Storm Amy Hits Didsbury Park…and Our Volunteers Rise to the Challenge

LAST WEEKEND - STORM AMY VISITS DIDSBURY PARK 

We had an unwelcome visitor to Didsbury Park during the weekend, in the form of Storm Amy. Unfortunately we did not escape unscathed.

Picture 1 shows the remains of the large tree which fell at about 9am on Saturday  morning, crashing into the back gardens of the houses on Elm Grove. I am pleased to report that nobody was hurt and as soon as it was reported to MCC on Saturday, the arbor team came to the park and inspected the damage and organised for a large team of tree surgeons to come to the park on Monday to begin the necessary recovery work.

Meanwhile we also had some additional less serious damage to a number of trees across the park and I am very grateful to the support from Murray and Allan who joined me in the park for a couple of hours on Sunday morning to tidy up the damaged sections of the trees to a storage point behind the volunteers shelter. Thank you both. 

TODAY 

I am pleased to report that weatherwise, in contrast to the weekend, we had quite a pleasant morning in the park today. We had a good attendance of 40 volunteers which included Lee from the Co-op Bank and Lisa and Victoria from Grupobimbo. We were also supported by Anna and her students from Brentwood High School and Sigad and his job coach Sheeba from Bridge College. Everybody was made very welcome. 

A huge thanks also to Sonia who provided all the savoury snacks for our coffee break, and to Gill N and the staff at the cafe who made sure they were all warmed up for us.  

TODAY - NEW FLOWER BED 

Picture 2 shows the team of Sonia, Denise and Leslie who, along with Jude, had been working on re-shaping the new flower bed containing the new polyanthus plants and pansies. This is the first stage in the re-modelling of this beautiful flower bed. The plan is to introduce new perennial plants and to surround it with low level kick fencing, similar to the triangular bed. This is a precautionary measure in order to prevent the dogs from weeing on the plants and killing them.

Picture 3 is a picture of Denise arriving in the park with a wheelbarrow full of perennial plants from her own garden which we will plant out next week. Thank you Denise. 

TODAY - FLOWER WALK AND WILMSLOW ROAD PATH FLOWER BEDS

There was a continued focus today upon the seasonal jobs of weeding and splitting plants. We had two main teams working on these activities. 

Picture 4 shows the team of Ilma, John, Christine, Lucy and Julie working on the Flower Walk. Jane was also working with this group but unfortunately was busy taking the weeds to the skip when this picture was taken. Sorry Jane. My apologies for not including you in the picture 

Picture 5 shows Gill B and Tristan doing similar work near the Wilmslow Road gate. 

Thank you all. This was a great piece of horticultural work. 

TODAY - CLEANING UP AFTER THE STORM

There was a lot of work for us today to bring the park back up to scratch again after storm Amy. 

Picture 6 shows the amazing improvement made by Allan with the leaf blower along the Wilmslow Road path. Thank you Allan this was a great job.

Picture 7 shows Emanuel, Marian and Lorna. Emanuel and Marian did some worked hard stripping back all the tree debris collected behind the volunteers shelter and re-cyling it to produce material for the natural hedges being created in the woodland area. A pile of ready material can be seen just behind Lorna. Having created this material then Lorna transported it to the woodland area where Sandra and Lorna used it to build more natural hedging. This was a super piece of work by all involved. Thank you!

Picture 8 shows the team of Victoria, Lisa and Lee who had just been joined by Chris. This team worked relentlessly all morning to remove all the leaves, branches and pine needles from the paths around the Gillbrook Road area. This entrance looked amazing afterwards - something Brenda, on her day off, would have been proud of! 

TODAY - INSTALLATION ACTIVITIES

Following last week's successful project of 'cementing' in some attractive stonework underneath the large lectern in the Bird Garden, our team were at it again today. Picture 9 shows Gary and Chris  proudly displaying the results of their new project of providing an attractive base for one of the other lecterns in the Bird Garden. This is such a good project because it not only looks good but it also solves the problem of us being unable to successfully grow anything in these spaces. Thank you Gary and Chris. 

Roger and Carl were also working in the Bird Garden today. After adding some more woodchip to the path to the children's playground, Roger joined forces with Carl N wire up another gap in the hedge around the Bird Garden. Thank you guys. The dog free aspect of the Bird Garden gives so much pleasure to families with young babies and toddlers who use it. Thank you once again. 

Picture 10 shows the heavy gang members Murray, Carl N, Richard and Adrian posing for a picture as they set about digging out the area where the hard standing for the new bench is going to go. This work will continue next week. Thank you guys 

Thank you also to Greg who helped me this afternoon to take delivery of the concrete we need for the bench installation. 

FUTURE EVENTS - BRITAIN IN BLOOM

The following draft is the invitation I have received for this year's Britain in Bloom Awards Event:

We are delighted to invite you to the celebrations of this year's North West Britain in Bloom and It's Your Neighbourhood campaigns at the Bolton Wanderers football stadium (BL6 6SF).

For your group, the North West It's Your Neighbourhood Awards are on Wednesday 5 November 2025.  Please note change of day from previous years.

Places are priced at £16 per person.

Refreshments will be available from 10.30am.  The awards ceremony will start at 12.00noon when a light lunch will be served.  We hope to finish by 4.00pm.

We have attached the application form for the event.  Please note that we can only initially allocate 3 places for each It’s Your Neighbourhood group.  If you wish other members of your group to attend, we may be able to offer them places depending on first booking numbers. 

Please complete guest details, including any people you wish to put on the reserve list and return to us by Friday 10 October 2025.

Payment for places can be made preferably by BACS or cheque made payable to North West in Bloom as detailed on the application form.  Groups should only pay for the initial places in the first instance.

I believe it is my turn to volunteer to represent us at this event this year - there will be free bus transport to take us to and from the event.  If you would also like to come along please do let me know before Friday 

FUTURE EVENTS - CALENDAR

For a number of reasons (particularly because of the earlier autumn this year) we are going to bring the date of the BIG Leaf Clear Up event forward by one week to Saturday 25th October. We have quite a full calendar for the rest of 2025. Here are the main items:

• Saturday 25th October 10am to 1pm  Big Leaf Clear Up

• Thursday 30th October to Saturday 1st November Didsbury Beer Festival (in support of the Friends of Didsbury Park as a nominated charity) 

• Wednesday 5th November Britain in Bloom Awards

• Saturday 8th November 11am Act of Remembrance on the Poppy Path

• tbd on a Thursday in November Didsbury Park Volunteers Curry Night 

• Monday 8th December Mulled Wine and Christmas Carols by the Children of Didsbury CofE Primary School

• Monday 15th, 22nd and 29th Christmas break.  

• Monday 5th January First Volunteering Monday in 2026

Thank you once again for your amazing support