Friends of Marple Memorial Park Task Days
The Friends hold regular task days in the park on the last Saturday of each month in the winter and the middle and last Saturday from March to November. Everyone is welcome to join in for as long or as short they wish during the specified times. Please note that children and young people under 18 must be accompanied by a responsible adult.
If you are interested becoming a volunteer with us please get in touch and we will add you to our Task Day notifications.
We like to keep a record of what we get up and here are details of past task days.
An early start for the Pavilion Art Project
We made an early start in the park today for the installation of the Pavilion Art Project boards. This had been waiting for council approval of our special task day to install the roundels with Art Stop CIC, which was approved last week. Look out for more exciting news on this brilliant project very soon!
A little later in the morning we were joined by our regular volunteers, who, after checking for bird nests, completed hedge-trimming at the Bandroom garden, the War Memorial beds and the ramps in front of Hollins House. Other volunteers did maintenance work on the Jubilee bed in front of the library and cleaned and weeded the whole library area, while others litter-picked in the park and treated park benches too. Another busy day for Friends of Marple Memorial Park!
Thank you to park visitors who donated over £19 in our collection bucket.
Wildflower meadow starting to show promise at last
As many will know, creation of our wildflower meadow on the site of the Lock 11 compound was delayed by the Covid19 pandemic. We were all set to sow seed in March 2020 but it didn't happen until the autumn in less than ideal conditions. This year we've been waiting patiently for it to spring into life but it has been very slow to take hold, apart from the self seeded Dock.
Today we decided to get a small team on it at short notice to give the Dock a good bashing before it dispersed seed again. It has made quite a difference and it is actually starting to look like a wildflower meadow at last. Although results of the seed we sowed in autumn still seems to be quite sparse, wildflowers are now starting to show and there are encouraging patches in bloom.
We did sow a huge amount of seed in autumn, including Yellow Rattle of which the is no sign at all. Today we also sowed a load more seed in anticipation of some rain to get them going.
Chipping away at Town Centre bench maintenance
Well not literally, but we are working our way through the retreating of the Marple Town Centre benches, this time completing one on Market Street and another on the Hollins.
We're also starting to think about how we can clean up and repaint the metalwork too and it would be easier if we had access to an outside tap. Is there an owner of a business premises or residence that could help us with this please?
Everything is growing so quickly now and there's lots of work for our volunteers!
Now that we are allowed to use power-tools in the park again we were able to catch-up on maintenance of the bandroom garden by strimming (with our new cordless strimmer) and mowing the grass. Lots more work on the flowerbeds too, which are now filling out nicely thanks to the sunshine.
We also gave shrubs alongside Hollins House a good pruning and others cleared weeds from the park entrance on Stockport Road, which has made a huge improvement.
We also called local councillors and the emergency control room to get the park toilets opened as the were still shut at 10am.
And last but not least, we took delivery of the plywood boards for the Pavilion Art Project, which is very exciting.
Park visitors said thank you by placing over £18 in our collection bucket.
Three more Town Centre benches knocked off the list!
Another three Town Centre benches were sanded and treated by Friends of the Park today, as we gradually make our way towards Stockport Road. Special thanks today for refreshments from Aggie's Bar and to Forever Yours of Cheshire Bridal Shop for helping us out with parking because the car parks were all full.
A huge thank you to the two people who donated £130 + Gift Aid between them via Local Giving after seeing this article too!
Squeezed in another Task Day with only 24 hours notice!
As the weather was so good we organised today's task day with only 24 hours notice, so some of our volunteers couldn't make it. However, there were enough to make a difference and the Allotment Team were out in force working on their plot. As well as working on the flowerbeds, we pulled a pile of self-seeded saplings from several of the shrub beds.
Thank you to park visitors for just over £11 left in our collection bucket!
