The Eco Garden Update

Waking up to the sun streaming through the window, leaving the house without your coat and gloves and seeing flowers poking through under the trees… spring is definitely here!

After battling through snow for the last few volunteer days we should now be rewarded with some more volunteer-friendly weather. The next volunteer day is Wednesday 17th April from 1pm (also 15th May).

Jobs for the coming months are to work on the bee bed, create a plant guild around the plum tree, continue work on mint corner and prepare the rest of the Eco Garden.

 

 

 

 

 

Platt Fields Park

Eco Garden

Since our second event in the summer 2011, we have adopted Platt Fields Park as our home. There has been a recent history of environmental and community art projects being based in the area to the south of the lake, known as the Eco Garden.

This is glade-like area where you can find flower beds, willow structures, a clay oven and a living sofa. The park is a perfect place to escape the frenetic pace of urban life and the Eco Garden is one of the best places in all of Manchester’s green spaces.

If you would like to find out more or get involved with the Eco Garden click here.

Friends of Platt Fields Park

The single biggest factor that makes Platt Fields so special is its community involvement. Nothing symbolises this more than the Friends of the Platt Fields Park who will be celebrating 20 years in 2014.

We have been working closely with the FoPF since January 2012 to become part of the great work that they do.

The Anchors

We have been part of the discussion in the park to think about a new model of community involvement. The thinking is that the current funding and budget situation is not going to have a positive effect on the management of green spaces and that the potential for communities from the parks is not fully realised.

The Anchors – Please click to see the foundations of a new way of working. Your comments would be greatly appreciated.

OAM

One of the successes of the work in Platt Fields is the monthly Sunday ‘Once A Month’ volunteer days, or OAM’s. These have been running every third Sunday for over 6 years and offer people a chance to participate in improving the park.

We have been helping with these since early 2012 and also run a smaller Wednesday afternoon session which is concentrated on the Eco Garden.

If you would like to get involved click here

Boathouse

As part of the Anchor concept, groups agree to look after or contribute to an element of the park in return for a given benefit. We have taken on the care of the Eco Garden in order for it to be at its best for the Envirolution Festival.

An added benefit of this has been our access to the Boathouse. We use the space to store and create art installations, signage and anything else creative needed for the event. This often doubles up as community art workshops next to the lake for people who are enjoying the park and happen to wonder by.

Wednesday In The Park

The sun has come back to our sky so it must be spring! We are back in the park every Wednesday to take on some of the challenges of the Eco Garden.

From Gais’s Garden by Toby Hemenway

Today was supposed to be a session looking at the guilds that we could grow to improve the growth and productive of the fruit trees. We did manage to begin the germination of some of the bulb species to protect from the grass.

However, as often happens, we were interupted by the opportunity to grab one of the park wardens. The job at hand was the re-seeding of the green sofa, which first needs completely emptying and re-filling.

Over much of February we have been cutting back the willow to control the growth and attempt to harvest useable sticks. It is great to see some park users have been busy using the excess sticks to create a little play den.