BRAMBLE BASHING

 At our orchard maintenance sessions, volunteers could see that the scrub behind the orchard (mainly brambles and elder) was spreading too close to some of the orchard trees. This would affect the growth of our fruit trees in time, with brambles competing for soil nutrients.

Cutting back was the only way. We had our team of volunteers but the task was too overwhelming for us with our hand tools alone - secateurs and loppers.
Fortunately Glendale managers agreed. Glendale is the contracting company that manages the park on behalf of Lewisham Council; cutting back was on their schedule as part of Mayow Park green space maintenance tasks.
We were able to plan our volunteer session to tie in with a day when Glendale’s team was able to work on the task – Thursday 2^nd December.

Volunteers at work

Working with hand tools

The nature conservation value for wildlife of the dense hedge of brambles was not forgotten, but this is a public park and there is a need to maximise the grass area available to park users while maintaining spaces for wildlife. Doing this work in winter is probably the safest time.
Our team of volunteers worked with basic hand tools in an area close to the hard standing, while the Glendale team brought a power hedge cutter for the toughest sections. In some parts the brambles were cut back by 3 metres. 

Glendale team get ready

 open space cleared

After cutting back, the area was cleared and the plant matter we had cut was taken away by Glendale for composting.

Cut vegetation removed for composting

That area looks more open and welcoming to park users now.

All photos credit D Budden

The perks of volunteering by Pippa Moss

 What I did the other day wasn't in itself that exciting, I was ultimately just pulling up weeds.

But I came home with a real glow after those 2 hours.  

I'll tell you the reasons.

Firstly it is very tangible when there's some lovely fruit bushes being swamped by nettles, long grass and 'sticky buds' (also known as ‘goosegrass’). You literally feel like you are freeing them ready to provide more berries later than might otherwise have been the case.

Volunteers captured on camera

Also you get to chat with other volunteers (just 2 others at the moment while we still have to play safe 2m apart).. and pick up good tips. One tip from Alona being that our large piles of 'waste' can be used to make a little natural fence along behind the compost bins, where the old weeds will dry out and provide some goodness back into the ground.

waste greenery piled under hedge

Plus it was great to work with Bella, co-chair of Friends of Home Park as we hadn't managed to meet in person despite numerous online chats.

Finally and fabulously was the number of people who stopped as they passed to say hello. Neighbours, Pat from the Sydenham Society, Chrissie from the library, dog walker friends, Hakan a park regular who also looks after the SE26 community Facebook group, Iris from Grow Mayow, parents wanting to learn about the plants and herbs, a wave to Glendale driving past in a van…

It was Mayow at its best to be honest and while there's still some work to do around the Triangle Garden near the cafe, it was a fabulous sociable start.

Next week is #VolunteersWeek. A time to celebrate all you and others do to volunteer in our community. Share on our social media what you get up to, especially to keep our green spaces green. Thank you.

AGM 26th JAN 2019

 You are invited to join FRIENDS OF MAYOW PARK (FOMP) for our ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING

This will be held on Saturday 26th January 2019 from 10am to midday

Meet in the Bowls Green main cabin. 

The meeting will begin with a short review of 2018, reports and election of officers.

We will then discuss Green Flag award criteria as a minimum standard for all parks, management of our park, the need to improve the children’s playground and the important role of active volunteers.

FOMP members are all volunteers who care about Mayow Park. They work with Council and Glendale staff to strive for a welcoming and well-managed park. 

Do join our team to help improve our local park.

Preparing the orchard for winter

We received a pile of wood chips thanks to Glendale Lewisham (the contractors who manage most of Lewisham's parks on behalf of the council) and this motivated us to get to work in the orchard, preparing the fruit trees for winter.

Our plan was: remove grass around the trees to a radius of 1 metre from the base of each tree, chop up comfrey leaves at the base of the trees, then a thick layer of wood chips 10cm deep (or 4" in old measures).

With our team of volunteers and good weather, the work was completed very quickly and the trees now have a thick blanket around them ready for winter.

Splendid day for a lark in the park Part 1

What a splendid day it was for a lark in the park in Mayow Park on Saturday 30th June 2018.
The event was organised by Lewisham Council's Perry Vale ward as a community event and community stalls were there in numbers. The event joined forces with Sydenham Arts who held their activities in the bowls green so the park was buzzing.  So many people smiling in the sunshine.

Community groups came to set up at 11am and public events  began at midday.
A Victorian theme ran through for some of the stalls in recognition of the 140th anniversary since the opening of Mayow Park to the public in June 1878.
For the Friends of Mayow Park it was also an excuse for a double celebration. The group (formerly known as Mayow Park Users' Group) held their very first official meeting in April 1993 and have been going for 25 years.

In recognition of this double anniversary, Friends of Mayow Park (FOMP) set up their stall to face the Victorian water fountain.  The monument commemorates the Rev William Taylor Jones who kick-started the process that was to lead to the creation of Sydenham Public Recreation Ground, later renamed  Mayow Park. While the fountain no longer works, it stands as a proud memorial to the origins of the park.

Putting up the bunting (photo S Hatchard)

Victorian fountain with bunting (photo S Hatchard)

    Our gazebo was installed in a jiffy and soon  all were busy preparing the table, signs and activities.

