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.

Clearing the fruit area at the Triangle beds by Pippa

It seems the combination of weather events this year (excess rain followed by warm and dry weather) meant our currant and berry bushes were being heavily invaded by long grass, nettles, 'sticky buds' (also known as cleavers, Latin name Galium aparine) and the odd bramble and in fact when we started this clearing project the fruit bushes were really very hidden. 

As people stopped to say hello we explained what they were and many hadn't realised. Anyway it's pretty rewarding pulling up all that stuff (bar nettles, hate those, I always get stung) and gives you a feeling you are 'freeing' the good stuff. 

The currents and raspberries are already fruiting in small form on the plants so there should be a good crop for people to pick a few as they go past. 

The plum and apple trees look better too. The plum fruits suffer from 'pocket plum' and no longer form proper fruits. 

We cleared loads of 'weeds' the first session. A second session was needed to finish that job - by now I was crawling pretty much inside the fruit bushes as you get slightly obsessed with getting every last strand of grass out.

Alona then wheelbarrowed the good-quality compost we'd created in our bin in the park, and we started spreading it around the cleared beds. It looks really great now.

During these sessions I was very distracted by The Triangle looking stunning with Forget-me-nots (Myosotis) but really taken over by the 'sticky buds' so I couldn't resist clearing some of those out.  There's bindweed in there too though that's a big job for next time.

It was great to be back having a 'presence' in the park (Alona and I working at 2m apart was easy). People do always stop to ask questions and we can remind them about FOMP.

We even had our first FOMP Zoom meeting this week so the Friends certainly are still being active despite many of our planned activities having to be cancelled.  At least we got our new benches (from the Greening Fund) put in just before lockdown. Just a reminder that we always are looking for more people to join the small but active FOMP committee!

Gardening session today

No photos as I forgot to take any. We worked on the fruit bed at the Triangle, pulling up couch grass that was threatening to strangle the currant bushes. It became clear rather quickly that we have neglected this bed, having done very little for a year. Some raspberry canes encroached on the space currently with currants, so they had to be removed. We found stinging nettles, good for wildlife but a menace in a space where people are encouraged to enter and pick fruit, so they had to be removed. We produced a large amount of organic garden waste and we could see what had been cleared, but we will need at least two more morning sessions to finish what we started.
A robin spent some time watching our activities with interest before flying off to find more food.

Gardening workday coming up

Thursday 15th Feb 2018, time for our first gardening session of the year in the Triangle, opposite Mayow Park cafe. New volunteers are welcome. Dress for the weather.
We will be reducing the height of the fruiting hedgerow, pruning raspberry canes, weeding and mulching the fruit bushes. As it is half term week, children can help with some of the tasks as well as look for minibeasts in the mulch and in the log pile.