Orchard care 25 September 2024

 Our orchard is a feature of the park and is cared for by some wonderful volunteers.

After our successful summer pruning workshop in August it was the end of September and time to show the trees some additional love. Our plan?  to remove tree guards, carefully pull up weeds, add a thick layer of wood chip mulch and then replace the guards. Eight of us were ready for action.

Why bother with the tree guards as they are not high enough to keep out animals  The guards are there to clearly mark out the tree space, to avoid mower damage. 

With guards removed and set to one side it was easy to remove weeds- mainly couch grass, some brambles and wood avens (Latin name Geum urbanum)   

Why bother to remove the weeds or unwanted plants?  Surely they are not harming the trees? These  plants, growing in the tree pits, compete with the trees for water and nutrients. We are happy to leave them to grow elsewhere in the orchard.

comfrey growing in our orchard (May 2024)

We intentionally planted comfrey, (Symphytum 'Bocking') as a mineral accumulator, and this plant stays in the soil .This variety is non-invasive. Comfrey's deep tap roots  absorb minerals and store these nutrients in their leaves. The theory is, if we chop up the comfrey leaves and drop them back on the ground, as the leaves die these nutrients return back to the top soil and  to the roots of the trees. We refer to this as 'chop and drop'.                             

Here are a few photos from our afternoon's work:

One of the plum trees: Photos show tree pit full of weeds, guard removed and weeds removed, tree pit cleared, guard replaced.

Weeding in progress

tree pit full of 'weeds'

Finished

Next our very vigorous Jupiter apple tree

received plenty of mulch

And finally Lizzy with a barrow load of mulch

We finished the session with refreshments (apple juice and Worcester apples) with thanks to Lizzy.

September 2024 dog show

 So lucky this morning. Too much rain has fallen over the past few weeks- would we be able to hold this event? But Sunday 8th September was dry and warm.

Setting up: At 9 a.m the Glendale staff arrived to set up the 'ring' for the dog show, next to the tennis courts. Our team of volunteers were greeted with smiles.

The gazebo was set up and table prepared by some FOMP volunteers.

Table set up ready

 Our poster: There were various categories and dog owners could register their dog for more than one category - see this poster. 

                                                                      

Registration: People arrived to register their dogs                                                                                         

Our helpers: Helpers wore our very own Friends of Mayow Park hi-viz tabards. One helper was particularly hard working: Can you spot them in the following photos?

                                                 

Let the show begin: Show time. So many wonderful dogs.

Our judge had a tough time deciding some of the winners.

This was the second year of the Friends of Mayow Park dog show. We've had requests for another show next year. Photos with thanks to Robert and to Pippa.

Bat walk 6th September 2024

Friends of Mayow Park (FOMP) have learned over the years to limit our publicity for our bat walks.  so we can limit numbers up to a maximum of 50 people. We put posters on the four gates into Mayow Park and send an email to our mailing list. No social media publicity needed.

For our recent bat walk, we closed our bookings at 50 but we could easily have had many more. Maybe we should hold a extra bat walks in future - even if our expert 'bat man' can't lead them?

The weather on 6th September was true to forecast - rain and more rain. Bats don't like heavy rain! But it was warm so there should be plenty of flying insects for them to eat! Fortunately around 7.30 pm the rain stopped, just in time.

Iain introduced the walk with his usual humorous descriptions of bats, their behaviour and the echolocation sounds they make to help them navigate towards their food.

Iain explains bat habits and behaviour 

Iain lent out his bat detectors to groups of people and explained how to use them. First turn on the device, then set it to a frequency of around 50 kHz which would tune in to the sound of the local pipistrelle bats. When they are nearby we should hear a sound similar to a sloppy wet kiss - that's the sound of the bats. Look out for their fast and erratic flight, changing direction very quickly 

Quite a few children came on the walk, with torches at the ready and very good at handling their bat detectors. What delighted excitement when they heard AND saw the bats. 

Despite the light drizzle, there were plenty of insects to feed these amazing flying mammals. It was a magical evening.

Our participants were very generous with cash donations to Friends of Mayow Park and we raised £60 which will be split between FOMP and the Bat Conservation Trust:  https://www.bats.org.uk

Mayow Orchard picnic 14 July 2024

 After weeks of planning, scheming, emailing, designing posters, video meetings with our partner organisations, our team was ready for the picnic. This was the first  Friends of Mayow Park (FOMP) picnic and we chose  to locate in the orchard we planted in 2012.  We wanted other park users  to get to know this special place.

