Litter Picking, Tree Care & Park Improvements: A Busy Week for Volunteers
EARLY WARNING ABOUT THE DATE OF THE AGM (FOR MEMBERS OF FODP)
This is an early 'heads up' for members of the Friends of Didsbury Park that a meeting room has now been booked at the Didsbury Neighbourhood Centre for the 2025 AGM of the Friends of Didsbury Park. It is to be held on Wednesday 5th March at 7:30pm. Once again it is planned to hold the AGM as a hybrid meeting so it should also be possible to dial into the meeting remotely if this is preferred. Papers for the meeting (including an agenda and the audited accounts) will be distributed to members later this week.
TODAY
There was a very youthful and energetic atmosphere in the park this morning as many young families took advantage of the half term break from school to join our regulars working in the park.
Picture 1 shows five of our youngest volunteers, Sebastian and Luke (with spade) in the back row and Alexander, Harry and his younger brother on the front row. They were all very proud of their litter picking exploits this morning especially after they had found the large cannister of Cream Deluxe, nitrous oxide, shown in the picture. Picture 2 shows Alfie all geared up to start his litter picking rota with his younger brother Jack in the background - still thinking about it! Thanks must also go to the Mums who joined in the litter picking (mainly as designated bag carriers) and who also gave permission for us to use the children's photos in this update. Thank you.
We were also delighted to see that Grace was well enough to be able to volunteer with us this week especially as Grace turned up with about 60 beautifully baked fairy cakes. Needless to say that the children "helped us out!!!" at our break time by making sure that Grace did not have to take any home with her! Picture 3 shows Grace doing the rounds of the park, filling up the free doggy bag dispensers at all the park entrances. A double thank you Grace.
We also had a large contingent of additional volunteers who dedicated their time to adding leaf mulch to flower beds along the Flower Walk. Picture 4 shows from left to right, Jerry next to the 6 volunteers from Pet's at Home in Handforth. The Pet's at Home volunteers were Georgina, Joanna, Emma, Georgie, Jack and Matthew. Next to them in the picture is our regular volunteer Shashvat who was masterminding the activity. Alongside Shashvat is our new volunteer Wahid and on the far right are Jerry and Xin's (not in the photo) children Zhihao and Zhang. Also working with the leaf mould team today were regulars Lorna and young Luke and Allan J. Everyone did an amazing job and was made very welcome.
THE KICK FENCE REPAIR
Sometime during last week a section of rotten kick fencing snapped along the exit path from the park to the Poppy Path. So today the heavy gang of Murray. Richard, Gary and Carl N stepped in to repair it. However it soon became clear as the morning progressed that it was not just a quick fix with a replacement piece of kick fencing. Unfortunately it became necessary to replace some rot in the upright 'bird mouth' sections as well.
Picture 5 shows Carl N, Richard and Gary clearing away the old rotten timbers this week, ready to replace them next. Thanks guys, this certainly was a much bigger job then originally envisaged.
THE WORK TO STOP THE IVY FROM KILLING OFF THE TREES
When we first started volunteering in Didsbury Park over 10 years ago one of our priority jobs was to remove all the ivy from virtually every tree in the park. This was a huge task, aimed at saving the trees, and it took us a long time to complete. Having done a recent review of the tree population we have discovered that after 10 years the ivy has been trying to make a comeback in a small number of areas. Today therefore we set up two teams to start tackling this problem.
Picture 6 shows the team consisting of Joyce, Gill B, Wendy and Natalie working in the area near the Bird Garden and Picture 7 shows the team consisting of Lesley Mc, Jane and Tristan working on saving the trees along the path to Wilmslow Road. We made some great progress today on cleaning up some of our valuable trees - thank you everyone.
TRANSFORMING THE WILMSLOW ROAD ENTRANCE
We had a very large team working on improving the Wilmslow Road entrance today. The team included Kevin, Sandra, Lucy, Julie, Tom, and Diane.
Picture 8 shows Julie and Tom removing some dead wood from the area, Picture 9 shows Kevin having given the large choisya an extensive haircut, and picture 10 shows Sandra tackling the remains of a large laurel. This works has certainly tidied and opened up this area. Thank you all.
SPECIAL THANKS FOR WORKING OFF AND ON SITE TO REPAIR THE CIRCULAR BENCH
I would like to say a special thank you this week to Geoff for his dedication to finding a solution to the repairs needed after the vandalism some months ago which occurred on the circular wooden bench around the giant redwood tree. It is now clear to us that the imported bench from Thailand is not as robust as we had hoped or expected. This original bench does not appear to be made of a quality of wood or a design which will easily stand up to any significant vandalism.
Geoff has worked off site on a metal plate solution which reinforces the jointing areas of the slats which make up the back rest. This approach, plus replacing some of the poorer quality wooden slats with better quality slats looks like it provides us with a way forward for the improved longevity of the bench. Thank you Geoff. This gives us a great solution for this much loved and used bench.
ELSEWHERE IN THE PARK
With so many volunteers in the park today there was a lot of additional activity around the park which included the following:
The area around the Gillbrook Road entrance looked impeccable after Brenda had swept it all clean. Thank you Brenda.
Alan T and Allan J refreshed the wild life camera. Thanks you guys.
Greg continued his planning and management of the wilding area.
Denise did some expert maintenance of the rose beds and the area around Buddy and Lucy. These beds look just great now - thank you Denise
John and Diane did some much needed maintenance and edging of the flower bed opposite the rockery. This is looking so much better. Thank you.
Alan T started a round of pruning epicormic growth on the trees throughout the park. Thank you Alan
Finally last but not least a huge thank you to Sandra, who stepped into Gill N's shoes today at short notice from me, and together with Jo and the cafe team (thank you) they successfully managed our huge coffee and tea order today
Thank you once again for your amazing support.