fun tree dressing event 30th November

With 40 people over the morning - adults and children - we had a great session.
Pippa's tree trail saw families exploring the orchard to find labels with letters to make a sentence.
Messages  to the trees, written on ribbons of fabric or leaf-shaped card, were hung on branches. Refreshments were available, including mulled wine.
The morning ended with singing songs relevant to the event, led by Dave.

Visitors

decorated trees

one decorated tree

singing with Dave

WONDERFUL APPLE DAY

APPLE DAY SATURDAY 5TH OCTOBER 2019
By Pippa
Apple Day today in Mayow Park was a great success! Considering the rain last year, this was a vast improvement; a mild grey day and the park looking wonderfully autumnal.
We had 10 varieties sliced up for people to try - 8 apples and 2 sneaky pears! 

Photo by PM

Photo by PM

Although we grow eleven apple and three pear varieties in the orchard, most of the varieties were brought in by the FOMP team, either from their gardens or from the shops.
Unfortunately Community Orchards in public spaces often suffer from people outside the community coming in with large bags to strip the trees of all fruits. This year our supportive park users were watchful, helping to ensure that some fruits remained on the trees, to be harvested at the right time and to be shared at our event.
There was plenty of discussion about the quince variety - mixed opinions on that one for sure!

Under our gazebo we had around 8 volunteers at one point, which is brilliant. In total 13 volunteers helped. Dave was on the teas and coffees which was much appreciated. First Max and Kate, then later George and Tessa made a great slicing team. 

Photo by PM

Plenty of families took part in the apple trail and the story telling (Rich Sylvester - always a great hit).  

Photo by PM

Some wonderful colouring got done too by the smaller children - if only  there was an apple variety as bright as their versions!
Plenty of chat around the tables about apples but also the community in general - sharing connections, ideas and clever plans!
People had fun rating the apples and certainly there were some clear leaders - the Cox's Orange Pippin, Russet and Red Delicious were popular.
Visitors said how good it was to see so many British apple varieties to try - more than you would see in a supermarket - we probably all tend to go for the same ones (or the ones our kids like). It raised the question that, with so many varieties of British apples still being grown, why is it hard to find home-grown on the shelves?
The FOMP team deserve to feel very proud that all our planning and preparing resulted in a well-attended and well-appreciated event and a fun community morning in our treasured Mayow Park! Thanks to the community for your donations too which will come back to you in the form of more events.

photo by AS refreshments table

Photo by AS 

Photo by AS

Photo by AS

And finally, popularity ratings for the apple & pear tasting:

By Pippa

Gardening activities by FOMP volunteers

There are three FOMP volunteers who regularly arrange to do some gardening work in specific spaces  within Mayow Park which we are responsible for. This was agreed  with Lewisham Council and Glendale  some years ago but many people who have recently moved into the locality may not be aware of this.

Here is a summary

HERB BED in front of the cafe. It grows a range of herbs, mostly mints but also plenty of oregano which butterflies love, as we saw back in July. It is allowed to grow a little untidily. People are able to collect leaves of rosemary, oregano, mints and other herbs for their own use. Unfortunately that bed also has bindweed which we struggle to keep under control. When we pull it up, it goes into one of the park litter bins rather than our compost bins. This is because our 'dalek' style compost bins do not heat up to a sufficient temperature to destroy the bindweed.
Information on our compost area will follow in another blog.

SOFT FRUIT BED: Just to the west of the herb bed is the bed with raspberries, blackcurrants, red currants and white currants. The fruit is there for passers-by to pick and for children to taste fresh. The two fruit trees in that space are a Victoria Plum which has not produced proper plums for several years. In the past few years it has developed 'Pocket Plum', caused by a fungus. This prevents the development of the stone and causes distorted fruits to appear. There is nothing we can do, but the tree is still healthy and a worthy addition to the space. Near to that is a dwarfing Jonagold apple tree which produced a few apples this year and which were enjoyed by people in the park. Round two sides of the fruit bed is a hedgerow, planted for wildlife.

There are also plants growing beside the balustrade overlooking the bowls green.

MINI WILD FLOWER BED AND STEPPING LOGS
Along the path to the south of the soft fruit bed is a very small wild flower meadow. This year more colourful flowers came up. Next year, do visit and see how many wild flower varieties you can find.

