Next week, contractors will be planting 15 semi-mature fruit trees to start the orchard off with our first phase of community planting due to occur in the coming February. From the 1st December you will be able to apply for tree sponsorship via the Friends of Grosvenor and Hilbert Park website. Visit www.fogh.org.uk for details. The deadline for applications will be 5th January 2015.
On Saturday 8th November we had soil expert Vaughn Redfern come and dig a soil pit in the orchard site to show us what lurks beneath the grass. And we all breathed a sigh of relief when he discovered that we have a lovely rich silty clay loam soil which is well drained. That is positive news for our future fruit trees.
We followed the soil examination with a lesson in trigonometry from our very own Gavin Wilkinson who helped us with the first steps of marking out the orchard using a simple method with string and sticks! So all in all, a productive and educational day.
We shall be finishing the marking up this Thursday with our first Orchard Volunteer Day. So feel free to come along and help from 10am.
Other exiting news is that construction of the new pieces of skate park equipment has now begun. Installation and work on site is due to begin in mid-December.
The large-scale capital works such as the Rochdale Road entrance and Pavilion refurbishments are still in the administrative procedure stages and we anticipate work commencing on site in February 2015. You will see clearance works in the park happening between now and then in preparation of this.
Don't forget that even though it's winter, and even though the park will soon be in various states of work, there will still be plenty going on. We have Woodland Adventure Day on the 6th Dec and the FofGH Carol Singing on the 14th Dec. There is also plenty of volunteering days happening too. Follow our Facebook and Twitter pages for up to date activities or get in touch.
Thanks to those of you that attended our last two park events - the FofGH Halloween Party and the Fungi Walk. We were very lucky with the weather and fun was had by all!
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| Fungi expert Bryan Bullen |
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| Fungi in the woods |
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| Happy Halloween! |
