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 29 May 2010
Despite the miserable weather we still had a couple of Marple Hall pupils and their teacher turn up, which is fantastic! The old die-hards were there too and between us all we managed to get the ornamental beds weeded and ready for the summer bedding to go in, which will start to make the park look much brighter and sunnier even if the weather doesn't play ball.
We had been planning to sand down the sculpture in the Breathing Places area but that was scuppered by the rain and put off until next month. Will it rain in June too?
Task Day 24 April 2010
We were very pleased to welcome back pupils from Marple Hall School on an absolutely perfect day for working in the park. They made a fantastic job of re-planting the Oldknow Shuttle Stone flower bed with new plants and also did some weeding of the ornamental beds ready for summer bedding, which will go in soon. Thank you Marple Hall!
The Friends of the Park tackled another of the large shrub bed and treated the tree sculpture and ground sculptures with preservative. We also weeded the War Memorial beds, which are looking very dry at the moment and - dare we say it - could do with a bit of rain!
Task Day 27 March 2010
We were delighted to be joined by pupils from Marple Hall School this month, who worked hard on tidying up and re-planting the sensory garden. They seemed to enjoy it and we hope that they will want to come again. The Friends of the Park tackled the first shrub bed nearest the entrance to the park and gave that a good pruning and cleared it of litter. The old log bench near the entrance has long been past its best and we had arranged for it to be chopped up into sections so that it could be transported to the Breathing Places area behind the library, where it will create happy homes for hundreds of creepy-crawlies! Whilst in the Breathing Places Area we also conducted a limited amount of pruning to encourage new growth. Sadly Bill and Ben are no more, but they were fun while they lasted and they too will now rot down for the insects.
Task Day 27 February 2010
Once again the weather was fairly kind to us and the rain held off until we'd finished. We put those brand new tools to good use as work began on the large shrub bed along by the cinema with a good clear out of the undergrowth, which was masking numerous bottles, cans and food packaging! The BBC Breathing Places plaque / bird box on the library was given a coat of preservative and a check-over. No occupants yet but fingers crossed for this year.
We were all amused to spot the new occupants of our Breathing Places Circle - Bill and Ben seem to have moved in and they look very cute indeed in their best wellies. Whoever put them here, well done! A great fun contribution to the park that beats discovering new graffiti hands down!
Task Day 30 January 2010
A cold but unexpectedly bright and sunny Saturday morning kicked off our task day season for 2010. With several regulars still in hibernation it was a low turnout but a good to start the year in sunshine. It was certainly a pleasure to be in the park and see fresh shoots starting to appear everywhere but of course this was counter-balanced by fresh graffiti on our new boules display, a bench and one of the entrance signs. What do they get out of it we wonder?
Tasks included a review with Parks Area East Manager Jonathan Long on plans for the large shrub beds by the cinema and alongside the main path into the park. Well done to Patrick for coming along for this despite his broken ribs! In addition, we cleared the old rose bed, which was long past its best, gave the memorial beds a tidy up and Jim Heald's brass plates a polish. We also replaced the 2008/9 Green Flag with a fresh bright new one for 2009/10.
Task Day 31 October 2009
The weather was very kind and contributed to a very busy and productive task day. The Beaver Scouts came along to help us by clearing one of the flowerbeds and taking the plants home for their own gardens. They also planted bluebells and snowdrops in the woodland area behind the library and some small plants in the war memorial beds. Thank you Beavers! While they were doing this we installed our new interpretation panel for the French Boules Court and also rubbed down and treated the three seats near the court and Jim Heald's bench near the library. In addition, we treated apple, pear, acorn and beechnut ground sculptures and gave "Midnight" the owl a coat too. So busy there was little time to take photos but we did manage a few..........
