Community Garden update 

Construction of the raised beds and installation of the picnic bench for the Community Garden began in August. We were hampered by the drought conditions, which complicated building on the rock hard and very uneven ground. The Committee wishes to record its thanks to those who worked on this task over several weeks in the summer heat, with special gratitude to David Gent for his expertise and hard work. We have installed a set of eight raised beds on the turf, arranged on points of the compass. These are in full sun throughout the day. They have been spaced to allow accessibility and one of the beds is 60 cm high for use by wheelchair users. We plan to connect the garden with a fully accessible path to the Sackville Close entrance in future.

They are now filled with top-quality soil and compost, and planting has begun. Due to the lateness of planting, we are concentrating for now on overwintering vegetables like broad beans, onions, garlic; an ornamental flower bed with spring bulbs and hardy annuals; a wildflower bed; and a perennial vegetable bed. Other beds will be sown with green manure crops for overwintering. We’re looking for more volunteers to join the group helping to plant and look after the beds when growing begins in earnest next Spring, If you can help, please email alexandra.stafford@btinternet.com 

Daffodil planting — Saturday 29 October

We are planting 1000 mixed daffodil bulbs on the sloping bank in the Lower Field. This will create a stunning display of colour in the Spring. The bulbs will will be planted in a strip about 0.5 x 26 m. Next year, we’re planning to establish patches of wildflowers on the bank. 

Can you help? Even if you can only spend half an hour or so, come along to participate in planting and meet other members to contribute to our venture. We hope to make it a fun activity and some refreshments and snacks will be available. If you have kids, it’s a great way for them to learn about planting and some facts about how plants develop. You can find more information here about what’s involved.

New trees and hedges

In September, we met with PCC officials who agreed to our proposals for planting of 14 new orchard trees (1 x apple, 2 x cherry, 5 x plum, 1 x medlar, 1 x quince, 4 x pear). Planting will take place in late 2022 or early 2023 and we will link it to a community event so that members can help with the planting. Supports, tree guards, and mulching will be provided. We’ll also be planting about 50 metres of hedging plants (whips) on the perimeter of the lower field. This will include hawthorn, hazel, crab apple, dog rose, dogwood, honeysuckle, Viburnum, Rosa rugosa and currant bushes. The aim is to enrich the habitat and food sources for wildlife — as well as providing a rich drop of autumn fruits for us humans to gather for jams, jellies, and preserves in future years. .We will also be carrying out a survey of the upper field, with the aim of planting new hedging and specimen trees in the winter of 2023/4. This planting will form part of the Plymouth and South Devon Community Forest project.   Annual General MeetingWe’re coming up to the first anniversary of the establishment of the group in November 2021. At its September meeting, the Committee decided that it would make sense to delay the AGM until the New Year, probably late January—early February, at the start of the new growing season. We’ll be looking to elect or re-elect Committee members, and make some important decisions about our future directions and funding, so please look out for the announcement of the meeting.   

This autumn, Friends of Downhorn Park (FoDHP) are planting 1000 mixed daffodil bulbs on the sloping bank in the Lower Field. This will create a stunning display of colour in the Spring. The bulbs will will be planted in a strip about 0.5 x 26 m. Next year, we’re planning to establish patches of wildflowers on the bank.

Please join us on Saturday 29 October

Can you help? Even if you can only spend half an hour or so, come along to participate in planting and meet other members to contribute to our venture. We hope to make it a fun activity and some refreshments and snacks will be available. If you have kids, it’s a great way for them to learn about planting and some facts about how plants develop.

What to bring

We hope the weather’s good, but we’re planning to go ahead unless there’s heavy rain and wind, so come prepared with waterproof clothing and good footwear. We’ll be making holes in the turf about 15-20 cm deep, planting about 75 bulbs per square metre. If you have one, please bring a bulb planting tool and/or trowel. We will also have some bulb auger drills to make holes. Gardening gloves are recommended, and you may want to bring a kneeling mat or old cushion.

