Our volunteers have been gardening with us through much of the winter months, the light is dwindling, the temperature is lowering but getting together and gardening keeps our spirits high. Our much loved Shipwreck Play Area has seen better days – we are starting to work on improving it to enhance the natural play experience. Watch our short film ‘Restoring the play area, part I’ here, to see volunteers at work this month:

If you’re planning to visit Martineau Gardens with children when we re-open – ‍it would be best to prepare younger visitors for what to expect since changes in the play area are taking place and certain areas may not be accessible when you visit.  We are restoring the popular Wheelhouse, relocating the sandpit and furnishing the area with eco-friendly play equipment – the refurbishment will be in keeping with our commitment to consider the environment and wildlife in all we do.

Our Stick Man self-guided trail is running however –  (pick up a pack on arrival, £2.50 donation welcomed). 

We need your help …

Please consider becoming a Friend or making a donation at your next visit, to ensure that Martineau Gardens continues to be a safe and welcoming place for all. Whilst our Therapeutic Horticulture Project has been well supported, the ‘behind the scenes costs’ that keep Martineau Gardens looking beautiful still need to be met. We need your help to keep the hot water running, the toilets flushing, the tools repaired, the seed box replenished, the lawnmowers serviced and a myriad of bills that keep coming in. These essential costs are normally met through our public engagement activities such as the Garden Party, plus venue hire, plant and produce sales. Since March 2020 all these income streams have been lost in the year we faced Covid-19 together. This is where we ask you, our community, to support us by donating so we can continue to care for these beautiful gardens, and keep them open for all to enjoy. 

Find out more about how we garden together during the pandemic here.

Information about visiting the Gardens in 2021

Planning to visit the Gardens in Spring 2021? Please read these links to help you know what to expect.

Covid-19 statement – for latest position around access to the Gardens

Visiting the Gardens in Spring 2021 – what to expect

Donate to our Tree Dressing Appeal to see that Martineau Gardens continues to flourish.

Help to ensure that Martineau Gardens continues to be a safe and welcoming place for all. Donating to our Tree Dressing Appeal will see a bare winter tree burst into colour. Tree dressing customs are found throughout the world, an opportunity to celebrate our leafy friends and the benefits they bring. Taking the tree dressing tradition as our inspiration, we have selected the fig tree within our orchard to be the focus for us this December.  As more and more donations are received for the Martineau Gardens Tree Dressing Appeal, colourful strips of cloth will be tied to the tree to create a bloom of colour in the bare orchard and to bring everyone cheer in the dark days of December.

Help to ensure that Martineau Gardens continues to be a safe and welcoming place for all. A well cared for garden where visitors can take a break from the trials that life often presents, and a place to get close to nature, whatever your age.  During the pandemic, we have been able to offer a lifeline to our volunteers by continuing the therapeutic horticulture project, at a time when this service was needed more than ever. Thanks to funding from charitable trusts we have been able to provide meaningful support to our volunteers throughout the crisis. Alas, the ‘behind the scenes costs’ that help to keep the hot water running, the toilets flushing, the tools repaired, the seed box replenished, the lawnmowers serviced and a myriad of bills paid, keep coming in. These essential costs are normally met through our public engagement activities such as the Garden Party, plus venue hire, plant and produce sales. Since March all these income streams have been lost in the year we faced Covid-19 together. This is where we ask you, our community, to support us by donating to our Tree Dressing Appeal so we can continue to care for these beautiful gardens, and keep them open for all to enjoy. 

Make a dedication
When you make your online donation, you have the option to add a message – if you wish, write a message of hope, a wish or perhaps a dedication in remembrance of someone – we will copy your message onto our Tree of Hope – which will be on display in our welcome shelter.

Ways to donate:

Online donations: https://localgiving.org/treedressing

Local Giving is our chosen on-line giving provider – and will also process Gift Aid on on-line donations.

Telephone: 0121 440 7430 to make a card payment

Post: Post a cheque (made payable to Martineau Gardens) to Martineau Gardens, 27 Priory Road, Edgbaston, Birmingham, B5 7UG

… or pop into see us on a Martineau Monday with cash. It all counts, and if you’re a UK tax payer, we can claim the Gift Aid making your gift worth a further 25p per £1 you donate.

