Congratulations are in order, for all our volunteers. Once again, for the eleventh consecutive year, Martineau Gardens has been awarded a Community Green Flag Award.

The Green Flag Award scheme, managed by environmental charity Keep Britain Tidy under licence from the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, recognises and rewards well-managed parks and green spaces, setting the benchmark standard for their management across the United Kingdom and around the world.

Martineau Gardens is one of more than 2,000 sites across the country to collect the award for 2020.

Tim Bruton, Trustee for Martineau Gardens, said: “We are absolutely delighted to receive a Green Flag Award for the eleventh year running. 2020 has been a year of challenges for us all. Lockdown restrictions at the start of the gardening year made the future uncertain – but once restrictions eased, we were overwhelmed with the support of our volunteers who have worked hard ever since then to care for this precious green community space. This award is a tribute to their dedication and hard work.”   

Commenting on Martineau Gardens’ success, Keep Britain Tidy Chief Executive Allison Ogden-Newton OBE said: “This year, more than ever, our parks and green spaces have been a lifeline and we know that millions of people have used them to relax, meet friends, exercise or simply escape for a short time.”

Thanks to the grants from the Coronavirus Community Support Fund, distributed by The National Lottery Community Fund and the Heart of England Community Foundation’s Coronavirus Resilience Fund, Martineau Gardens has been able to restart the Therapeutic Horticulture project which supports people from across Birmingham, in managing their mental health to improve wellbeing through the practice of gardening. Referred to as ‘volunteers’, many of the participants are vulnerable, social isolated and living with long-term mental health issues.

When lockdown began, government guidelines meant that the volunteers were unable to attend the gardens. For many, their regular visits to the gardens had become a ‘lifeline’ which provided the mental support they needed to keep healthy. The funding has meant that protective equipment has been bought and additional Therapeutic Horticulture staff have been employed to ensure volunteers are gardening safely in socially distanced pairs.   

October is an ideal month for fungi forays: a chance to walk around your local green wooded space, looking for mushrooms and toadstools- on the forest floor or on trees. Here at Martineau Gardens, our volunteer wildlife recorders, Andrew and Brian, have been identifying the different species of fungi at Martineau Gardens for nearly 20 years. Nearly 50 species have been identified since records began – here’s a selection of old and new sightings all seen at the Gardens.

Good for wellbeing

The majority of fungi are beneficial to the environment, returning dead material to the soil in a form in which it can be reused and helping plants absorb water and nutrients not to mention the joy they can bring on an afternoon autumnal walk. Here’s Ali McKernan (The FUNgi Guy) with five reasons why fungi forays are good for wellbeing.

With this in mind, we’re inviting you to share your fungi photographs with Martineau Gardens via twitter, facebook and instagram – use the hashtag #MartineauFungiForays

There are lots of resources online to help you identify the fungus you find – this downloadable identification chart from the British Mycological Society will get you off to a good start.

Note: whilst the majority of fungi are not harmful, some species are extremely poisonous. Never eat any fungi you find unless you are 100% certain about their identity. Enjoy their fleeting beauty in situ where you find them and share your photos on social media #MartineauFungiForays

We’re delighted to announce that we have been awarded £5k in the Persimmon Homes’ Building Futures – whilst we didn’t win the top prize, we are overwhelmed with all the support shown by you, our supporters, regularly voting on-line for Martineau Gardens and sharing the initiative with friends and colleagues.

Our plans

With our new Persimmon windfall, we plan to redevelop the play area, updating and repairing the Pirate Shipwreck area to enhance the natural play experience. We’ll restore the popular Wheelhouse, improve the sandpit and furnish with eco-friendly play equipment – the refurbishment will be in keeping with our commitment to consider the environment and wildlife in all we do. The winter months are an ideal time to begin this work.

However, this is only the start of the redevelopment. The grassed surface area of the play area will always be problematic – bare and bald in summer and muddy and frequently awash in winter. There is a seam of clay and rubble below the surface, left over from the days when this was the recreation area for the trainee teachers attending the Martineau Teaching Centre, (see Our History: the current play area housed a tennis court and our pavilion was its sports pavilion). To ensure our redevelopment is sustainable, we need more funds to invest in proper drainage.

