BULB PLANTING IN THE TRIANGLE December 2012

Two bulb planting sessions in Mayow Park on 8th December and 16th December with regular park users joining in. On 8th December a mother and her two children helped to plant 140 fritillaria around the holly tree and sitting logs near the path on the southern side of the Triangle.

The  holly trees  (left & right of  picture in middle distance)

A brother and sister planted fritillaria

A dad and his sons planted irises

16th December was a dry and sunny winter's day with plenty of visitors in the park. Two volunteers planted more fritillaries and some snowdrops by the holly tree and sitting logs on the north-eastern side of the Triangle. A father with his two sons were passing by and they joined in to plant irises on the slope by the Bowls club, on the western side of the Triangle to the right of the manhole cover and behind the silver birch trees. We have more bulbs to plant as soon as possible.

Updates

It has been a while since the last post and I am very aware that Friends of Mayow Park  need a communications officer with available time to keep the FOMP blog up to date and lively.
Going back to Friday 12th October , we had a very successful workday working alongside Glendale's grounds maintenance team. They went about their planned work in the park but also helped the Mayow Park volunteers.

Glendale staff help to mulch fruit trees

The orchard: One task that day was to mulch round the outside of the fencing of the orchard trees in order to keep down weeds. It is important not to mulch over the graft join of each tree as this may cause the tree to grow suckers which are likely to be different to the fruit tree variety we are growing, hence the reason for ensuring the mulch was outside the fencing. While  the mulching was going on, some volunteers were busily removing weeds in the tree pits.

volunteer digging and weeding

Meanwhile, at the Triangle, volunteers were busily dead-heading, removing dead plants, pulling up bindweed and tidying up the herb bed. A start was made on the larger bed, containing fruit bushes and various flowering plants, but there was not the time to do a thorough job there.
Glendale staff kindly helped with the weeding and clearing.

Glendale staff removing vegetation by rockery

The highlight of the day was Glendale's work clearing the huge amount of plant growth adjacent to our new drinking water fountain to reveal a rock wall, which is part of the retaining wall to the bowls site. I remember many years ago when my children were small, that they used to enjoy clambering onto that wall. It will make a good rockery area, so please get back to me with suggestions of what to grow or any donations of suitable plants.
The park volunteers put in around 2 hours of work and when we left Glendale continued their work, strimming, cutting the grass and general grounds maintenance.

 I must thank Glendale for agreeing this one-off joint session. I believe we ALL enjoyed the opportunity of working in partnership.

FOMP quarterly meeting 9 Oct 2012 + orchard

The next quarterly meeting of the Friends of Mayow Park will be on Tuesday 9th October 2012, from 7 to 8.30pm. Find out what has been happening in the park since our previous meeting and what is planned over the coming months. We hope to hear from Lewisham and Glendale officers and to get an update on plans and timescale for renovating the pavilion.
The meeting will be held at the Dacres Wood Field Centre, entrance down the un-named drive between Homefield House and Catling Close.

Also, a reminder of our autumn work session at the community orchard on Friday 12th October between 10am and midday. Do join us to do some work around the trees. If you have a trowel and gardening gloves please bring them with you.

preparing the community orchard for winter

We will have a work session on Friday 12th October 2012 from 10am to midday, to prepare the community orchard for winter. We planted the orchard early this year and the trees have survived  drought and excessive rainfall since spring.
The damp weather has encouraged other plants (i.e. weeds) to encroach round the tree pits so we will be removing weeds both inside the netting and in the mulch outside the netting. After that we will put a thick layer of woodchip mulch around the tree pits.
It would be good to have a few energetic volunteers to make a big impact. In addition, Glendale managers have agreed that some of their staff will be in the park to assist us at the orchard. This gives us a unique opportunity to work together with Lewisham's park maintenance contractors.
If we  finish the work at the orchard, then there is autumn tidying up to be done at the Triangle too.
Do try to  join us for a short while or the whole session.
If you have any queries, contact us on friendsofmayowpark@ymail.com

work session with Glendale in October

No date has been finalised yet but Glendale managers have offered a work session alongside park volunteers at the community orchard in October 2012. It will have to be a weekday and is likely to be a Thursday or Friday morning.
With autumn arriving, this will be an opportunity to weed the area round each fruit tree and tidy each tree pit, finishing with a good layer of woodchip mulch.