With fingers crossed that the weather would be warm and dry Yogi, Mike and Alona (not Viv as she was away on holiday)  met Rebel Kitchen (RK) and The Orchard Project (TOP) staff and volunteers to set up our stalls.

Yes! The weather turned out to be perfect for us.

RK brought their own gazebo and plenty of freebies to give away including their branded raw juices. With the picnic in mind they also brought plenty of picnic mats for our anticipated guests. The mats were a hit with our visitors.

TOP brought two apple peeling machines for the longest peel activity. They also brought two amazing face-painting and body painting artists.

FOMP’s orchard activities included  Yogi’s wonderful colours of nature art and a fruit tree hunt.

The Mayow Park croquet club joined us and offered an opportunity to have a go at croquet.

We wanted to give people a chance to spend time in our orchard and discover the diversity of our fruit trees while also having fun with RK’s Spin to Win game, face painting and nature art.

During the course of the afternoon more than 80 people joined us, some staying and some drifting through, as well as quite a few children and some with dogs.

Thanks also go to our loyal volunteers who came to help – Pippa posted photos on social media, Robert brought his family and Freda came with her dog Freddy.

The photos below with thanks to Kath from The Orchard Project

exploring the orchard

Team Orchard Project

Spin to win

Picnic in the orchard - our latest poster

 This fantastic poster was designed for us by designers at Rebel Kitchen  (RK). Meet some RK staff at the picnic.

The first orchard trees were planted in 2012. The parks department at Lewisham Council gave us permission for the site. The Orchard Project (TOP) came to help all the volunteers with demos and advice on how to plant the trees properly and after care. TOP colleagues will be joining us for the picnic so you can chat to them about fruit trees and their rewilding project.  

You can also meet some of our Friends of Mayow Park volunteers who look after the orchard.

Summer picnic Sunday 14th July

 

Join us for a relaxed afternoon among the fruit trees.

Find out the names of fruit varieties we grow and seek out those you won't find in the supermarkets.

Official playground opening 14-03-2024

14th March 2024 was the day when our children's playground was officially opened by the newly elected Mayor Of Lewisham, Brenda Dacres.

The rebuilt playground had opened to the public just before Christmas 2023 but today was the grand opening. 

It had been a long time coming and those parents who had stuck with this project for over 6 years were very relieved. We had not been able to reach our hoped-for target of £200,000 so some of the sensory activities and some additional equipment did not get included. However, there was delight at the finished result. 

Invitations to attend this event had been sent out from the Mayor's office. 

Some  school council  pupils from Adamsrill Primary School and pupils from Brent Knoll School had been invited to the opening as well as local councillors, council officers from Lewisham's parks department and managers from Glendale.

Kompan is the play equipment  company that had designed, built and installed the equipment. Their rep, Sandra, came along to meet pupils from local schools and to hear their thoughts on the new playground. She gave out 'goodie' bags to the children, containing fruit, a water bottle, Easter eggs and other delights.

Two members of Friends of Mayow Park were invited but only one of us could attend. Sadly our hard-working fund-raising volunteer had to go to work at the last minute. It is thanks to her persistence that this project  finally raised the necessary funds. 

Mayor Brenda Dacres cut the ribbon to officially open the playground, assisted by some of the children. The youngsters then had free time playing on all the equipment. An Easter bunny wandered around making everyone smile. 

Veolia is a waste management company which supports and provides funding towards community projects. They provided nearly half the funding for the playground. So it was a pleasure to meet their rep in his very glamorous hi-vis jacket and to show our appreciation for their funding.

We must mention that the Friends paid for an additional bench for the playground near the swings, a place for parents to sit and keep an eye on their children. 

The Friends had worked hard over the years to ensure this project would happen by keeping in contact with council officers, with Glendale and with the local councillors. The Friends conducted two surveys, one in 2017 to find out if there would be support for a playground improvement campaign and a second survey in 2022 to ensure we were still campaigning with support from parents and children.

This playground could not have been completed without time and effort from the parks department and from Glendale (the parks management company) helping us. There were quite a few meetings along the way. Then came Covid and lockdowns which meant our campaign came to a halt and finally we had to pick up from where we had left off previously.