ROCKERY: Near the drinking water fountain that Friends of Mayow Park funded is the revived rockery, which we rebuilt with help from Glendale. It was the wish of the previous Chair of FOMP, Hilary Jarrett,  that the rockery would look be revived. Sadly Hilary died before her wish came true. I'm sure she would be very happy.

MINI NATURE TRAIL: Along the path towards the tennis courts and just past the end of the bowls green to the left, we have created a mini nature trail and invertebrate 'hotel'. Volunteers from Nature's Gym helped to rebuilt the the pallets of the minibeast hotel and to lay logs along the path. During the summer holidays (and presumably with approval of their parents) children removed the path edge logs to build 'dens' in various locations in the park. We hope that we can find enough logs to reinstate the path and that parents will encourage children to respect the work of volunteers.

ORCHARD: We have 17 fruit trees and one bush. A detailed account of the orchard will be prepared ahead of our Apple Day, coming up in early October.

We welcome volunteers to help us with the rockery and the gardening. No experience is necessary as we will show you what to do. Twice a year there is an orchard workshop, led by an experienced orchard volunteer.

orchard on polling day (3rd May 2018)

Work sessions in the Mayow Park orchard have not happened for a while, not since February when we held our winter pruning day. There have been too many days of heavy rain since then; no motivation for Friends of Mayow Park volunteers to get out and do  essential work in the orchard. But polling day promised to be sunny and perhaps even warm so we hastily arranged a work session.
At 10.30 am the first volunteers arrived. We intended to remove weeds round all 18 or our orchard trees, check tree health,  put down some mulch, check the guards and low metal fences round the trees. we were not sure we could do all that in  two hours.
Much of our small pile of mulch had been removed a few days earlier but one determined volunteer was able to sweep what remained into the wheelbarrow and all the trees got some mulch.

COMFREY FOR FRUIT TREES: Some of our trees have comfrey plants growing round them in their tree pits. These plants were intentionally planted a couple of years ago. The thinking is that comfrey, which has deep roots, will bring up nutrients into its leaves. We then cut down the leaves and chop them into the mulch so that the nutrients can feed the tree roots. Some comfrey can be very invasive, but the variety we have, Bocking 14, is non-invasive. If visitors see these large, fluffy-leaved plants they should not be concerned.

valuable volunteers in the orchard

VOLUNTEERS: In addition to our regular volunteers, a dad and his two sons joined us. Their help was much appreciated. Another volunteer came along later and also made a huge difference to the amount we achieved. A total of eight volunteers. We had not publicised this session so we were delighted to have these extra pairs of hands.
At the end of two hours, we had completed all the tasks.

Adding mulch to the tree pit

A happy tree

The orchard is looking lovely with some of the trees in blossom as seen in this photo below:

Cox's Orange Pippin (in foreground) in bloom

The orchard is once again full of Lady's Smock flowers (also known as Cuckoo Flower). These are delicate-looking flowers and rather uncommon in the borough of Lewisham. They prefer damp grassland and our orchard, being on very heavy clay, certainly fits that description. So, by arrangement with Lewisham Greenscene and the park contractors Glendale, the mowing of this area will be delayed until the plants have finished flowering and set seed.

Lady's Smock or Cuckoo Flower in the Mayow Park orchard

Join in our Orchard winter workday 12th Feb 2018

Half term is coming up and our orchard winter workday will be next Monday.
We will be checking all the trees for pests and diseases as well as some winter pruning of apple and pear trees. We will also be reducing the height of some of the tree guards, removing encroaching grass round the tree pits and mulching.
No prior knowledge of gardening or pruning is needed as we will show you what to do.Introductions and training will be from 10.30 a.m. If you can only stay a short while, it is best to arrive at the start.
Children who join us must be supervised. Wear suitable footwear as the ground can get quite muddy.
If you have any questions, our email address is friendsofmayowpark@ymail.com
NOTE: yes, our email address is ymail, not gmail.

Celebrating Trees on 2nd December

A year ago, in December 2016, Friends of Mayow Park held our first Tree Dressing Day in the community orchard, an opportunity to celebrate how the orchard has developed with the help of so many volunteers. We had such fun then and the committee wanted to hold the event again this year. We were anxious about the weather but after a light drizzle the rain held off for the rest of the morning.

