
Today's activities included trimming hedges around the Bandroom, cutting back of shrubs around the council offices and the scout hut, edging of flowerbeds with our new shears, tidying up and new planting in the Memorial Beds and weeding of flowerbeds. We also had another mini plant-sale and raised just over £22 from generous visitors to the park.
Task Day 27 August 2016
Flowerbeds and borders were the main focus of this Bank Holiday task day and despite some of our regular volunteers being away, lots of good work was completed.
Activities included putting up some wire supports for our new plants behind the toilet block, removal of Ash saplings that had self-seeded in the shrub beds, removal of bracken that had done the same and litter-picking throughout the park. We also made some more progress on our project to refurbish the Town Centre benches.
As well as our usual collection bucket we sold some plants and baby Christmas trees, raising £26 from visitors to the park.
Task Day 13 August 2016
A very productive day for our volunteers, with work on the Library Jubilee Bed, the Woodland Reading Circle, Infants Play Area Bed, Sensory Bed, Office Bed and the Bandroom Garden. We also prepared an area of one flowerbed for something new and rather special we've been working on. Watch this space for more news!
More work on benches in the park too, and also work on reburbishment of another Town Centre bench as well.
Visitors to Marple Library left £6 in our collection bucket too, not as good as the flowerbed area we usually put it but it all counts!
Task Day 30 July 2016
A tough job to start the day was digging out the roots of the ivy at the back of the toilet block and then planting a climbing hydrangea and two clematis donated by volunteers.
The flowerbeds are looking fabulous but continue to demand attention to keep weeds at bay and borders neat. Lots of work done on the cinema bed at the front of the park, around the Council Offices and at the front to keep the entrance ramp handrails clear. Lots of painting and treatment of benches in the park and our next one on Market Street was also started too.
Once again visitors to the park were very generous, popping just over £27 in our collection bucket.
