LAST TUESDAY - 26TH JULY

On a beautiful sunny morning last Tuesday, Allan and I supervised a large contingent of 40 volunteers from 2 businesses.  29 volunteers came from NatWest and 11 volunteers from CGA. Everybody was made very welcome.

Our main priorities for the morning were as follows:

• Cleaning the two main paths in front of and behind the shelter. Pictures 1 and 2 show enthusiastic path cleaning volunteers posing for pictures in the sunshine.

• Picture 3 shows the woodchip team, who worked really hard all morning to re-lay the woodchip path from one end of the woodland trail to the other. A very impressive piece of work.

• Picture 4 shows a superb job being undertaken by one of the NatWest team, aka Michelangelo, who chiselled off the blobs of excess mortar from around the edging stones on the path near the shelter. The improvement in the look of the path was superb.

• Meanwhile over by the Didsbury Neighbourhood Centre two enthusiastic volunteers from NatWest tackled the bindweed growing up the DNC fence. Picture 5 shows them just putting the finishing touches to this much improved part of the park.

Before leaving, all the volunteers said how much fun they had doing some great work on a sunny morning in a beautiful park! A win-win all round. A huge thank you to Allan for the smooth running of the session.

TODAY

This morning’s overcast and mizzling weather was a complete contrast to Tuesday's sunshine but, having said that, we did manage to make it through until about 1230 before the first heavy shower arrived. Despite the off putting weather forecast we still had a good turnout of 34 volunteers.

We were pleased to welcome 8 volunteers from Kelloggs this morning who were all ready to start by 9am before most of our regular volunteers had arrived. (There must be a message there about starting the day off well on a good breakfast!!). We also welcomed two new volunteers Tristan and Peter and a new Breakfast Club team member called Will who reported having done 4 hours of litter picking during the last 5 days. Well done Will.  Everybody was made very welcome today.

TODAY - AT THE 'DIDSBURY PARK OVAL'

All the excitement of the recent 'Ashes' series spilled over into Didsbury Park this morning where, as picture 6 shows, the Heavy Gang' of Adrian, Gary, Carl N, Murray and Richard set about preparing the first ever cricket wicket on the sports field. Following a morning of dedicated work under Gary's expert direction, the team produced an excellent wicket ready for use. See picture 7.

Thank you all - this looked like great fun!

TODAY - PRIORITY JOB NUMBER 1 - BENCHES

According to this morning's work list, the chosen priority activity was to treat all wooden benches in the park with preservative. Unfortunately the weather stopped us from doing this but it did not stop us from tackling the de-weeding of all (non tarmac) hard standings of benches throughout the park.

The Kellogg's volunteers plus Tristan divided into 3 teams of three, and each team tackled separate benches, both de-weeding and then topping up and compacting with a new layer of compact gravel. Picture 8 shows an example of the superb result achieved on all 5 benches throughout the park.

Thank you everyone. This was an excellent result.   

TODAY - CLEANER PATHS MAKE THE PARK LOOK SMARTER

This morning we carried on from last Tuesday's work of cleaning up paths. Brenda, David and Peter worked on the area around the Gillbrook Road entrance and a couple of the Kellogg's team tackled the park paths near the Poppy Path exit. Picture 9 shows Brenda and David, Picture 10 shows Peter and David and picture 11 shows the Kellogg's volunteers near the Poppy Path exit.

Thank you all. The park is looking so much better as a result.

TODAY - PAINTING PRESERVATIVE ON KICK FENCING

Despite the 'mizzle' we did manage to give some kick fencing a first coat of much needed preservative.

Picture 12 shows 3 of our Kellogg's volunteers standing in front of the triangular flower bed where they have just applied a coat of wood preservative to the kick fencing.

This has really improved this area. Thank you.

TODAY - WILD FLOWER MEADOW

Following a mid-week mowing of the lawned area around the wild flower meadow, by MCC, last week, (thank you!!),  Sandra and Wendy were able to address the removal of some of the weeds in the lawned area and spot sow with grass seed the resultant bald patches.

Picture 13 shows Sandra with the weed puller tool and Wendy with the fork. Thank you both. This is a marathon job and much appreciated.

TODAY - PLANT DONATIONS

We were grateful to receive a donation of two large plants today from Sue and David Kaberry. One was a magnolia and the other a tree peony. The magnolia was planted in the main field near the cafe with assistance from Tristan and Leslie and the tree peony was planted at the back of the rockery. Picture 14 shows Kevin planting the tree peony, with Ilma and Julie D overseeing the operation in the foreground. Thank you Sue and David for your kind donation and a  big thank you to all the tree planters. These will be lovely additions to the park when they are established.

We also had a number of small hazel trees kindly donated by Greg today which were then planted by Greg in the hazel copse we are cultivating at the exit to the Poppy Path. Thank you Greg.

TODAY - FLOWER WALK

Picture 15 shows Lorna and young Luke, in the flower bed, Ilma and Lucy, on the path, and Julie D and Tristan in the background as they are all work on continuing to weed and tidy the Flower Walk. Leslie and Kevin were also working in this area.

This whole flower bed is looking amazing at the moment - thank you all.

TODAY - ELSEWHERE IN THE PARK

Alan continued to do a superb job of keeping the epicormic growth on the trees to a minimum. Thank you Alan.

Dan removed many sprouting sycamore saplings from the top end of the park, and some of the Kellogg's volunteers removed lots of sycamore saplings from the Wilmslow Road gate area. These sycamore saplings have been really difficult to keep under control this year but we are getting there. Thanks everyone.

And finally a special thank you to Allan who provided much of the guidance and supervision of the Kellogg's team throughout the morning.

THIS COMING WEEK - WEDNESDAY 2ND AUGUST - COUTTS BANK

On Wednesday this week we will be hosting 16 volunteers from Coutts Bank who will be arriving for a 9:30am start. If you are available and would like to join me, then you will be most welcome.

WOULD YOU LIKE TO HELP WITH A RESEARCH PROGRAMME?

This week we received the following message via our website:-

I am a postgraduate student at the University of Manchester studying for my master's qualification. As part of my dissertation research on green gentrification, I am looking to interview individuals involved in urban greening in Greater Manchester. The interview would last around 30-45 minutes and cover topics including urban green spaces, greening initiatives and gentrification.

If you would like to help then please just let me know and I will send you all the contact details.

Thank you once again for your fantastic support.