volunteering
A Look Back at 2016
Happy New Year to you all from everyone at greenerSudbury!
It’s always interesting to look back at what’s been achieved over the previous year before preparing for the new one. We met before Christmas for a glass of wine, some home-made mince pies, and a very relaxed end of year celebration.
At the beginning of 2016 we lost our valued member, Jane Carter – but we remember her with great fondness. During the year we continued maintaining the beds she helped create at the Kingfisher Leisure Centre, as well as the tubs at the back of Roy’s and, in May, we began an ongoing project working on the grounds around the Quay Theatre.
We enjoyed a couple of walks in June to enjoy the wild flowers at Coppins Farm, visited The Apricot Centre in August to learn about permaculture and Tiger Hill in October for a Fungus Foray. We invited speakers Dan Wheals and Bob Flowerdew to talk at the Quay Theatre.
In November, the team returned to the bypass near the Homebase roundabout to do some planting, in the hope that the area will bloom for wildlife – and for people – in the summer!
At Siam Gardens, greenerSudbury worked with Orwell Housing residents, Sudbury Town Council community wardens, and Suffolk County Council Community Resilience team to tidy, cut back, sweep up and plant bulbs supplied through Babergh and Mid Suffolk District Councils. This initiated an exciting community horticulture project rolling out in Sudbury in the near future…
For your diary! The next Siam Garden work party will be on Wednesday 18th January from 9:30 – 11:30am.
Here’s to a happier, healthier and greener Sudbury in 2017!
Final Friday Tidy of 2016!
Everyone at Greener Sudbury wishes you
a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
We have had our own pre-Christmas celebration, and planned our final Friday Tidy of 2016 – a great way to work off some of the festive excess!
Please join us on Friday 30 December, between 10 am and 12 noon, at the Quay car park for some tidying up and a few mince pies!
Quay Update…
A great work party at the Quay on 2 June. A few new faces (and a couple of old familiar faces) to add to the mix, and a lot of good work accomplished – one corner cleared, with space made for a composting bin to use on site.
The area at the far end of the car park is quite over-grown, and it will take a bit of hard graft to get it ready for planting up, but what an amazing start – so much done in just a few hours!
Meanwhile, weeds and grass growing in the seating area also got a bit of a sort out. With all the rain we’ve just had, I expect we’ll be back again soon!
Weeding party at the Quay…
As mentioned previously, the Quay needs a little bit of help removing some of the weeds growing in their outdoor sitting area. The larger prickly ones have been taken out, but there are still some smaller weeds, and grasses, that need to go!
We’ll be there at 11:45 am on Thursday, 2nd June.
So, bring a trowel, gloves, a kneeler (if needed) to get up close and personal with the weeds, plus a keen eye to identify them, and come along! If there is time afterwards, and weather permits, we might also take a stroll along the railway path to visit the Kingfisher Leisure Centre beds.
May we suggest…?
One of our activities in the last year was a visit to the Quay Theatre to do some weeding to spruce up the seating area at the back of the theatre. We returned to the Quay at the end of last week for an update, and to make plans for what to do next.
Clearly, our first priority is to do some more weeding (see above) to take out any spiky or prickly weeds and those which threaten to swamp the area, and to do a little more planting – our additions to the area have ‘taken’, which is lovely to see. We will let you know a time and date for this very soon.
After that, we will be looking at transforming the patch of ground to the rear of the Quay car park into an area of permaculture, with layered fruit trees, shrubs and ground plants, good for bees and butterflies, and foraging.
While birds are nesting, we will take a gentle approach initially, but hope to prepare the area for planting, and for the inclusion of a composting bin. Please keep a look out for information as to dates and times for this new venture.
We are a friendly bunch, so we do hope you’ll be able to join us!
Wildflowers for Sudbury.
Greener Sudbury have teamed up with the Sudbury Community Hub in an initiative to brighten up the edges of our town while making it more nature-friendly.
The green group at the Community Hub on Northern Road grew wild flowers from seed donated by Sudbury in Bloom, carefully tending them in polytunnels until they were ready to be planted out.
Members of Greener Sudbury then stepped in to plant foxglove, verbascum and nectar-rich species, favoured by bees and other insects, near the Homebase roundabout, First Avenue and Acton Lane.
We must now wait patiently until next summer to see if these efforts have paid off. If so, we’ll continue to plant up Sudbury!
Get in touch if you would like to join in!
Keen on the Quay.
We spent a lovely morning doing a bit of weeding for the Quay theatre. More to do still – so, if you fancy helping out, do come along!
Quay Theatre morning.
How do you fancy coming along and helping the Quay Theatre get rid of some weeds? Join us tomorrow morning, on Friday 17th July, at 9:30am, prepared for a bit of light weeding (gloves, kneelers, etc) and help make a difference. A lovely setting for a bit of idle chit-chat and a great sense of achievement. The ducks will be delighted – but then, they’re quackers!
Volunteering Opportunity at Tiger Hill.
Would you like to help create and maintain a wildlife habitat in wonderful countryside near Sudbury?
Please meet at Kingfisher Leisure Centre flower beds, near the main entrance, at 9.30am tomorrow – that’s Thursday 14 May. From here, we will car share to the site a few miles out of town. Wear suitable outdoor clothes, sturdy shoes/ boots and gloves, and bring secateurs if possible. Remember a hat and sun cream if it’s hot – and bring a large bottle of water as we may be some distance from a tap! You need to have a reasonable level of fitness for this outing.
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