Work session with Glendale 13th Sept 2012

We have previously had work sessions in Mayow Park alongside Nature's Gym and we are now planning to have a work session with Glendale. Our Community Orchard needs some time spent to remove weeds round the trees and put a fresh layer of well-rotted woodchip. Friends of Mayow Park are delighted that Glendale managers have agreed to provide some additional  help. It will be an great opportunity for grounds maintenance staff and park volunteers to care for the area together.

The session will be on Thursday 13th September from approximately 10am to midday. Glendale will, in fact, be there before that time and continue after. This will be a weekday and many of you will be unable to attend. However, it would be great if some of our volunteers can come along, lend a hand or simply show your support.

Theatre: a beach near you

Greenwich & Lewisham Young People's Theatre came to perform in Mayow Park today, their theme - a beach near you! They set up and were ready for the first performance shortly after 1pm.

Soon the audience was getting into the spirit of the British beach scene: there was a boat, a mermaid, sunbathing, trying to put up a deckchair (which caused a few chuckles from older members of the audience, remembering their own experiences in the past!).
But when the dancing beach huts performed, the rain decided it wanted a share of the action. So, unfortunately, rain stopped play. The rain persisted, so that the 4pm performance was also  cancelled.

Hopefully the performances over the next few days at Beckenham Place Park, Bellingham and Mountsfield Park will have better weather.

Thank you to Cllr Susan Wise for providing this photo of the cheque for the pavilion. The photo was taken at the pavilion, on the same day as the Green Flag was raised in Mayow Park.

Funding for pavilion refurb

.Thank you to Judith from Glendale for her hard work  in putting in the bid for the funding - she is in the photo, 2nd from the right. Thank you also to Sport England without whom there would not have been funding to apply for.   Many local people are looking forward to the improvements that will now happen as a result of the funding.

GOOD NEWS - funding for Pavilion refurbishment

We've been waiting to learn about what will happen to the Pavilion in Mayow Park and now we have some good news. Lewisham Council, in partnership with Glendale, have secured £65,000 from Sport England 'Inspired Facilities' (National Lottery funding) to renovate the pavilion with sports changing rooms upstairs and a café on the ground floor for the general public. The facilities will also include public toilets. The café will be able to serve as an information hub and community space.

The bid was supported by the Friends of Mayow Park as well as local schools and clubs using the cricket facilities in the park. Match funding will be provided by Lewisham Council to complete the project. The development of the pavilion will transform the unsafe, derelict building into an attraction, whilst conserving some of the attractive features.

The refurbishment will help to encourage sustained participation in sport, providing a permanent facility for cricket matches and other sports played in the park. We look forward to seeing it well used by our home cricket team, Streatham & Marlborough as well as others.

FREE OPEN AIR THEATRE MAYOW PARK 29TH AUGUST 2012

Greenwich & Lewisham Young people’s Theatre (GLYPT) will present a free outdoor theatre performance in Mayow Park on Wednesday 29th August, performances at 1pm and 4pm

The project, called “A Beach Near You”,  is  unique, fun & participatory, involving a group of 10 young people (aged 16-25)  and professional actors, centred around a ‘pop-up beach’.

The performers will invite audiences from the park to join them on the 'beach' and celebrate traditional British seaside customs. Audiences will be transported to a hot summer's day  with the sound of waves; classic beach activities , sand castles , donkey rides , the pier , Punch and Judy; rows of deck chairs; and ice cream sellers.

There will also be performances in

Beckenham Place Park, 30^th August 11.30am and 2pm
Bellingham Green, 31^st August 12pm and 3pm
Mountsfield Park 1^st September 1pm and 4pm
For more information contact GLYPT on 020 8854 1316 / www.glypt.co.uk

Streatham & Marlborough Cricket team

The Streatham and Marlborough Cricket Club's 5th XI play in Mayow Park.
They are a club that actively seeks community involvement, new members and young people. They coach in local schools including Forest Hill and Sydenham Girls through the 'Chance to Shine 'Programme. Several of the team are current/ex Forest Hill boys including two lads playing in the park last Saturday 18^th August 2012.
Streatham and Marlborough Cricket Club is based on Dulwich Common, SE21 7EX where they have their main ground (opposite the Grove Tavern). They run 6 Saturday sides, 2 Sunday sides, a woman's side and U12, U14 and U16 Colts sides. Adult net sessions are on Tuesdays from 6pm.

There is a membership fee with concessionary rates available but anyone looking to join a cricket club is welcome to come to nets on a Tuesday and make themselves known to the team. They are a very friendly club where people from all walks of life and all ages play cricket together. Their women's section is something they are very proud of and the fastest growing section of the club. They have had two members of the women's section turn out for the 5th XI in Mayow Park this year.