Getting stall ready (photo A Sheridan)

Gazebo up (photo A Sheridan)

Children's Victorian art and craft activities were part of the FOMP offer and two young people took on much of the work to reach out to members of the public.

Victorian brooch making activity (photo P Moss)

brooch-making preparations (photo P Moss)

Sue and Sandra prepare the thaumatrope activity (photo P Moss)

The FOMP stall displayed a number of items that might be of interest to visitors:
- an article from the Sydenham Society Summer 2018 newsletter, written by Steve Grindlay and explaining the creation of Mayow Park.

- Walk on the Wild Side map of the park showing just a few of the significant trees

    And a scrap book that FOMP volunteers are putting together called 'Mayow Park Memories'.   The front cover is a copy of an original painting by local artist Darren Russell Hayman.                                                                                                               

                                                                                                                                     

More about this event to follow.

TIMELY TEAMWORK ON 12th JUNE

It was great to see Friends of Mayow Park (FOMP) volunteers and Glendale staff working together on 12^th June 2018 on a joint grounds maintenance project to improve part of the park. This work was not part of the usual maintenance routine but had been identified as work we could do together in  celebration of Mayow Park’s  140^th anniversary as a public park and Friends of Mayow Park’s quarter century as a park user group. On 1^st June1878 the Sydenham and Forest Hill Public Recreation Ground (later renamed as Mayow Park) was formally opened. Friends of Mayow Park (previously called Mayow Park Users’ Group) held their first meeting in April 1993.

AIMS

The aims of the joint Glendale and FOMP session were agreed:

• To clean up the Victorian drinking fountain
• To resurrect the rockery near the modern drinking fountain
• To tidy up and make more accessible the fruit and herb beds in the Triangle
• To thin out the maple suckers which form a lovely den around an old maple tree stump
• To prune the privet hedge and fruiting hedgerow where the aviary used to be, if time allowed

 VICTORIAN DRINKING FOUNTAIN:

The Victorian drinking fountain stands as a memorial to the Rev William Taylor Jones and a symbol of Victorian philanthropy. It remains an attractive ornament although the water supply through lead piping was blocked way back in a bygone age. If you look carefully you will see the filled-in holes from which water flowed. Hilary Jarrett, who was Chair of the Friends of Mayow Park in the early this millennium, looked into the possibility of restoring the fountain. However, expert advice warned that such a project would be immensely expensive and risk causing serious damage to the granite fountain. It was far better to keep the fountain as it is for it to remain an acknowledgment of the past.

Victorian fountain  in Mayow Park

The fountain called for a clean-up to celebrate its position in the park and that call was answered by Ian, with a bucket and long- handled brush.  

Ian arrives to spruce it up as a birthday treat

Job done. Fountain cleaned

We now have the modern drinking fountain, beside the rockery,  paid for by a grant to FOMP and installed by Glendale a few years ago, thanks to Hilary’s persistence in seeking funds.

THE ROCKERY:

Behind the modern drinking fountain stands a rockery. Every spring flowering bulbs grow in the rockery before the forest of elder, ivy, bindweed, overgrown holly and other plants take over. The rockery was revealed today when the team cut through the dense undergrowth. 

Where is the rockery?

Rockery uncovered and cleared of rubbish

Suitable rockery plants for shade were planted. These were sourced by Glendale, purchased by the Friends and planted by Glendale’s grounds maintenance staff and also acknowledge times past.

Rockery planted

. . . and more plants

FRUIT BED

Nearby, close to the modern drinking water fountain, the Friends tend fruit and herb beds. Today the fruit bed saw five volunteers hard at work. One started pruning the fruiting hedgerow on two sides of the bed. The others cut back the grass growing round the redcurrant bushes, the raspberry canes and the fruit trees, releasing these plants from hiding. The grass in the central space was also cut so that people can now bring their picnic mats and enjoy a less overlooked space. No photos of this at the moment.

MAPLE DEN

Directly opposite the fruit bed is a bench and a maple tree stump surrounded by maple stems which have suckered up to surround the stump and create a ‘den’ for children and adults to explore. The stump itself is a haven for invertebrates and possibly even elusive stag beetle larvae hiding deep in the dense wood. The suckered growth was overgrown and needed thinning, brambles growing through it and covering the ground.  

Den looking in - before clearing

Den from outside before clearing

So a team armed with loppers, saws and secateurs worked to thin back the maple growth and cut through the brambles. The work also revealed the variegated holly behind the maple stems.  Children and adults can now enter the den without scratching themselves on thorns.

Maple den after clearing

OLD AVIARY SITE

The site near the tennis courts, where the aviary used to be, is referred to as ‘the hard standing’. It has a privet hedge and a fruiting hedgerow. Glendale staff trimmed the privet which had become overgrown and straggly. The fruiting hedgerow was carefully pruned to leave the flowering wild roses which add colour  to the space and encourage insects.

Work in progress

Smile for the camera

Hedge trimmed

Hedgerow pruned

Roses in the hedgerow

THANKS

Thank you to the FOMP volunteers and  Glendale staff for a productive session and great team work. Our efforts were a fitting celebration of Mayow140 and FOMP 25.

Below are some photos of Glendale staff at work. Someone forgot to take photos of the  FOMP volunteers, but we were there - honest!