TODAY

We had a bit of a wet start this morning which may have put off a number of our regular volunteers but nevertheless we still had a good turnout of 26 volunteers. Everybody was made very welcome. 

TREE DAMAGE  

As a result of the high winds on Thursday evening, a large section of one of the large trees bordering Sandhurst Road fell across the park railings and was left straddling both the road and a section of the park overnight. Thanks to Allan taking the initiative, he and I were able to cut up the branches on the Sandhurst Road side on Friday and clear them safely into the park. This meant that one of our priority jobs today, for the heavy gang of Steve, Murray, Richard and Carl N, was to tidy up all the remaining fallen sections of tree in the park.

Picture 1 shows Carl N, Richard and Murray cutting up some of the fallen branches which Steve then transported to the woodland trail where they were used to border the end of the path.  This was an excellent piece of woodland management by the team - thank you! 

PATH EDGING 

The heavy gang then went on to trial the introduction of, newly purchased, drainage gravel into the small cuttings at the edges of the grassed areas. This is both a drainage and safety exercise. It was carried out just in front of the rose bed next to the sensory garden. If this is successful then it will be rolled out around the park from next week onwards. Well done guys. 

WILMSLOW ROAD ENTRANCE 

Winter jasmine was planted behind the owl carving about 4 years ago in order to provide an attractive backdrop to the carving. Despite the fact that this whole area was severely disturbed when the retaining wall from Viceroy Court was replaced a couple of years ago, nevertheless some of these plants have survived quite well. I am delighted to report that today the team of Tristan, Jane, Christine, and Myra worked hard to add more supporting fencing and lift the many strong stems to encourage them to climb the fencing and create an attractive backdrop. Fingers crossed!!

Whilst working in this area the team also weeded out some rather aggressive bramble which was coming through the railing. This was particularly important as many young children play in this area around the owl carving. Picture 2 shows Christine, Tristan, Myra and Jane alongside the fence where the winter jasmine is starting to climb. Thank you all - this was a great piece of work.  

OUR ABUNDANT ROCKERY

Picture 3 shows our team of Diane, John, Julie (in among the plants) and Jude who all worked hard today, weeding and tidying up the mass of plants we have in our abundant rockery.

Later, this team was also joined by Lucy. It is really looking great at the moment. thank you all.

THE BIRD GARDEN MAKEOVER

It was time for a bit of a makeover in the Bird Garden today. Picture 4 shows our 'talking heads' picture of Joyce and Gill B as they work with Carl M (not in picture) to trim the hedge of the Bird Garden running parallel with Sandhurst Road. Meanwhile, Picture 5 shows Wendy, obviously 'feeling the heat', as she has been left with two wheelbarrows and a full side of the Bird Garden to trim on her own! Picture 6 shows Joyce posing beside a fatsia in the Bird Garden. Well done everyone - great job!

PLANNING IS IMPORTANT 

Picture 7 captures Brenda and Sonia planning their tasks for the morning whilst guarding the coffee money laid out on the table. Later on Brenda escorted Sonia with the money to the cafe before doing a fabulous clean up near the Gillbrook Road entrance as can be seen in picture 8. Please note the special off the shoulder hi-vis style being modelled by Brenda! Thank you Sonia and Brenda!

WILD FLOWER MEADOW

After having finished trimming the Bird Garden hedging Gill B and and Carl M moved onto the hedging around the wild flower meadow where they finished off the trimming job started last week. Thank you both.

Also in the wild flower meadow Carl N cleared the weeds which had grown up around the benches and I did some mowing. There was also a lot of litter which had been scattered around the shelter on the bowling green but thanks to a very thorough litter pick by Gill B this was soon looking pristine again. Thank you to everybody who helped in the wild flower meadow today.

The current plan for wild flower meadow in the next few weeks is as follows:

• next week will plan to strim down the flowers 

• we will leave them on the ground for 2 weeks to allow the seeds drop

• we will then clear up the green waste and compost it

• we will then scratch out the surface and sow new seeds

Thank you to John for dropping off some spare wild flower seeds this morning which had been bought for the Poppy Path. We are also expecting to supplement these with some additional wild flower seeds from MCC soon. 

ELSEWHERE IN THE PARK

1. Congratulations  must go to Robin today who completed his challenging project of tidying up the area behind the sensory garden. This was a huge task involving the removal of some large old shrubs. Well done Robin this was a great piece of work.

2. A huge thank you to Tom who returned today with the watering can which he had taken home to re-solder the leak at the base of the spout - super job Tom - thank you.

3. It was great to see Roger volunteering with us today. Roger worked on weeding and tidying up the abundance of alkanet around the pedestrian entrance. Great job Roger - thank you

4. Roger also put his dog through its paces to test if there were any weaknesses in the Bird Garden hedge which allowed dogs in - almost immediately Roger's dog  found some gaps - A job for next week? 

5. Thank you also to Lesley who helped with the edging and Wendy who did  some deadheading in the rose beds. Thank you both.

6. After a weekend of heavy use there was a need to do a specific litter pick on the sports field this morning. Thank you to Joyce for giving this a good clean up. 

7. Unfortunately when we stored and counted the wheelbarrows at the end of play today we were one short and it took Tristan and me an extra 10 minutes searching the park for the missing wheelbarrow before Tristan found it near the bowls hut in exactly the position we can see in picture  1. A huge thank you to Tristan for this great help. Can I ask everybody to make sure that if you take out equipment then you always please make sure you return it. 

Finally our best wishes to Kevin O who went home feeling unwell at the beginning of our volunteering today - we all wish you a speedy recovery Kevin.

Thank you once again for your amazing support.