Snowdrops are in flower between January and March, they seem to start a little earlier each year.
(more…)Snowdrop spotting January 27, 2021
Preserving the Gardens’ bounty January 11, 2021
Throughout the growing year, Martineau Gardens grows a huge variety of fruit and vegetables that are suitable for preserving. From apples, pears, rhubarb and gooseberries to figs and mulberries – the orchard, vegetable beds, glasshouses and soft fruit cages produce quite a bounty.
(more…)Martineau Mondays January 11, 2021
We are sorry to announce Martineau Gardens is temporarily closed for volunteers and public visits during the early weeks of Lockdown 3. We’ve taken the decision to pause Therapeutic Horticulture and our Martineau Mondays for a few weeks until we feel it is safe to begin again. Some staff are furloughed with a smaller crew looking after the Gardens and keeping in touch with our volunteers.
(more…)The Winter Wellbeing Fund: Festive Fun December 21, 2020
Usually, in December, we would hold our Volunteer Festive Gathering – enjoy eating homemade food together, the windows of the Pavilion steaming up as we laugh, exchange cards and generally have a jolly time.
(more…)Gardening joy December 16, 2020
Pictured here, one of our Friday volunteers having a very satisfying gardening moment. Pat is particularly interested in seed saving, and has the skill and patience to reap success. Back in Summer 2019, Pat brought into the Gardens a very expensive and great tasting punnet of tomatoes from which she extracted, dried and stored the seed. These were then sown, just before March lockdown in 2020. They germinated and so Pat planted them in troughs in the keder house and has tended to them ever since.
By early summer, the plants were being raised in the keder house – providing a delicious and sweet, pale orange fruit.
Pat had picked a sturdy variety – here she is in December 2020, picking the final tomatoes.
Restoring the Shipwreck Play Area December 2, 2020
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 TreeDressing Appeal this winter November 30, 2020
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.
(photos dated 2019)
*Queens Award for Volunary Service *Green Flag Community Award *RHS in Bloom (Feeding Your Community) *Bees Needs Champions Award *7 months of Therapeutic Horticulture volunteering maintained during the pandemic *Isolated/shielding volunteers kept in touch with *Gardens kept well looked after *Long awaited toilet refurb completed *Persimmon ‘seed’ fund for children’s play area * Significant funding from Heart of England Community Foundation’s Coronavirus Resilience Fund and the Coronavirus Community Support Fund, distributed by The National Lottery Community Fund* … and no reduncies!
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Tree Dressing November 25, 2020
The bare fig tree in our orchard 
is being adorned with ribbons
Tree dressing customs are found throughout the world, celebrated at different times of the year – the universal theme being an opportunity to celebrate our leafy friends and the benefits they bring.
Tree dressing day takes place the first weekend of December – you can find out more about the tradition here, on the Common Ground website.
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. We have created the Martineau Gardens Tree Dressing Appeal. As more and more donations are received, colourful ties of cloth will be tied to the tree to create a bloom of colour in the bare orchard and cheer us all in the dark days of December.
On day two of our campaign, we had received over £300 in donations – thanks to the generosity of supporters. Pictured above, a volunteer ties ribbons onto the fig tree.
Please donate to the Martineau Gardens Tree Dressing Appeal – you can call the office on 0121 440 7430 and make a donation by card or donate online – click here to be transferred to Local Giving (our online giving donations platform).
Tree of Hope November 25, 2020
In the Welcome Shelter at Martineau Gardens, a new addition has been added. A five foot tall tree decoration, currently devoid of leaves – but during December, leaves will start to ‘grow’.
The Martineau Gardens Tree Dressing Appeal
This December we are inviting people who care about Martineau Gardens to donate towards our Tree Dressing Appeal. Help to ensure that Martineau Gardens continue to be a safe and welcoming place for all.
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.
Our Tree of Hope at the start of the campaign 
The first leaves are pinned on
Co-op Pay Out Celebrations 2020 November 23, 2020
Our year of support from the Co-op Local Giving Fund has drawn to an end with online payout celebrations at the weekend. Martineau Gardens has received just over £6,000. We’d like to say a huge thank you for the support of Co-op members and the staff we have met at supporting stores. A big thank you goes out to all our supporters who chose Martineau Gardens as their local cause when shopping in supporting stores.
Children’s Play Area in bygone days 
Staff from Co-op Edgbaston volunteering at Martineau Gardens 
In-store promotions for Martineau Gardens 
Gardening together at Martineau Gardens 
Family fun at Martineau Gardens’ events
We launched our 2019/20 campaign last Autumn, announcing that donations received would go towards the renovations of children’s play area. Since then, the world has become a different place.
Here at Martineau Gardens, the pandemic has been a time when the volunteers on our Therapeutic Horticulture programme have needed the service more than ever. Volunteers started returning to maintain the gardens and woodlands in early May. Regular visits to the gardens for therapeutic horticulture had become a ‘lifeline’ providing the mental support they needed to keep healthy. Protective equipment was bought and additional Therapeutic Horticulture staff employed to ensure volunteers are well supported, and gardening safely, in socially distanced pairs.
But with public visits restricted, venue hire and events postponed due to the pandemic, and the corresponding income streams removed, we have had to redistribute our funds. We are very grateful to the Co-op for enabling charities to allocate the funds received into areas that the charity now needs it the most. We are thankful that the Co-op funds can be used to support the Therapeutic Horticulture project, without which we cannot maintain the gardens.
The Co-op funds will be used to support the Therapeutic Horticulture project.
We are still proposing to renovate our children’s play area – you can find out more about our plans here.