Wendell Park Gardening Friends need YOU!

With spring here at last, WPGF will kick off our monthly Park Maintenance days on Saturday 7th April at around 10am and on every 1st Saturday of the month. We need to prepare the beds alongside Cobbold Road so the children at Wendell Park School can use them for their Gardening Club. Please come and join in. Bring your own tools … forks, spades, trowels; whatever you have. No skill or experience necessary! It would be great if some strong, fit lads or dads could join in too as we could use the extra muscle power!

We are also appealing to anyone who has garden tools lurking in a shed that they no longer need. All contributions gladly received!

Snowberries, Paths and Plants!

Exciting news for March and April!  Phase 2 of the snowberry removal will take place in the next couple of weeks.  Expect to see contractors from idverde with mechanical diggers removing another swathe of these invasive, self-seeders.

Shortly thereafter, road contractors Conway will be in the park reinstating the surface of the paths which have become very pot-holed and damaged;

and on Friday April 6th we will be receiving our first large order of shrubs and perennials for the South Border along Wendell Road.  Please come along to help plant up – we will bring teas, coffees and soft drinks.  All we ask is that you bring your tools and are ready to roll your sleeves up!  Can’t wait!

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Sarah Heaton has produced a beautiful planting scheme!

Following lengthy discussions, debates, suggestions and counter-suggestions, our lovely neighbour Sarah Heaton has produced this beautiful planting scheme which we presented to LBHF for approval in January.  Some of the plants are now being ordered for delivery the week after Easter, when we will have a Planting Day (Friday 6th April) to get the new border under way.  We hope that as many of you as possible will be able to join us for what should be a fun and rewarding day’s gardening!

Click here to view or download the scheme Wendell planting scheme Sarah Heaton

You can see more of Sarah’s work here sarahheatongardens.com

WPGF talk at Askew Road Library

From our correspondent, Liliana Radujko

We recently received an incredibly warm community welcome at Askew Road Library, where Katherine and Frances expertly delivered an informative presentation with slides, photos and plans a-plenty. Beginning with a brief history of Wendell Park, the talk introduced our voluntary group from it’s inception in May 2017, our objectives, ethos, fund-raising, achievements to date and, of course, exciting future plans. We explained too our dedication to British native plants, increasing biodiversity, supporting our Borough in trying to achieve a green Flag award for Wendell Park. Most importantly, that our community can ALL share, learn together and be united in a passion for plants and gardening across all ages, abilities, backgrounds or home environments.

We clarified how we are liaising closely with the Borough, seek to be an interface between our diverse park users and the Borough as we follow in the footsteps of years of work to maintain and achieve improvements in Wendell Park by the original Wendell Park Friends, such as Gina, and our hard-working, dedicated park keeper, Steve Cassidy.

We shared some of our exciting future plans for: a Propagation and Plant Exchange Day in April alongside one of our upcoming regular monthly Maintenance days; preparation of Wendell Park School gardening area, a watering point near the existing water fountain. Looking further ahead, our ambition to compete in the Chelsea Fringe Garden Festival.

The bubbly discussions with our knowledgeable audience bought forward many excellent suggestions and ideas, including how to move forward with health and safety issues for our park.

We would love to hear from anyone in the community with your ideas and comments – do get in touch with us online on our website: wendellparkgardeningfriends.co.uk or on Twitter:  @WendellParkGF