Spring Blooms, Community Spirit and Big Spring Clean Ahead in Didsbury Park
PHOTO OF THE WEEK:
This year the spring bulbs in the park have been amazing. Thanks to the annual supply of new bulbs from MCC, we have now planted an estimated 250,000 spring bulbs throughout the park since we started volunteering in 2014. The accumulative effect of all these flowers this year has been truly stunning. I hope everybody is enjoying the show!
However, 'time and tide wait for no man' and as we are now seeing the beginning of the end of the snowdrops, we are also privileged to witness the trees taking their turn to show us how good they can be.
Luckily, Louise was in the park on Friday and was able to capture the beautiful cherry blossom on the main field as it came into full bloom for the first time this year. We can see what a dramatic scene she has been captured in picture 1. Great picture! Louise!
DIDSBURY PARK'S FIRST PUBLIC EVENT OF 2026 IS NEXT SATURDAY - BIG SPRING CLEAN - ANY TIME BETWEEN 10AM AND 1PM
"Next Saturday 21st March there will be a 'BIG Spring Clean' event in Didsbury Park between 10am and 1pm when everybody (children and parents) are invited to join in and help us to do a thorough spring clean of the park. It is time to clean up after a long wet winter so that the park can be enjoyed, at its best, now that all the lovely spring flowers and blossom are flowering throughout the park. Please do come along and help if you can - it should be fun"
Please see the above poster, as picture 2, which provides all the details.
TRAINING - POWER TOOL TRAINING
I am still collecting names for volunteers who wish to participate in power tool training. Training should re-commence next week. Only people who have had the training will be allowed to use the power tools, so if you would like to receive the training then please do sign up asap
TRAINING - FIRST AID TRAINING
We have also been approached by an organisation, who are a not-for-profit organisation committed to making first aid and mental health training accessible to community groups and charities, particularly those who may otherwise struggle to access this type of training.
Over the past 18 months, they have trained more than 30,000 people and worked with over 1,100 community groups and charities across West Yorkshire, Greater Manchester and the wider North West.
The following two free training sessions are the ones we are considering setting up:
Emergency First Aid and CPR (60 minutes) – for groups of up to 40 participants.
This session covers how to recognise the signs of cardiac arrest, when and how to perform CPR, and how to use a defibrillator.
Mental Health First Aid and CPR (2 hours)
This session focuses on recognising signs that someone may be struggling with their mental health, how to support others, and practical steps individuals can take to improve their own mental wellbeing.
These sessions are designed to be accessible, practical and engaging, helping communities gain life-saving skills and confidence.
Can you please let me know if you are interested in attending one or both of these courses please?
TODAY
On a cold and mostly dry morning we had another great turnout of 58 volunteers today. We welcomed guests Julie and Terry Gallagher who donated a beautiful viburnum plant for us to plant in the Bird Garden, in memory of their cousin Chris Millar, recently deceased, who used to be a regular visitor to Didsbury Park.
Julie and Terry were proudly telling us that Chris used to belong to the famous Corinthians ladies football team who won many cups and trophies in England and abroad and defied the ban on ladies participation in football at the time. We also welcomed Will White from MCC and were able to show him the latest developments on the wild flower meadow and clarify some aspects of Britain in Bloom. Will was impressed with the wild flower meadow.
We were also pleased to welcome David D, on his last appearance for some time because he starts a new job next week - congratulations and well done David! Like last week we also had a large contingent of volunteers from Bovis who made a great contribution to a variety of jobs across the park. Everybody was made very welcome.
SPRING CLEAN ACTIVITIES - STARTER FOR 10 FOR SATURDAY
We took the opportunity today to get a head start on the clean up activities for Saturday. Picture 3 shows our regular Monday morning litter pickers Winnie and Emilene celebrating finding some litter in the wild flower meadow. Such great enthusiasm is infectious!
Meanwhile the Brentwood School students and staff joined up with Patrick K, and some of the Bovis team to make a huge improvement to the look and cleanliness of the bowling green fences. Picture 4 shows some of the staff and students washing off the mildew from the dirty railings. This exercise was a tremendous success and the improvement if the railings was amazing. Thank you to everyone who participated.
MAINTAINING AND TIDYING UP THE SMALLER TREES
Picture 5 shows the team of Chris, Patrick H-D, Taylan and David M who continued the work from last week and tidied up the bases of all the trees on the main filed. Great work guys and good luck David in your new career.
FLOWER WALK ACTIVITIES
Once again, we had lots of volunteers working at weeding the Flower Walk in 2 main areas today. Picture 6 shows the team of Gill B, Anne, Joyce and Lesley Mc, who were extremely successful in removing ground elder and bindweed and further along the Flower Walk near the gate Jude did an amazing job in a very weedy area.
These teams were supported by a constant supply of woodchip for mulching the weeded areas by Carl, Patrick HD, Chris, Mustafa,Taylan and David M. Thank you everyone - this was a huge piece of work.
WILD FLOWER MEADOW
The main work in the wild flower meadow today consisted of tidying the edges of the wild flower area and painting the second picnic bench with preservative. Thank you to Allan for his dedication in trimming the whole perimeter of the wild flower section and to Sandra and Lorna who painted preservative on the second picnic bench.
Picture 7 shows Lorna and Sandra enjoying a good painting session. Thank you, Sandra, Lorna and Allan - the wild flower meadow has been improved once again and is looking great.
PLANT DONATIONS FROM MAGGIES
Thanks to Kevin we have had two recent donations of plants from Maggies. Last week we received donations of large grasses and this week it was ferns. Picture 8 shows Kevin and Greg starting to plant the ferns in the woodland area having laid them out in the area carefully before hand. Thank you guys.
Meanwhile Julie and Lucy were adding the grasses into the flower beds along the path leading to Wilmslow Road. Thank you for not only planting these feature plants but for also continuing to prune and shape some of the shrubs in this area too. It is a real pleasure to walk along this pathway at the moment with the beds abundant with spring colours.
ROSE BEDS
Thanks to some great work from Denise and Louise today, feeding and weeding, the two rose beds and the triangular bed are looking stunning.
Picture 9 shows Denise posing for a photo with Brenda, next to the triangular bed, after Brenda had just finished her work clearing the paths around the Gillbrook Road entrance. Many thanks to Louise, Denise and Brenda.
PREPARATIONS FOR THE START OF THE NEW SEASON - CRICKET THAT IS!
Having blown the winter cobwebs off the lawn mower, Gary gave the cricket square, the first cut of the season. The mowed area on the sports field was definitely taking the shape of a cricket square already despite such an early cut. Well done Gary - great work. We just need some cricket weather, as well, and then everybody will be happy!
ELSEWHERE IN THE PARK!
A huge thank you to Alan for spotting yet more graffiti along the Poppy Path and for removing it today - great work Alan - thank you!
Thank you also to Gill who updated all our lecterns today. This is such an important job with all the new events starting up again. Thank you Gill
As well as planting ferns Kevin also managed to continue to weave some intricate willow hedging along the borders of the flower bed opposite the rockery - Thank you Kevin.
Tristan had a big delivery of moss today which he used to enhance the moss garden. Thank you Tristan
Finally last but no means least, the heavy gang of Murray and Richard successfully completed the installation of the low kick fencing safeguarding the newly re-planted flower bed near Buddy and Lucy. Great work guys. Thank you.
Thank you once again everyone for your amazing support.