A team of volunteers gathered at the orchard to put up our gazebo, unfurl our banner, check we had enough fabrics, paper, pens, pencils and crayons, wool, ribbons and string plus apple juice, tea, coffee and hot water. Our story teller, Rich Sylvester, arrived and set up his area under the protective branches of a lime tree.

Rich prepares for story telling

By 10am we were ready to welcome visitors.

Visitors welcomed to our gazebo

But why hold this event? Tree Dressing is based on many old customs from all over the world, celebrated at different times of the year.

Tree Dressing Day in England falls on the first weekend of December every year. It was initiated by the charity Common Ground in 1990 and has grown to become a chance for the whole community to gather and celebrate the leafy friends we all have in common. It is also a chance for communities to reflect on the social and cultural history of their local area, and the role that trees have played in shaping that story. 

Trees have provided our sustenance, food, shelter, medicine and the air we breathe. They are part of our history and also our future. Trees have long been celebrated for their spiritual significance. It can be as simple as tying strips of cloth or yarn to a tree. The practice in Japan is to decorate trees with strips of white paper, or tanzaku, bearing wishes or poetry. 

Borrowing from these many traditions, our Tree Dressing included paper leaves for people to write messages or draw pictures to give to the trees, tie coloured strips of fabric (with or without messages) or make objects to hang in the trees.

Dream catcher

Our story teller captured the imagination of young and old with his stories and showed how to make dream catchers to add to the decorative creativity that was transforming our orchard.

creative decorations

More creative decorations

We finished off the morning with rousing winter songs led by our two wonderful singers Lucy and Valerie, and some mulled wine with thanks to Valerie and Robert.

There are so many thank yous: thank you to all those who visited our event, the lovely children and families who joined in the story telling. Thank you to our story teller Rich. Thank you to all the volunteers who contributed so much of their time. 

Celebrating Tree Dressing in our community orchard was a wonderful way to show our appreciation  of trees in our locality and to share tree stories with everyone who joined us.

Apple Day 14th October 2017 with FOMP

It has been months since our last post. If anyone would like to write a blog for us on green spaces in general or Mayow Park in particular, do send an email. We would love regular contributors and some of your photos to make this blog more active.

Our latest news is that we are planning Apple Day in  Mayow Park community orchard on 14th October,  a free event in celebration of orchards. 
We are very excited that we will be launching our new orchard sign. It was designed with illustrations from St Michael's Primary School eco-committee at the end of the summer term. The poster below gives a taste of what we are planning. If you'd like to help or want to know more you can send an email to friendsofmayowpark@ymail.com 
Hope to see you there.

Summer pruning orchard workday June2017

We had a very productive Orchard Summer Pruning and tree care session on 24th June with a total of 12 adults and 5 children. Good weather obviously plays an important part in determining how many people are able to take part, so that was a good start. We put up our gazebo to signpost our presence and placed our sign board nearby so that passers-by would recognise who we were and what we were doing.

As usual on these occasions we went through the risk assessment, safe handling of tools and list of tasks for today.

First up was to check trees for pests and diseases. We found some ant and aphid activity on two trees, most noticeable on the Cox's Orange Pippin; some leaves on some trees had evidence of leaf miner but nothing to worry about. Some leaves on the pear trees are starting to show signs of rust but this should not cause serious damage. Many of the apple trees are bearing heavy loads of fruit so we thinned out clusters to prevent disease and encourage the fruits to grow bigger.

Before pruning started in earnest we ran through the reminder of what to look for with the branches:
DEAD, DAMAGED OR DISEASED
CROSSING OR CONGESTED (i.e. overcrowded)

The plum and cherry trees can only be pruned in summer as winter pruning risks developing Silver Leaf, a fungal disease that could destroy a tree. It is probably better to summer prune in July and August but today was our workday for this task.
Before we could prune, some of the tree guards needed to be reduced in height. They have helped to protect the trees pretty well, despite two guards having been damaged during the past few months.

