41 Volunteers Tackle a Major Wild Flower Meadow Clear-Up
TODAY
Once again, we had a good turnout of 41 volunteers on a warm and dry morning in the park today. In addition to our regular local volunteers we were also joined today by Sandra and Shona from HP, Brian and Sheeba from Bridge College and a full complement of 12 students and staff from Brentwood College. Everybody was made very welcome.
TODAY - MAJOR CLEAR UP ACTIVITY ON THE WILD FLOWER MEADOW
Three weeks ago, we cut down the dead flowers on the wild flower meadow and left them where they fell. This was a deliberate act so that the flower seeds would fall naturally into the soil. So today was the day when we needed to undertake the big job of clearing all the dead foliage out of the wild flower meadow.
Picture 1 shows the hardworking team of Taylan, Shona, Harry, Sandra, Steve and Kevin who raked the whole massive meadow and cleared the dead flowers to the compost bays. Allan also helped with this activity. This was an amazing piece of physical work everyone. Thank you all.
TODAY - ACT TWO OF WEEDING THE FLOWER BED OPPOSITE THE ROCKERY
Last Monday morning we started the huge challenge of tidying up the flower bed opposite the rockery, Despite, having a large hardworking team on it all morning we still only completed about half of this large bed. Consequently, this morning our team of Sonia, Wendy, Joyce, Lesley, Felix, Denise (OB) and Jane returned once again and did a fantastic piece of work to successfully complete the tidying of the remainder of this flower bed.
Picture 2 shows Joyce, Wendy (behind the tree), Lesley and Felix in one part of the flower bed and picture 3 shows Jane and Denise (OB) working near the end of the flower bed. Congratulations to everyone who has worked on this flower bed during the last 2 weeks. It really looks great now - thank you!
TODAY - EDGING THE NEW FLOWER BED
During the past few week's we have been steadily emptying the large flower bed under the large trees behind the volunteer's shelter and relocating it to a new bed in an area of sunlight near the young magnolia. Much of this hard work has been undertaken by Steve, Gareth and Harry so far but with Gareth on early morning litter picking duty today and in Steve's absence, the work today of starting to build a small cobble sett border around the new bed fell to Harry. Luckily Taylan was on hand to help too.
Picture 4 shows Harry mixing the concrete and Taylan carefully laying the setts as both start to learn a new bricklaying skill!! Thank you guys - Great job!
TODAY - OTHER HORTICULTURAL ACTIVITIES
Picture 5 shows Louise once again doing a superb job keeping the rose beds looking colourful and attractive. Along with Denise (L) who was out of shot, (working on the other rose bed and the triangular bed) both Louise and Denise have kept these three beds looking stunning this year. Thank you once again.
Picture 6 shows John, Julie and Christine working on the top end of the Flower Walk where there is a constant battle with bind weed. Thank you all.
TODAY - LITTER PICKING AND PATH SWEEPING
Our litter picking teams were out in force very early this morning with Gareth arriving even before I did. No sooner had Gareth set off around the park then Emma and Poppy arrived, rapidly followed by Andrew. So by the time the teams from Brentwood and Bridge College arrived it was hard to find any litter in the park at all.
As a result, the teams from Brentwood and Bridge College focussed on cleaning the paths both around the roundabout and then working with Brenda at the Gillbrook Road entrance.
Thanks to all this great work, the park was looking amazingly clean by the end of the morning - Thank you all!
TODAY - ELSEWHERE IN THE PARK
A huge extra thank you to Christine who successfully managed our drinks order today, in Gill's absence.
Thank you once again to Gary who not only did a superb maintenance job on the cricket square but then also provided mowing services to the horticultural teams as he mowed around the flower beds in a number of different areas of the park. Thank you Gary.
Murray continued to use his d.i.y expertise this morning as he added more storage capacity to the left-hand store room. This has been an amazing piece of work Murray - a huge thank you!
TODAY - JOB OPPORTUNITY
I spent a couple of days last week at the university finishing a very interesting and helpful Green Leaders course organised by Sow the City. The energy from the participants was amazing and we had some interesting and stimulating presentations from the likes of the National Trust and Jason Williams, the Cloud Gardener! One interesting piece of follow up information I received earlier today came in the form of a job opportunity for a job at Sow the City. The job entails working with fledgling urban greening opportunities across the city. It is as follows:
Job Title: Project Officer
Reporting to: Sow the City Programme Manager - Green Spaces & Community Development
Salary: £26,209
Hours: Full-time 5 days a week, 35 hours a week or part-time hours considered. Occasional weekends and evenings (which will accrue TOIL)
Contract: Fixed Term for 36 months.
Probationary Period: 3 months.
Location: Based in Manchester, with travel across the Greater Manchester area (travel costs reimbursed).
If you are interested in applying for this job, will you please let me know and I will happily send on all the details including how to apply.
Thank you once again for your amazing support.