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.
With weather much better than forecast it was another productive day in the park. Our volunteers worked hard on the War Memorial beds to clear weeds and dig over, while others gave a very hard prune to the shrubs by the offices. These had become very "leggy" and the harsh treatment should see them recover with vigour over the next year or two. Shrubs were also pruned back to clear the handrails on the ramps to the Office / Citizen's Advice entrance.
Elsewhere in the park, a good tidy-up of the woodland behind the library was completed, trees growing in the canal wall were removed and more good work done in our tool store by adding more brackets for storage: it's never looked so tidy!
Once again generous park users responded to our efforts by dropping over £27 in to our donations bucket!
After the first real dry week of 2016 it was good to be able to get back onto the main flowerbeds and start a spring tidy up. Lots of work was done on the toilet bed, the scout bed and in the infants play area too. In addition, we installed a new notice board for the Veteran's Bowling Club ready for the start of their new season.
The park is looking great with daffodils and crocuses putting on a great display, so a few extra photos are included to show this.
We put our collection bucket out for the first time this year too and generous park users responded by donating just over £21 to help us keep the park looking great. Thank you!
A very busy day with lots of great volunteers saw us finish a heavy pruning of the shrub beds between the library woodland and the Bandroom started last month. It was also time for a spring clean and our tool shed was emptied, new brackets and hooks fitted and everything put back tidily. We also installed new brackets in the main store for safe storage of our new power tools.
In addition, we installed six new bird boxes donated by Marple Naturalists in the shrub beds throughout the park.
Nest boxes donated by Marple Naturalists
Our first task day of 2016 had better weather than expected but as the grassed areas were still very wet we targeted shrub beds that we could reach from the pathways. With a good turnout of volunteers, including four new faces, we made big inroads into tidying the shrubs alongside the path to the Bandroom. We also cleared two bags of litter from the park and bushes.
We had planned to remove the wreaths from the War Memorial today too but they still look so good wired into place that we decided to leave them for another month.
Check out this promotional video recently completed to encourage more people to help in the park. It was created for us by regular volunteer Anne Frazer. Isn't it brilliant!
Weather was very November-ish for our last scheduled task day of 2015, although we may hold an ad-hoc one over the Christmas period if volunteers (and the weather) are are up for it.
Today we focused mainly on cutting back and clearing out the main park flowerbeds and the Garth Road shrub bed. We also did some trimming of the roses in the Bandroom garden and shrubs along the path leading to Station Road, litter picking and planted some donated ferns in the wildlife area behind the library.
Although we forgot our donation bucket this time a lady approached one of our volunteers and handed over £50, insisting that we spend it on our volunteers' Christmas Do! She said she uses the park regularly and has been watching what we do all year and wanted to say thank you. A lovely gesture, that is very much appreciated!
Park tidy-up for Remembrance Service helped by Brabyns Prep Pupils
Friends of the Park always put in a big effort just before the Remembrance Sunday Service to try and ensure that the park looks its best but wind and fallen leaves always make this a challenge! This year we had a special two-day clean-up on Friday and Saturday with extra-special help from pupils of Brabyns Preparatory School on the Friday afternoon. We were very impressed with the children's hard work and also how the older ones took care and chaperoned the young ones.
On Saturday volunteers continued the battle, focused on the park entrance and the road leading in to the car park. We also tidied around the War Memorial and surrounding flower beds and ensured the park was clear of litter.