PLEASE SHARE THIS PAGE AS WIDELY AS YOU CAN

PLEASE SHARE THIS DONATION LINK: https://localgiving.org/treedressing

As a food-growing community garden, one of the things we aim to share with volunteers and visitors is the importance of pollinators in the foodchain*. We garden organically, and the volunteers on the therapeutic horticulture programme come to understand how by leaving a few nettles here, a pile of logs there, they’re supporting a range of pollinators from honey bees and bumblebees to hoverflies, butterflies, moths and beetles.

We were delighted to have our efforts in demonstrating pollinator friendly habitats and food sources to the public recognised by The Bees’ Needs Champions Awards. Along with 32 other green spaces across the country , we have received a Bees’ Needs Champions Award for 2020. Insect pollinators are important for our environment and for biodiversity. Without them seed production by wild plants as well as flowers, vegetables and fruit grown in gardens would be jeopardised – pollinators allow plants to produce fruits and seeds which birds and other animals rely on.

Find out more about how we have created a pollinator friendly community garden and who benefits from it by watching our 3 minute film here.

* Article published during Lockdown 2 – if you would like to visit Martineau Gardens, please read our latest statement about when the Gardens are open. During the arly stages of the pandemic, our Education Officer Juliette Green broadcast on-line live nature videos which you can access here.

About the award:

The annual Bees’ Needs Champions Awards are run by Defra in partnership with the Green Flag Awards, the Bee Farmers’ Association, Championing the Farmed Environment and the Nature Friendly Farming Network. The awards recognise and celebrate examples of exemplary initiatives undertaken by local authorities, community groups, farmers and businesses to support pollinators.

This year’s AGM will be held on Saturday 24th October 2020, and in line with government guidelines the number of attendees must be restricted. The Annual Report and accounts will be published on our website on Monday 26th October here, alternatively we would be happy to send copies by email or post for those that would require them. 

The original governance documents from 2001 have served Martineau Gardens well, but with the onset of the challenges posed by Covid-19 and the Companies Act legislation, the Trustees have looked closely at how we can continue to provide organisational oversight whilst preparing the charity for the future. Clearly communications must be maintained in these uncertain times when in-person meetings may not always be safe or practicable. For many, Zoom and Teams meetings have become the norm, but digital meetings are not prescribed and accommodated under our existing Articles of Association and should be. It was therefore decided by the Trustees that we should modernise and attempt to future-proof our governance documents, to incorporate digital communications as allowed for under the 2006 Companies Act and the Charities Act 2011.

As part of this wide ranging review Trustees have also addressed the need to restructure the membership. This will acknowledge and retain, as Honorary Members, individuals who have guided the organisation over a long period of time, showing dedication and excellent service to achieving our charitable objectives. Existing Friends of Martineau Gardens and current volunteers will, of course, be eligible to apply for affiliate Membership, and in doing so continue to influence decision-making and the future direction of the charity. The Trustee/Directors will be given adequate authorities to continue to manage and guide the charity into the now uncertain future.

We look forward to the time when we can safely welcome everyone back to Martineau Gardens. In the interim, we are thankful for the community backing that has enabled us to continue our work in support of our volunteers.  

Following swiftly after Martineau Gardens received the Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service, Her Majesty the Queen has awarded our Trustee Peter Townley an MBE for outstanding service to people with disability and the general community of the West Midlands. Peter was appointed to our Board of Trustees in October 2019, following eight months of contributions to Trustees meetings.

For more than 38 years, he has worked in a voluntary capacity, as a Trustee and Director, supporting several physical and mental disability charities across the West Midlands.

Gill Milburn, CEO Martineau Gardens said: “We were so pleased when Peter decided to support Martineau Gardens by becoming a Trustee, bringing his wealth of knowledge and experience to support us. It has been a pleasure to witness his dedication to our community cause and to now see him recognised by The Queen for his efforts.”

The appointment is effective immediately with the formal investiture ceremony by Her Majesty set to follow in the Spring (Covid 19 permitting).