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.
Task Day 26 November 2011
A quieter turn-out for our last task day of 2011 but we still got a fair bit done. Earlier in the week one of our volunteers had removed all the weeds from the border of the car park near to the library and today we removed the top layer of soil and replaced it with gravel, which we hope will suppress the weeds and keep it looking tidier. We also weeded the pathway to the Sensory Garden and added more gravel and put what we had left around the small memorial in the park where people like to place wooden crosses in memory of their lost relatives. After that we tidied the shrub border near to the Council Offices too.
We also removed the wooden slats from one of the commemorative seats near to the Bowling Green and jet-washed the upstands and paving. The slats will be refurbished in a workshop, treated and replaced as part of our ongoing project to replace or refurbish all of the benches in the park. There will be more about this long term project on the web site in the near future.
Task Day 12 November 2011
We decided to hold a special Remembrance weekend Task Day to make sure that the area around the War Memorial was looking its best for the service on Sunday 13th and it's a good job we did as we discovered that the handrails on the memorial had been vandalised overnight. It's hard to find the words to express our contempt for this kind of act but at least we were in a position to do something about it and were able to carry out a temporary repair.
We had another great response from our volunteers at short notice and people attending the Remembrance Service should be able to see the results. As well as removing leaves and hoeing the flower beds we painted a litter bin that had been desperate for a coat of paint and cleared the leaves all the way down the main drive into the park. It was particularly good to have families with children helping out on a beautiful sunny autumn day.
Thank you everyone for your help!
Task Day 29 October 2011
A very good turnout by our local volunteers made for another busy day in Memorial Park.
The ornamental flowerbeds were weeded, trimmed and spring bulbs planted - we've been receiving lots of compliments from park visitors about the ornamental beds, which is very encouraging. The large shrub bed near to the tree sculpture was also given a good tidy-up and and an old concrete bench near to the bowling green was removed in readiness for the installation of a new one that is being donated by a local family.
It was good to see Micaela enjoying the sunshine and fresh air in the park despite her recent accident but Howie will be sad to learn that I broke my camera this month!
Task Day 24 September 2011
Another successful task day with a lot of work done to the War Memorial beds including removing ornamental grasses that had spread too much and planting of new shrubs and plants kindly donated by Marple Garden Centre.
Preparatory work was also carried out on one of the park benches near to the Junior Play area, the refurbishment of which is being paid for by a local family. Today we stripped off the old slats and cleaned and painted the frame ready for fitting of brand new hardwood slats and a commemorative plaque.
Unfortunately the camera had a flat battery, so just this one panoramic view of work to the War Memorial beds taken by phone.
Task Day 27 August 2011
The Bank Holiday weekend saw a smaller turnout than usual but plenty was achieved with more donated plants being added to the War Memorial Beds, Jet Washing of about half the Infants Play Area fence, re-installation of one of the Acorn Sculptures that had been removed by vandals and removal of a large truck-load of brambles from the Breathe Places Area behind the library. Thanks once again are due to Les and Jean White for donation of the War Memorial plants.
Task Day 30 July 2011
Glorious sunshine at last allowed us to make the most of the summer weather during a task day in the park. A selection of plants were added to the War Memorial Rockery and copious weeding was carried out in the ornamental beds. Some strawberries and parsley were also added to the Rainbows and Beavers' beds. The plants added today and also a good number provided earlier this month have been donated by local gardeners Les and Jean White and we are very grateful for their generosity.
A final coat of black paint was also added to the Bowling Green building.