Share your views

You can help us with our plans by filling out our survey on-line here: http://bit.ly/2Q7MbQT

Connecting Birmingham children and nature … our future

The pandemic has reduced many aspects of our lives –  here at Martineau Gardens we’re striving to help children reconnect to the natural world. Over lockdown and the subsequent months, we’ve been delivering on-line events and activities to help families get close to the nature on their doorstep, as part of their daily exercise. As we look with hope to the future, we are gradually returning visitor to the Gardens after our temporary closure (see Mondays at Martineau), and with the reopening of schools we’re looking forward to welcoming school visits back.

Education at Martineau Gardens

Environmental education has always been important at Martineau Gardens. Hundreds of school children have made visits to Martineau Gardens – our education officer delivers taught sessions which encourage children to explore diverse habitats and hunt for invertebrates; learn about the natural world and wildlife; discover where food comes from (and how good it tastes) in the vegetable plots and orchard; understand the important role of bees and butterflies in pollination and generally have fun while learning. Primary school children on educational visits have enjoyed playing in our shipwreck play area during their lunch break.

Family activities

Martineau Gardens is a safe and an inclusive space that offers play without cost, within an area of extreme economic disparity. We all know you’re never too young to benefit from time spent outside – our play area at Martineau Gardens has been a well-used, much loved area providing opportunity for children to engage their imagination and improve their wellbeing at the same time. Using the natural landscape and features of the Gardens in play, whether it’s hide and seek, sandpit constructions, picnics or pirate fun – families connect with nature and each other. Our family activities during the school holidays feature environmental play and crafts, introducing them to the wonder of outdoor adventure. We look forward to the time when we can welcome back our family visitors.

About the prize

Persimmon Homes, with the support of Team GB, gave away over £1 million in 2020 to help projects for young people aged under 18 across England, Wales and Scotland. Martineau Gardens was one of the 87 finalists to win £5,000 – thank you to everyone who voted for us.

Our wildlife pond is home to a wide variety of life from beetles and pondsnails, to dragonflies and damselflies. Amphibians that are regulalry seen include frogs, toads and smooth newts.  Once a year, our wildlife volunteers ‘weed the pond’, removing all the excess vegetation that has grown up. Water lily, yellow iris, water mint and greater spearwort (a large buttercup) are thinned out. Pictured here, Brian and Andrew at work – the vegetation gets left beside the pond to let any aquatic insects return.

Sue Roberts thoughtfully signalled her intention to step down as the Chair of Trustees at Martineau Gardens,  at last year’s AGM. We are all sad to see Sue go, as the organisation has benefitted so much under her stewardship.  Sue says of her six years with the Gardens: ”Martineau Gardens is a charity that I truly believe is a jewel in the city’s crown. Receiving the Queen’s Award  for Voluntary Service is a testament to the amazing work of our volunteers, staff and trustees and to the generosity of our supporters. 

I have very much enjoyed working with the trustees and with the Gardens’ fabulous staff team over this time.  We have seen some wonderful changes and the Gardens are looking more beautiful than ever. Our newly refurbished Pavilion has been a huge success, as has the Jo Malone London Courtyard Garden.  Bookings of the Gardens and of the Pavilion have grown significantly.  I am delighted that Tim Bruton, a fellow long-standing Trustee, has agreed to take on the role of Chair.  I know that post Covid-19, the Gardens will continue to go from strength to strength under the stewardship of Tim, Gill our CEO and the Gardens’ dedicated volunteers, staff and trustees.”

Pictured below, scenes from the Martineau Gardens Summer Garden Party, just one of Sue’s contributions to the Gardens. This annual fundraising event wouldn’t have happened without Sue’s tireless energy, dedication and passion for Martineau Gardens for which we appreciate her so much for.

As we enter our fourth month since lockdown began, the therapeutic horticulture project, which is at the heart of all that we do and how the community at Martineau Gardens interacts, remains a vital service. In the early days of the pandemic, our staff were doing their best to provide telephone support to the more vulnerable of our volunteers, a service that still continues. As lockdown eased, we wanted to facilitate the return of some volunteers, and this has been made possible by the Heart of England Community Foundation and the Coronavirus Community Support Fund, distributed by The National Lottery Community Fund.

Due to their support we have engaged additional staff and the volunteers are now gardening  in socially distanced pairs. It’s through their efforts our two and a half acre site has remained nurtured despite this summer’s extreme weather. The  Gardens are an oasis of tranquillity and we look forward to a time when we can share it with you. Whilst most staff have remained on furlough, a slimmed down core team have been delivering fresh, organically grown garden produce to those volunteers not yet able to return to the Gardens and many volunteers are delighted to be receiving medals, in honour of our recent Queens Award for Voluntary Service.