Safety

We aim to provide a safe and secure environment but the FoDHP has no legal duty of care. Children must be supervised at all times by a responsible adult such as a parent, guardian, or care worker.

Please be aware of the main points of our risk assessment for this activity.

CORRECTED 14 JULY

It’s happening!

We have signed the formal agreement with the Council for the improvements we have proposed, so we can start to build the Community Garden and plan planting in time for later summer and autumn. We now need your active involvement to take our exciting project forward. Here’s some important information about how you can help.

Erection of picnic table and planning the site

We are expecting  a pallet delivery of the picnic table on Thursday 7 July in the Broadway car park adjacent to the Age UK Centre. They have kindly agreed for us to unpack and take it through their side gate to the field. We will be erecting the picnic table and marking out the site for siting the raised beds. We will need several helpers for this. If you can spare a couple of hours on Thursday, please text or WhatsApp Colin on 07941  850015. I can then let you know as soon as I get an exact delivery time on Thursday.

Building the raised beds

We are planning to start the build on Wednesday 20 July. We will need a working party  to lift the planks, screw them together and secure. The planks are pre-cut to size, so assembly should be quite straightforward, although some levelling of the ground may be needed.  Please message me if you can help, indicating times you are available that day/evening or on the following Thursday-Sunday. Im not sure how long we will need, depending on the number of helpers. We will arrange further sessions once we have a delivery date for soil/compost arranged to fill the beds. Even if you can’t help with the building work, please come along to meet fellow group members and to discuss ideas. You can see the design plans here.

Planning and managing the Community Garden

At our last meeting, the Committee agreed that groups of individual Friends members or community groups (e.g. Age UK, Scouts, Pre-School and others) should take “ownership” of a bed, initially for a calendar year. We urgently need a small group of people to co-ordinate the allocation, snd to develop some guidelines and planting ideas for the beds.  It will be good to have an attractive mix of pollinator-friendly flowers, herbs and edible crops, following permaculture principles as far as possible. Committee member Alex Stafford has kindly agreed to coordinate this. Please contact her by email alexandra.stafford@btinternet.com or text/WhatsApp 07968 105326  if you would like to be involved in running one of the beds.

Planning planting on the raised bank

We also need to develop our plans for planting pollinator-friendly spring bulbs and flowering plants on the bank.  If you are already a keen gardener, perhaps you can start to sow some some seeds in modules for transplanting in late summer/autumn or collect divided plants for transplanting. Again, please contact Alex Stafford  if you have ideas or can help with this. 

Collecting rainwater

Plymstock Community Centre have kindly agreed that we can install rainwater butts on the section of land that they own to the rear of the Age UK building. This should allow us to collect sufficient water for the garden beds  in all but the driest of periods. We are very grateful to the trustees of the Community for their agreement to this concession and for the help they have given in facilitating our meetings during our development.

More support from our Councillors

Cllr Bill Wakeham visited the site today and met several members to discuss the plans for the garden and wider biodiversity improvements. He is very enthusiastic about our goal and its importance as a focus for community activities. He is providing support from his Community Fund allocation, which will be used for installing the water butts and signage, adding to the support already provided by  Cllrs Rebecca Smith and Kathy Watkin. We are privileged to have such strong backing from all three ward councillors.

More information and contacts

WEBSITE  FACEBOOK  EMAIL

ATTACHMENTS UPDATED 28 JULY 2022

Following discussion with PCC, suggestions at the Consultation meeting on 8 May, and further discussion with residents we have minor tweaks to the position and spacing of the raised beds to provide better access. We have also requested a new site for the refuse bins and have outline plans for hedging (subject to further consultation). We still have to determine a suitable location composting. Plans for a bog garden have been shelved for now — we hope to revisit this at a later stage. Your comments are welcome.

