Wildflower Meadow Ready to Open as Volunteers Prepare the Park for Spring
TODAY
This morning we had a very good turnout of 40 volunteers, all working hard on some key projects throughout the park. The day itself was dry but chilly and it was thrilling to see the snowdrops already in bloom across the park and all the colourful crocuses slowly emerging throughout the grassed areas. We were delighted to welcome David, a new local volunteer for the first time, as well as our regular students from Brentwood School and Bridge College. Everybody was made very welcome.
TODAY - THE WILDFLOWER MEADOW - NEARLY THERE - OPENING NEXT WEEK!!
We met up this morning with Willam Eastwood from MCC, and the contractor, to review the final stages of the new fencing installation around the wildflower meadow. There were a number of snagging issues identified which are scheduled to be rectified this week. Once completed, this will allow us to open up the wildflower meadow to the public from next Monday onwards.
There is still a little bit of finishing off we (the volunteers) need to do next Monday morning, with the section of the wild flower meadow which was dug up to make the new pathway. Once this is completed, the plan is to have a low key opening, although we are allowing ourselves a little treat, at our coffee break next week, in the form of a special celebratory cake, made by our colleagues in the park cafe. We recognise that the wild flower meadow is not looking at its best at this time of year so we are currently in discussions with MCC, about the potential of having a more formal celebratory opening of this new facility, later in the summer when the wild flowers are in bloom.
I would like to say an enormous thank you to everyone who has worked at any time during the last 5 years, to create this stunning transformation of the old bowling green into this very attractive feature in the park which can now be used by the public!
Pictures 1 and 2 show the latest view across the wild flower meadow from one of the new gates. Picture 3 shows new volunteer David, with Kevin and Richard. They were using the dug up sections of the wild flower meadow to replace areas dominated by grass in the meadow. Picture 4 shows Sandra and Debbie doing a similar task elsewhere on the meadow. A huge thank you to Allan for using the blower to complete the tidy up of the areas where the sections of the path had been stored on the wildflower meadow itself. This has really restored it to the condition it was in before the path was excavated. Thank you.
TODAY - DEWEEDING FLOWER BEDS - GETTING READY FOR SPRING
Unfortunately not only do the bulbs notice the improvements in temperature as we head towards spring but so also do some of our weeds. So today we had two large teams working on weeding and tidying up two specific flower bed areas. Picture 5 shows the large team of Sonia, Denise, Jane, Lorna, Christine, Lis and Wendy who with help from Julie did an amazing job on the flower bed opposite the rockery. Thank you all.
Meanwhile at the other end of the Flower Walk, picture 6 shows Gill B, Jude, Joyce and Ilma all busy with the removal of alkanet and bindweed. Thank you - this made a huge improvement in this area.
TODAY - MULCH AND MAINTENANCE ALONG THE PATH TO WILMSLOW ROAD
Especial thanks today must go over the Irish Sea to Lucy's niece called Faye (Convery). Thanks to Faye (and Lucy) we had an international delivery today of top quality moss from Derrynold Road, Draperstown in Northern Ireland. On Saturday Faye had single handedly collected a whole bag of moss from a wall near her home and it was delivered still in excellent condition to Tristan today. Thank you - this was a great boost to the moss garden.
Tristan also had another first today, because for the first time since MCC cleaned the roof of the volunteer's shelter some months ago (thank you!) we have been able to start using the water we have collected from the roof and so be able to fulfill one more of our sustainability aims. PIcture 7 shows Tristan filling up the first watering can with water to be used on the newly arrived moss. It is great to see our 400 litre tank back in service again! Thank you Faye, Lucy and Tristan.
Following on from their woodchip success last week, the Brentwood students took on the challenge today,of adding woodchip mulch to the flower beds along the path to Wilmslow Road. Picture 8 is a beautiful picture of 2 of the students emtying the wheelbarrow full of woodchip onto the flower bed. Picture 9 is the amazing picture taken after they had finished. It shows what an improvement they made. It really is humbling and joyful to see just how hard this team work in the park, how happy they are and now they are able to stay a little longer and join us for our coffee break they are really becoming part of our team.
It was great to see Tom being able to have a break from University teaching to join us today to work with Julie do some significant pruning of overgrown branches along the Wilmslow Road path. The extra light now being made available and the removal of a lot of the tunneling effect along this path is fantastic. Thank you Tom and Julie.
TODAY - ELSEWHERE IN THE PARK
Picture 10 shows Brenda with her 'trug on wheels' loaded up with her special lightweight sweeping equipment as she headed off to do another spring clean of the area around the Gillbrook Road gate. Thank you Brenda - you are a star! Thank you also for donating a huge box of chocolate biscuits for our coffee break. They were enjoyed by everyone!
Thank you to Andrew and Winnie and Sigad and Sheeba for once again doing an excellent litter pick throughout the park. It was looking spotless afterwards.
Thank you to Taysan and Chris who were doing many different jobs throughout the morning - but they alll seemed to involve moving heavy equipment, soil or weeds from one part of the park to another. this was a huge help to each group you worked with - thank you.
Thank you once again from me for your continued excellent support - it is appreciated.