Tree Dressing November 25, 2020

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.

https://localgiving.org/appeal/treedressing/

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.

A leaf dedication


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. 

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.

https://twitter.com/i/status/1328707017272401920


Bees’ Needs Champion Award winner 2020 November 9, 2020

Honey bee at work, on Hemp-agrimony at Martineau Gardens

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.



Modernising our governance structure October 21, 2020

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.  



Peter Townley awarded MBE October 21, 2020

Peter Townley, Trustee for Martineau Gardens

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).



Gardening together – a lifeline October 16, 2020

The Covid-19 crisis has challenged us all in ways beyond what we could have imagined. For people with existing mental health conditions, many are experiencing greater depths of social isolation than before. Gill Milburn, CEO for Martineau Gardens said: “For some volunteers on the therapeutic horticulture project, gardening together, week in, week out can be a lifeline that gives purpose to one’s life and provides the support they need to stay healthy.” When lockdown began, the future of the project was challenged as government guidelines meant that the volunteers were unable to attend the gardens for five weeks. Seven months later, we are still weathering the storm but as reported previously, we received funding from the Heart of England Community Foundation’s Coronavirus Resilience Fund enabling the therapeutic horticulture project to continue. This has been further strengthened by a grant award from the Coronavirus Community Support Fund, distributed by The National Lottery Community Fund. Some of our more vulnerable volunteers have not yet been able to return and so we stay in touch with them to keep them connected with the Gardens.



Wildlife News October 15, 2020

Our wildlife volunteers have been busy — not only have they weeded the pond, but their regular wildlife surveys have identified our 400th species of moth, and two new fungi.

Pond story

Moth story

Fungi story



Green Flag Award October 14, 2020

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.   



Fungi forays October 12, 2020

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