Jonathan inspects the Quince before cutting the height of the tree guard

Sandra with Lane's Prince Albert apple

Robert & Jon reduce the height of the guard round the cherry

Jon among the plums

While the pruning was going on, Sue with her able assistant Christopher (aged 4) were cutting down the comfrey plants, putting them into the wheelbarrow, then chopping them up into small pieces to put round the trees as mulch.

Christopher chops up comfrey leaves to use as mulch

Two other able-bodied young helpers were Thomas and Daniel, watched over by Carol while Jonathan cut down the guards around the quince.

Daniel and Thomas supervise the work

We also had two babies (under 12 months old) supervising us and other adults not in these photos.
Half-way through our work Lewisham's Mayor, Steve Bullock, came to officially open the newly refurbished tennis courts. They have been open for a few weeks already  and have been welcomed by most  of our enthusiastic tennis players.

Newly refurbished tennis courts - May 2017

 We were invited to join in to see the cutting of the ribbon  and share in the delicious strawberries and cream cake.These photos of the Mayor and the cake were taken by Carol Robinson.

And here are photos from the official photographer, including
- a group photo of the Mayor, tennis players, young children and the orchard volunteers
- the tennis courts
- the amazing cake

Three hours of orchard work by the team of volunteers passed by very quickly and the opportunity for a group photo was lost as people went home. In addition to pruning, guard height reduction and comfrey mulching, we also managed to weed round the trees and cut the grass round them.

New sign for the orchard 28 March 2017

"Where is the Mayow Park community orchard? I didn't know there was one in the park."
This is a frequent question and comment.
When people are shown the trees near the tennis courts that make the orchard,  they confirm that they have seen the trees but have never realised that they are an orchard.
There was a sign at the orchard back in 2012 but it was vandalised and had to be removed.
We now have a wonderful new laminated sign.
This new sign was prepared by the Friends of Mayow Park working with The Orchard Project, Greenscene and Glendale.
Steve, Glendale's 'maintenance man' as I like to call him, made a wooden board for the new sign back at the workshop.
Today, 28th March, Steve and his team put the sign up. Thank you guys!
In the longer term we hope to get a more permanent sign.
Look at the orchard when you visit the park over the coming days as some of the trees are coming into blossom. The two plum trees are already in flower. Some of the apples and pears will be next but one apple tree is very late flowering- called Crawley Beauty.

Orchard pruning session 18th Feb 2017

Friends of Mayow Park volunteers gathered for our annual orchard winter pruning and maintenance day. Eight adults and two children came to lend a hand. Our trees are in a public park, where grass mowing it carried out regularly during the summer, where dogs and children run around. The space  is well used. The trees have tree guards around them to offer some protection until they are bigger and stronger.

The trees are dormant now so this is the best time for formative pruning of our apple trees (malus) and pear trees (pyrus) to give them an open shape and encourage flower and fruit growth.

We set to work. First up was a check on the Cox’s Orange Pippin apple to identify fruit buds and leaf buds. We agreed which branches needed removing or having their height reduced, which crossing or crowded branches needed pruning  in order to open out the centre of the tree to allow air and light in.

Should I cut here or here? Cox's orange pippin

Look at what you are doing!

The Jupiter apple is growing noticeably stronger than the others planted at the same time. Maybe it is in a better location for sunlight, maybe it is better placed for moisture to its roots. It had grown much taller than the other trees - too tall.  Its fruit would be difficult to pick. We agreed to remove one of the main vertical limbs and reduce the height of another before tackling lower branches to give a better shape to the tree.

 Trees planted last March (2016) did not need pruning, other than a damaged branch. The height of some of their tree guards was reduced to allow branches to spread.

Two of the volunteers with tools, ladder and a cup of tea

The site is on heavy clay so the soil tends to dry out and crack during dry summer months. Mulching is important for our trees, helping hold moisture in the soil during the summer as well as making it harder for weeds to take hold. The two children had a great time climbing mountains (the pile of wood chip ready for mulching) and digging with trowels; to some extent they helped their mums remove weeds round a  tree and to put a thick layer of mulch around its circumference.

This is how I like to mulch

some of the water shoots in the wheelbarrow

Surveying the work from a height

 As always with outdoor activities, the weather can play an important part in the success of the day. We were lucky as it was relatively warm for this time of year (Around 9 or 10 degrees) with sunshine.