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.

Nature's Gym volunteers work wonders

Weather plays an important part when there is gardening to do so it was a great relief that today, 17h September 2015, turned out dry, relatively warm and with some sun. Nature’s Gym volunteers and staff returned to Mayow Park and there must have been 15 people in total. 

As always there was more than plenty to do. Most of the work was based at the Triangle fruit and herb beds but a few volunteers worked at the orchard and bug hotel.

The orchard saw a team removing weeds round the base of the trees and adding a layer of mulch to suppress weeds and look after the tree roots. 

The bug hotel in the nearby woodland had more woody material added to the pallets to create a cosy environment for our park invertebrates ahead of the winter. Would it be cosy enough to attract a hedgehog or two?  

One of the volunteers did a grand job of cutting down the mini wild flower meadow with shears and we plan to sow more wild flowers in late autumn in the hope of a colourful display next spring and summer.

In the Triangle, the hedgerow round the fruit garden had become untidy with branches stretching over the woodchip path, hindering movement. This has now been pruned. The woodchip path has been raked in an effort to remove weeds growing in it. And the herb bed has had serious attention to remove bindweed which is gradually taking over available bare earth.

hedgerow pruned  to allow access to the path

Richard raking the woodchip path

Meet Gary and Gary

All this work generates plenty of garden waste. Glendale’s cleansing team were able to assist by taking it away.

Some of the team

As always these sessions are not only about serious gardening. 

There is time to relax and catch up on news during tea/ lunch break. 

And home time means packing tools back in the van.

Packing up time

The impact of all this work should be clearly visible to all. The Friends of Mayow Park are very grateful for the regular support we receive from Nature’s Gym volunteers.

This photo was taken the following day.