FoMP meeting 22nd October 2013

It was a very positive FoMP meeting at Dacres Wood Field Centre on 22nd October. Martin Hyde gave an update on Pavilion renovation progress with the news that the shell of the building is almost complete after all the delays due to extensive dry rot. The replacement of the foul sewer, however, will generate a few headaches because of the need for deep excavations.
The bowls club will not be continuing but their site will not go to waste, with proposals to develop sports facilities there, subject to successful funding bids.
We learned that the park has been awarded a Green Flag again but this time with 'secret shopper' judging. 
The orchard has had eight very hard working carers through the spring and summer,  who watered the trees every week from April to early September. Thank you to those people. The next task for the orchard is to lightly prune the trees, weed around the base and put a thick layer of wood chip mulch around to suppress weeds. This should be done before the winter.

successful THREE ORCHARDS WALK

The three orchards walk (Albion Millennium Green, Mayow Park and de Frene orchards) was a successful event to show our local orchards. The Forest Hill Society environment committee volunteers worked hard to design the flyer and publicise it.
Rain threatened but held off until   the last stage of the walk. 
Steve Grindlay provided a link between the three sites with his historical insight into the area.
Refreshments at De Frene (a site run by local charity Sydenham Garden) were much appreciated although the pizza oven took a long time to heat up sufficiently.
Photos and more detailed write up to follow.

THREE ORCHARDS WALK saturday 19th October 2013

Visit three orchards in Forest Hill and Sydenham.
Meet at Forest Hill station at 11am,
On to Albion Millennium Green for tree planting and toasting the trees  11.30am.
Then to Mayow Park orchard to meet orchard volunteers, toast the trees, do apple bobbing 12.30pm
Finally on to De Frene orchard (a plot run by Sydenham Garden) for refreshments,  including pizzas made in the earth oven, and activities for the family, 1.30pm.

Volunteers in Mayow Park

Mayow Park volunteers work in the main park, at two locations, the orchard and the two food-growing beds. We find it difficult to find time to work together on the site but are a motivated group. During October we were intending to use our well-rotted mulch, located by the rockery at the far corner of our area, round the fruit bushes and the orchard.

Our plans have now been ruined.

I was dismayed today, 1^st October 2013,  to see that ALL our well-rotted woodchip in the corner by the rockery has been taken. No-one asked us.  I am sure the park-keeper was not asked either as he knew what it was intended for.

It has been a hard year for us: 

• Some people, without asking any of the volunteer group,  planted trees in the herb bed (willow and ash), which had to be removed; 
• Many of our logs that mark the woodchip path through the grass area were taken. Luckily, thanks to Glendale and Nature's Gym, we were able to get more.
• Now the mulch has been taken, but we cannot get any more!

It would  be appreciated if the people who took all the mulch would own up to it.

If anyone has a realistic suggestion to get more (free) mulch I would be grateful. If not, then the people who took it all should offer to volunteer to provide fresh mulch for the orchard trees.

With our work as volunteers being undermined so often, we have to ask ourselves whether we should carry on doing this work.

Celebrating local orchards

 With thanks to Lewisham Gardens for posting this on Facebook.

Join the free guided walk between three community orchards. It starts at Albion Millennium Green, a relatively new orchard space, then heads to Mayow Park where the orchard of 11 trees was planted in January 2012.  The walk finishes at the De Frene plot which belongs to the fantastic Sydenham Garden.  Refreshments with a seasonal flavour will be on sale at De Frene and a rare opportunity to see this site.

Its taken a lot of volunteer time from the three local groups to plan this- so do go along; take your children, pet dogs and walking shoes! There will be some tree planting too.

The Orchards:
Albion Millennium Green- http://www.amgfriends.org.uk/
Friends of Mayow Park- http://friendsofmayowpark.blogspot.co.uk/
Sydenham Garden- http://www.sydenhamgarden.org.uk/

Orchard fruits August-September 2013

Victoria Plum

Crawley Beauty

Early Windsor

Our fruit trees are very young and we did not expect much of a harvest. The Czar plum was laden with fruit one day towards the end of August and the next day the flimsy branches which had fruit had been torn and broken from the tree. A few tell-tale plums on the ground were all that remained. The Victoria plums were carefully picked by a group of volunteers while still yellow, to ripen indoors, to avoid the same fate though some branches had already been torn off. Apples had been pulled from trees before they were ripe and, because they were not yet edible, were thrown on the ground with human teeth marks visible!
One Crawley Beauty remained out of eight fruits and two Early Windsor out of six. The Jupiter apple tree had three apples - all removed. In a few years time, when the trees are set free from their protective fencing, people will be able to pick a fruit to eat as they walk past and hopefully not take everything.
Our next task is to prepare the trees for winter. Some will need a prune. Weeds on the the ground underneath will be removed and a deep layer of mulch will be put down on the ground.

Nature's Gym - thank you

Nature's Gym volunteers, led by staff from Glendale and Lewisham, came to Mayow Park today (18th July 2013)on one of the hottest days of the year. They came to help tame the fruit bed in the Triangle that Mayow Park volunteers look after. And indeed they made an impact. They did these things: -stepping logs have been bedded in and it is easier to walk though the larger bed, -much of the couch grass has been pulled up, -log path edging has been put back where there were gaps, -two-thirds of the curved path has been recovered with a layer of wood chip mulch and that should make it easier for park volunteers to finish the task.