Volunteers' Triumph: A New Year Refresh in Didsbury Park

TODAY

We had a great turnout of 35 volunteers in the park this morning. I think everybody was really pleased to be back again after our long Christmas break - I certainly was!

It was cold and sunny to start with but later became somewhat chilly when the wind got up, and the sun went in. Nevertheless, virtually everybody stayed on until the end of the morning and made a huge impression on the park after nearly 4 weeks of absence.

In the early morning, we had visits from Sonia, Gay, and Grace. Gay came to donate mince pies for the volunteers, and Grace, even though feeling unwell, came to deliver some amazing 'mocha butter balls' which she had baked when feeling better over the weekend. Along with Lucy's donation of shortbread, we all had a wonderful coffee break mid-morning. Thank you all - this was very much appreciated!!

We were delighted to welcome a new local volunteer, too, this morning called Gary Wilkinson who joined us following a recommendation from Joyce. Gary W was made very welcome.

TREE WORK

After nearly 4 weeks of not much attention, during which one and a half sizeable trees came down, today was the day to focus on a huge tidy-up in the park. I would firstly though like to say a special thank you to Allan, who came into the park on 21st December and helped me to tidy up the fallen trees and make the park safe again. Picture 1 shows Allan partway through the work on one of the fallen trees.

Picture 2 from today shows the heavy gang of Adrian, Steve, Gary D, Richard and Rob having successfully removed one of the stumps from a large fallen rowan. Thank you, guys and Carl N, who was not in the picture.

Picture 3 shows Murray in the process of disposing of the dead fallen tree which was captured in picture 1 above.

This work on tidying up the fallen trees made a huge difference to the look of the whole park. Thank you all. This was an amazing piece of work today.

THE PATHS ARE LOOKING SO MUCH BETTER AFTER A GOOD MORNING'S WORK

It is fair to say that after the huge amount of rain we have had recently, some of the paths in the park were looking pretty scruffy at the start of the day. So today a huge number of volunteers focused upon tidying up all the paths. Starting off with our youngest volunteer - picture 4 shows Winnie on her way (assisted by dad Andrew - out of shot) to make sure that there was no litter left on any of the paths! Thank you once again, Winnie, for your regular Monday morning litter-picking activities.

Picture 5 shows new volunteer Gary W working with Gill B (in the background) on an amazing clean-up of the path leading to the volunteers' shelter. Picture 6 shows Leslie tidying up the path edges near the volunteers' shelter. Picture 7 shows Allan doing a super job with the path around the roundabout and Picture 8 shows Tristan working on a great edge improvement of the path by the bowling green. Picture 9 shows David, and Brenda posing for a photograph with Local Councillor Andrew Simcock in the area near the Gillbrook Road entrance where David and Brenda had made a huge improvement.

A huge thank you also to Jude, Stephen and Anne, who not only made a fantastic job of tidying up the edging along the extended flower bed opposite the rockery but also dug out all the weeds along the edge of the path. This was a fabulous improvement - thank you.

Thank you also to Mike C, who did path clearing near the bowls hut.

THE COMPOST TEAM

Lis, Sandra and Bettina initially made sure that all the compost had been removed from the old (badly damaged) compost bays before we start to demolish them. Once this had been checked, the team moved on to recover some good leaf mould compost from the leaf compost heap behind the bowls hut and distribute it on the rose beds.

Picture 10 shows Lis, Sandra and Bettina enjoying themselves among the leaf compost. This compost was also used to fill in the holes made by the removal of the fallen trees before re-seeding the area with grass seed. Thank you, team - great job!

FLOWER WALK, ROUNDABOUT AND BUDDY AND LUCY

The team of Julie D, Kevin, Ilma, and Lucy took the opportunity to review a number of horticultural problem areas in the park today. These included the Flower Walk, Roundabout, and Buddy and Lucy. The concern in the new section of the Flower Walk is that despite the new kick fencing, a number of dogs are being allowed by their owners to trample across the new flower bed.

The concern with the roundabout flower bed is that the recent heavy rain and some public trespass has rotted a lot of the new plants and is endangering the new growth on the aruncus. The concern about Buddy and Lucy is that the euonymus planted in Autumn has just not taken very well.

It was decided that for the Flower Walk, a rustic low, loose wicker type fencing would be constructed inside the kick fencing and for the roundabout, a series of natural-looking thin hoops made of whips would be constructed around the edge of the flower bed. Further consideration is being given to a better solution for Buddy and Lucy.

Once the review was complete, the team immediately started creating the extra fencing along the Flower Walk. This was a great example of determination and ingenuity. Thank you everyone!

Finally, thank you all once again for your amazing support and for this excellent start to the New Year.

Brian.