We’ve had a very positive response to our proposals for the Community Garden and the wider environmental improvements to the park. Now its time to engage with the wider community.

Please come to our meeting to find out more about our project and how you can help. We’re hoping to make this an enjoyable event for all the family. As well as sharing our plans and hearing your views, we’ll will have some fun activities for younger members of our community.Through our future activities and events, we hope to encourage everyone to connect with nature and enjoy the benefits of our green space for health and well-being. Together, people of all ages and abilities can help to do something positive towards improving biodiversity and start to address habitat loss and climate change. We hope to have a special focus on encouraging the involvement of young people — for whom these changes will be so critical.

This will be our main opportunity to promote the work of the Friends group and to establish a network of volunteers and supporters to ensure a sustainable future for  the project. We are planning to distribute leaflets to houses in the nearby streets at the weekend of 29 Apr 29-1 May. Can you help distribute in your local area? If so, please email Colin at friends.dhp@gmail.com

Please also spread the word to family and friends, especially young people who have an interest in environmental issues.

Please see updated plans posted on 20 May

Our planning team has been meeting every fortnight to develop plans for the Community Garden and broader environmental improvements to Downhorn Park This proposal has resulted from a partnership of the Friends’ group, the Mewstone Primary Care Network, Age UK Plymouth Day Centre, and Plymstock Community Centre. The PCN provided initial funding for community training and design workshops involving 15-20 participants in January-March 2022, led by a permaculture instructor. These sessions resulted in the proposal presented here. Several applications for funding are in the pipeline and we are seeking advice and approval from Plymouth City Council for advice and approval.

The opinion of the wider community is important. We will be distributing information leaflets and posters and everyone is invited to a public meeting on Sunday 8 May, 10.00-14.00 in the Community Centre, where the team will be present to answer your questions and discuss the plans.

The images below show an outline of the proposals. Click here to download the document with full details of our proposals.

You can comment in the Leave a Reply box below, or email us at friends.dhp@gmail.com. Please tell us what you think.

Members of the group spent a great afternoon, working together to take the first steps in rejuvenating the neglected orchard. Of the 30 trees planted in 1997, only 11 remain and some were in very bad shape. We’ve initiated our 3-4 year programme of winter pruning to bring them back to health and vigour under expert advice from Tess, Dave, and Nigel (who is now the Tree Partnership Plymouth tree warden for the orchard). We plan to plant 10 or more new fruit trees in the autumn. These will provide a vital habitat and food source for birds, bats, bees and more — as well as giving the community the joy of Spring blossom and Autumn apples.

After the big winds on Friday and Saturday, we were lucky to experience relatively little damage to the trees. There’s a small tree down in the hedge and the multi-stemmed cypress has lost another big branch. Hopefully it will be OK. We need to develop our plan for planting mew, healthy trees in the autumn!

A dozen of us attended the first meeting of the planning group on Sunday. it was fun getting to know each other and exploring the site together. Tess encouraged us to walk the boundaries of the space, with eyes and ears open to the sights and sounds of this open space. Many of us were surprised at the range of trees, hedges and ground plants and the resources that will be available to us. Thanks to Jenny for her skills in guiding us to identify many of these – not an easy task in the depths of winter – which also provided a great way for the children present to have such an enthusiastic role in the activities. Tess introduced us to the principles of permaculture and how we will use these in our plans for a good design that will provide sustainable benefits for people and nature in the park. Special thanks also to Pam and the team at the Community Centre f at the Community Centre for giving up their time to allow us to meet in the coffee lounge.

The Committee has begun our work to develop plans for 2022. Please take a look at the attached poster describing the fortnightly events beginning on 16 January. Come along to help to develop design options for the proposed Community Garden and ideas for the wider environmental improvements to the fields. These are being run by permaculture expert Tess Wilmot, who has successfully led several similar ventures in Plymouth and South Devon. If you are interested in attending some or all of these sessions, please contact Tess digfordevonport@hotmail.co.uk