The remaining fixtures for this season in Mayow Park are:
Saturday 25th August against Mottingham CC
Saturday 1st September Dartfordians CC.
The games are league cricket fixtures Division 1C Metropolitan of the Kent Regional Cricket league.

Workday with Nature's Gym 18th August 2012

Top photo: there are people working in among the tall weeds!
Bottom photo: just one barrow load of plants that were shifted.

Saturday 18th August 2012 workday FOMP and Nature's Gym

Mayow Park volunteers will be working along side Nature's Gym (Lewisham Nature Conservation volunteers) on a variety of gardening activities in the park from 11am to 2pm on Saturday 18th August 2012.
Activities will include:
- making a bug hotel
- emptying the compost bins
- working in the orchard: tending to the orchard trees and  fruiting hedgerow
- weeding and mulching in the Triangle
- children can make art pictures on the ground using  natural materials found in the park. Pictures will be posted in the blog and our Facebook page.
- volunteers can take  home cuttings or leaves of herbs
We hope to see you there.

young artists in Mayow Park

Today, 22nd July 2012, while five volunteers were busy removing couch grass and dandelions in the large bed at the Triangle in Mayow Park, two young artists were working elsewhere in the Triangle, watched over by their dad. Kezia, aged 6 and her sister Jemima aged 4 were collecting items found in nature to produce their art work. The finished picture is called 'Birds Nest'.

The work will be dispersed by the weather and other park users, just as Goldworthy's art only lasts as long as nature allows it. This could inspire more young artists to produce lovely artwork in the park. With thanks to the two girls for allowing FOMP to take a photo of their work.

Ryton Gardens - the home of national charity Garden Organic

On a visit yesterday to Ryton Gardens near Coventry, the wild flowers were so beautiful. These plants are  allowed to self-seed and attract all sorts of beneficial insects including hoverflies and bumble bees. Here are just a few photos from yesterday's visit.  Good we have a display like this in the Mayow Park Triangle?

For more info on Garden Organic and the great work they do, visit
http://www.gardenorganic.org.uk/

Some volunteers involved with the Community Orchard in Mayow Park attended an orchard training course run by the London Orchard Project  (LOP) at Dacres wood Reserve Field Centre on Saturday 14th July 2012. The course leader was Lewis from LOP and there were 16 attendees from five projects. We learned about soil ecology and  to look  for signs of pests and diseases in fruit trees. Part of the course led participants to our very own Mayow Park Community Orchard to look at how the trees are coping with the excessive rainfall - some managing better than others.
We do not expect to harvest any fruit this year but would welcome suggestions on how we can celebrate the orchard this autumn.

FOMP QUARTERLY MEETING TUES 10TH JULY 2012
Come along to the next FOMP quarterly meeting on Tuesday 10th July from 7pm to 8.30pm.
Find out what volunteers have been doing to look after the Triangle and the Orchard.
Get information about cricket fixtures.
This is an opportunity to meet a representative from Glendale and from Lewisham Green Scene.
Meeting will be held at Dacres Wood Nature Reserve Field Centre, up a short driveway between Homefield House and Catling Close off Dacres Road, SE23.

New signs were put up in Mayow Park on 31 May 2012 with an acknowledgement of the work of local volunteers in helping to look after the park. There is also a trial mini meadow in the Triangle, between the sitting logs and the holly tree adjacent to the southern path.

gardening workday 14th April 2012

before work started

Some photos from the successful worday on 14th April.

edging the path

Visible improvement

Time to pack up

FOMP quarterly meeting Tues 24 April 2012

The next quarterly meeting of Friends of Mayow Park  will be at  Dacres Wood Nature Reserve Field Centre  on Tuesday 24^th April 2012 from 7pm to 8.30pm

For those of you who don't know the location: The field centre is located down an unmarked driveway between Homefield House and Catling Close, just off Dacres Road (the part where Silverdale continues into Dacres Road going north towards Perry Vale). Go through the big gates into the yard of the field centre and the entrance to the building is on your left.

Agenda

1. Apologies and matters arising from last Minutes

2. Approval of the Minutes of the last General Meeting on Tuesday 24^th January 2012

3. FOMP Officer reports:

a) Chair’s report

b) Treasurer’s report
c) Sports link officer report

4. Glendale report

5. Lewisham report

6. AOB

7. Date of next meeting

Making use of those surplus dandelions

http://thechickncoop.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/really-easy-dandelion-honeysyrup.html

the chick n coop: Really Easy Dandelion Honey/Syrup

thechickncoop.blogspot.com

Saturday 14th April gardening in Mayow Park

Session is 11am to 2pm. Come and join in the action!

