A Landmark Day for Didsbury Park: Opening the Wildflower Meadow
TODAY
Today was a very special day for the Didsbury Park Volunteers and on a mostly dry but overcast day we had 42 volunteers in attendance to witness it. Today was the day, the project to turn the second bowling green into a wild flower meadow which was accessible to the public was finally achieved - but more of this later.
We also received the good news today that Kedir, one of the asylum seekers who has been volunteering with us had heard from the Home Office that his appeal hearing had been successful and he has been granted refugee status. Our congratulations go to you Kedir. This makes our third hard working volunteer, following Augustine and Fasil, who have successfully been granted asylum status. Kedir will remain in Manchester and attend a course at Manchester Metropolitan University three days a week AND will come and join us again whenever he is free on a Monday!
Among our volunteers today we welcomed the students from Brentwood High School and from Bridge College. We also welcomed a new volunteer Mustafa and were delighted to see Robin once again especially as he came bearing chocolate biscuits. Everybody was made very welcome.
TODAY
OUR BIG EVENT - THE COMPLETION OF THE PROJECT TO ALLOW PUBLIC ACCESS TO THE WILD FLOWER MEADOW
Picture 1 shows the magnificent cake which the cafe in the park made for us as part of the volunteers celebration for the completion of the opening of the wild flower meadow to the public. Hopefully, in the summer, when the wild flowers grow, we will have as many colourful flowers in the meadow as are on the cake!!
PIcture 2 shows some of our volunteers this morning (I am sorry I could not fit everybody into the photo) assembled around the cake at our coffee break time. Whilst we were having our cake today we also took the opportunity to recap the many stages this long but worthwhile project has taken. Here is a recap:
2017: The membership of the bowls club declines to the level where the ladies team decide to move from the second green and share the first (and better green) with the men's team.
2018: The MCC maintenance team suggest stopping the maintenance of the second bowling green to bowling green standard. FoDP with support from Cllr Simcock and Cllr Foley request a delay in this action in the hope that FoDP can generate enthusiam in the community for public access to the second green for bowling. FoDP are not successful in generating sufficient enthusiasm in the community to justify the continued maintenance and MCC go ahead and cut the bowling green maintenance budget by 50%. Talks begin with MCC about the future use of the second bowling green.
2019: We continued to work with MCC to determine what could be the best use in future of the second bowling green. FoDP undertake a wide public consultation exercise led by Richard and Nataly. The consulation determined that 17 options should be considered. A survey was organised by FoDP using Survey Monkey - over 350 people took part and the top six categories voted for were as follows:
Outdoor Lido
Play area for older children
Outdoor gym equipment
Crazy golf course
Skate park
Wildflower meadow.
Once we had recovered from the shock of the survey results, we did a cost /benefit analysis of each option and concluded that the only viable option for our volunteers was the wild flower meadow.
2020: Covid stops any further progress
2021: It is agreed with MCC to restart the project with a small pilot project of 100 square metres in the middle of the second green. The MCC lead is Barry Noble and FoDP lead is Julie. MCC remove about six inches of thatch (topsoil) and replace it with subsoil. Julie chooses a mixture of nectar, pollen and cornfield annuals. An immediate three week drought turns the subsoil into a solid, inpenetrable surface. However after 4 weeks we have rain and it is possible to go ahead and sow the pilot site. The pilot site is a great success.
10 beautiful Himalayan Birches with stunning white bark are delivered by the City of Trees thanks to a lot of support from Cllr Simcock. These are carefully planted according to design in the area.
Volunteers also plant hedge whips supplied by MCC around the perimeter of the wild flower meadow.
2022: Following the success of the pilot site in 2021, MCC agree to extend the pilot site to 5 times the pilot size. A completely new shape to the wild flower meadow is also introduced based upon a softer design. In June 2022 the wildflower meadow looks stunning and when it is opened to the public at the Didsbury Festival in June it is acclaimed by all its visitors, with some people being spotted in tears - it looked so beautiful. This was a real highspot. FoDP then began the discussion with MCC to permanently open this facility to the public. MCC investigate internal funding for this work but none was forthcoming.
2023: Disaster year! MCC supply wild meadow grass seed for sowing by mistake instead of wild flower meadow seed. Somehow the word meadow got misinterpreted in the MCC ordering process. As a result the flowers are dominated by the grasses. A long debate ensued about whether to start again or try and manage the wild flower meadow by introducing wild flowers like yellow rattle which would eventually overcome the grasses.
2024: No positive response from MCC about there being any funding for opening the wildflower meadow to the public. Meanwhile the wild flower meadow starts to recover very slowly.