We will work alongside Nature’s Gym (Lewisham’s nature conservation volunteers) on a number of activities in the park:

1] Planting a hedgerow including hazel, dog rose, elder and hawthorn along the north-western side of the park

2] Mulching the paths in the Triangle to ensure they remain weed-free

3] Removing weeds in the Triangle so the other plants can flourish

4] Watering the orchard and fruiting hedgerow.  

If you have suitable tools, please bring them. We would also welcome donated plastic 4litre/ 6 litre milk bottles (washed & with lids) for watering.Children are welcome to join in if accompanied by an adult.

Wood chip path now needs more mulch.This photo is from April 2011

successful orchard watering this afternoon

It was fun watering the community orchard this afternoon. There were four of us, lots of water containers and three wheelbarrows.  This meant that we could fill up with water and give all the fruit trees and fruiting hedgerow their necessary water allocation within an hour. A great team spirit. Thank you to all the volunteers today. Next time should we have a group photo for the blog?

Watering the orchard Sunday 1st April 2012

Would you like to be an orchard carer for our  community orchard in Mayow Park? This includes watering and mulching the trees during spring and summer with some weeding when necessary. You will also learn about basic pruning and to look out for tree pests and diseases.
Tomorrow at 2pm we will be watering the orchard and the adjacent fruiting hedgerow.
You can find us in the area between the Grow Mayow gates and the orchard. Children are welcome to help if they bring an adult with them.
Come along and say 'hello' if you would like to help.

Volunteer workday In Mayow Park Saturday 14th April 2012

Nature’s Gym and Friends of Mayow Park will join forces on Saturday 14^th April from 11am to 2pm.

 Activities include:

Planting & watering whips (young trees)
Spreading woodchip, pruning, weeding & mulching in the Pavilion Triangle
Watering and weeding the orchard & fruiting hedgerow

Hope you can join us.

For more information contact Friends of Mayow Park: friendsofmayowpark@ymail.com

Orchard planting 28th January 2012

Mayow Park now has its very own community orchard, planted yesterday. What a memorable day! The London Orchard Project (LOP) brought the trees, stakes and tree guards. Lewis spoke to some of the children and explained what we were doing. Russell provided us with  brief training and a demonstration on how to plant the trees. Over the course of the day more than 40 people attended, including at least 10 children. Thank you to everyone who got involved including:- Iris at Grow Mayow; the Friends of Mayow Park committee members; activists from Crystal Palace and Peckham;Lynn, Jean and others  from Hazel Grove Estate, councillors, council officers and many other volunteers. Dolores, sorry I did not have much of an opportunity to speak to you but I hope you found the event enjoyable.
Many thanks to Lewisham Council parks department for supporting this project and Sydenham Community Radio or the publicity you have given to our event. London orchard Project will visit in a few months to see how our orchard is progressing.
Mehul, Thank you for the photos I've posted here. More photos will follow over time from various sources. The first photo shows Russell demonstrating how to surround a tree with mulch on a mulch mat. The second shows two members of TT Crystal Palace plus FOMP member Sue.

Community Orchard planting 28th January 2012

Calling for orchard planting volunteers: Come along and help plant 10 fruit trees in Mayow Park on Saturday 28th January 2012 with the London Orchard Project. The orchard will be  on the southern side of the park, very near the tennis courts. Time 12 - 3pm. London Orchard Project will bring the trees, stakes, tree guards and tools. Their staff will guide volunteers on how to plant and look after the trees. Please contact Friends of Mayow Park if you would like to help with planting or have questions. Email: friendsofmayowpark@ymail.com

Orchard carers: Would you like to be involved with the care of the orchard? The trees will need to be watered regularly, weeds removed  from around the trunk and occasional mulching. In time they will need some pruning. Training will be given on care of the orchard. For more information about becoming an orchard carer email: friendsofmayowpark@ymail.com

Sponsor an orchard tree: Not everyone wants to dig or be involved in the care of the orchard. If you  prefer to sponsor a tree either as an individual, a group or an organisation, please get in touch on friendsofmayowpark@ymail.com

Fruiting hedgerow

Thanks to the London Orchard Project and the Tree Council, on 21st December some FOMP members collected  fruit bushes for a hedgerow which will be planted beside the orchard site. Fruit varieties include mirabelles, gooseberries, raspberries, dog rose, redcurrants and blackcurrants. These bushes will  be planted on the orchard planting day, 28th January 2012.