2025: William Eastwood from MCC identifies an external grant which FoDP and MCC could potentially jointly apply for which would fund the necessary work to remove the old industrial railings around the wild flower meadow, still protect the remaining bowling green and also provide self closing gate public access to the wild flower meadow. Pauline and I draft the extensive application form and work with William, Joanne Wakeman and Caitlin Lockwood from MCC supported by Cllr Andrew Simcock to finally secure the grant to do the work
2026: 5th January 2026 work begins by the contractor. Today the last bit of tidying work is done by volunteers on the wild flower meadow and public access is made possible.
Phew! I feel tired just reading what we have had to do to complete this project!! However despite all the hard work and the challenges we have had to overcome I think when you look at what we have achieved in providing this amazing facility for the people who use the park, it has all been worthwhile. It has been a huge team effort by everybody from the Friends of Didsbury Park, and MCC. Well done and thank you to everyone.
Picture 3 shows Allan and Sonia, the early arrivals at the park this morning, helping to unlock the previously locked gates into the wild flower meadow. Picture 4 shows Sandra, Carl and Debbie removing some sections of grass from the wild flower meadow and replacing them with cut outs from the route of the path which contained wild flowers. Kevin and Greg can be seen in the background.
Thank you also to Allan who put the final touches to the wild flower meadow by using his leaf blower to make sure that lots of leaves and spare soil were carefully tidied away and the grassed areas were looking clear and attractive. Later this afternoon we received word from Carol that the new wild flower meadow paths work well for wheelchair access as she and Pat in the wheelchair had just made a very successful visit. Thank you Carol - this is good to know!
TODAY - MULCHING
Outside of the wild flower meadow today there was a lot of other work undertaken - on mulching.
Picture 5 shows David, Taysan and Chris standing on top of our store of this year's leaves before extracting last year's rotten leaves for mulching the Flower Walk. Picture 6, takien at the Flower Walk itself shows David, Joyce, Christine, Taysan, Jane, Jude and Lorna all busy spreading the beautiful, black, worm infested leaf mulch carefully around the flowers in the Flower Walk. Thank you all - this was a fabulous piece of work and the flower beds look excellent as a result.
Meanwhile around the corner along the path to Wilmslow Road, picture 7, shows some of our team from Brentwood School also spreading mulch but with their material of choice being woodchip! This was a far cleaner material for working with! Thank you all - this was a fabulous result and made a huge difference to the look of the flower beds.
In the background of picture 7 we can see Tom and Julie who were doing some more serious pruning to give the flower beds in this area a lot more light. The results of this work were very impressive. Thank you both.
TODAY - ELSEWHERE IN THE PARK
A special thank you to Allan who was not only using the leaf blower to full effect today, but during the week has also been visiting the park to make sure that all the paths throughout the park are clean and safe for all our visitors. A huge thank you Allan, the paths thrioughout the park are looking great as a result of all your hard work.
One area that needed a bit of extra attention today was the path alongside the bowling green where lots of fir tree needles had fallen and been compacted. This was a job which Sigad and Sheeba really enjoyed and with some help from Gill B made a huge improvement. Thank you all.
Picture 8 shows Grace and Gill N stridng round the park as they tour the doggy bag dispensers at every entrance and refilling them as necessary. This was a great piece of work - thank you both.
A big thank you to Lucy who kindly offerred to walk Grace home later in the morning after Grace was not feeling well. Thank you Lucy and we all hope you feel better soon Grace.
Thank you to Andrew and Winnie once more for doing a great litter pick throughout the park this morning and for recovering an unusual slection of metalware!
Tristan continued to make great progress on the new moss garden as well as taking an initial look at managing the wild life camera. Thank you Tristan.
There was also a lot of work going on looking after individual flower beds across the park today. It was the sort of work that ensures that we keep on top of the flower beds and continue to make them look great all the time. For this we have to thank the experience and individual skills of members of our great team such as Denise, Sonia, Anne, Ilma, and Lesley. Thank you so much - your skills are really appreciated.
2026 SUSTAINABILITY PLAN - DRAFT FOR DISCUSSION
Unusually this week I have also attached 2 documents for your consideration. Following a questionare sent to all members, in 2021 we produced a 5 year Didsbury Park Sustainability Plan for the period 2021 to 2026. This is attached as a reminder. Clearly in the field of sustainability, global warming etc., the world has moved on 5 years since we produced the original document.
Our original document is clearly due for review and update this year. Co-incidentally this subject has also been exercised recently by Kevin, Jude and Ilma who have produced a draft paper on the subject. I have also attached this document too for your consideration and comment. The trustees will also be reviewing these documents as a matter of course and would appreciate any comments / views you may have.
Thank you once more for your fantastic support.