Team Spirit August 5, 2019

Staff at Brewin Dolphin have been helping out at Martineau Gardens through a number of team-building  and volunteering days over the last few months.

We were delighted to receive a call from Charlotte Wright advising us that she had nominated the Gardens through the Brewin Dolphin Foundation, which gives small grants to charities in which their staff have an interest. Pictured left, Charlotte and colleague Jonathon Gwynn presenting  Stewart with a cheque for £1,000. Gill Milburn said: “We have seen an increase in the number of Team Building Days here at the Gardens and without exception we have benefited from each team’s input on these days. The added bonus with Brewin Dolphin, is that we’ve been able to reach out to them at short notice when we have been in need of extra help for a particular job. The financial support is the cherry on the cake. It’s really pleasing to know that the purpose of what we do at Martineau Gardens has had an impact on the Brewin Dolphin team and led Charlotte to apply for the donation, for which we’re extremely thankful.”

 



Cricket Parking at Martineau Gardens Summer 2019 June 12, 2019

Parking for Cricket Fans

Summer 2019

Thurs 11 July; Thurs 1 to Mon 5 Aug;    Sat 21 Sept

Cricket is taking place at Edgbaston Cricket Ground, close to Martineau Gardens on the above dates.  You can park your car in the Martineau Gardens car park (subject to availability) for £20 fee (please see signs on site), we have space for 24 cars. We can’t take reservations in advance.

Thank you for choosing to park here.

  • Your fee is helping to support a great cause and local charity.
  • Martineau Gardens is a registered charity and a therapeutic community garden. We run education and therapeutic horticulture projects in the Gardens. The Gardens are here for the people of Birmingham to enjoy peace and tranquillity.
  • To find out more about what happens here, visit this page

Your car is parked at your own risk. The gates will be locked or staffed, and staff will be on site throughout the match. If you wish to collect your car, before the end of the match, please phone 0121 440 7430 when you are outside the Gardens and we’ll unlock the gates.

At the end of play, the gates will be open for half an hour. Our staff will need to go home, so if you arrive later than this, you risk your car being locked in until 9.30am tomorrow morning, or an additional £20 charge.

Enjoy the cricket!

 Visitors to the Gardens

If you’re planning to visit Martineau Gardens on cricket days (we’re closed to the public on Sunday), the car park will be full – we’d love you to come and visit but please leave the car at home, (or arrange to be dropped off) and use public transport. Martineau Gardens is well served by buses. The nearest bus routes are  1, 45, 47, 61, 63, X64. To plan your journey by public transport, visit  www.traveline.info  and use the postcode search – Martineau Gardens postcode is B5 7UG. Alternatively, arrive by bike and bring your bike down to our bike rack, close to the Pavilion.

When you arrive, the gates will be locked, please phone the office on 0121 440 7430 and we will unlock the gates for you.

 



Spring Event Pictures from this year’s event May 20, 2019

Our Spring Event took place on Sunday 19 May 2019 – thank you to everyone who contributed so much to the success of one of our favourite events of the year. Big thanks to our musicians, our cake and salad makers, our stall holders, our activity providers, Co op Edgbaston, all our visitors for joining in and … most of all our fabulous volunteers –  we could not do all that we do with out you!

A few highlights from the day!



#MentalHealthAwarenessWeek May 16, 2019

Stewart Holmes, Therapeutic Horticulturalist beside the Alpine garden, Martineau Gardens

Mental Health – it’s something we think about all the time here at Martineau Gardens. Mental Health Awareness Week takes place this week.

A big thank you to all those whose actions, gestures and donations keep these beautiful gardens open for free,  and enable the Therapeutic Horticulture Programme to continue. The gardening work our volunteers do is rewarding  — not only does it give meaning to someone’s life but we have a tranquil, beautiful space for all to enjoy. Our thanks to the charitable trusts, the donors and sponsors Nicholls Brimble Bhol Solicitors for their continued support, and most importantly our volunteers for all the hard work they do throughout the year.

#MentalHealthAwarenessWeek

 

 



Gardening at the Gardens April 10, 2019

Martineau Gardens – where great things happen together

Wednesday 10 April 2019

It’s been a very busy day at the Gardens, with so much achieved. Garden Volunteers have been working hard on the Pavilion Garden with Stewart and Miranda.  Over in the food growing area, Baskerville Special School have been weeding our vegetable beds with Susan and, children from Tame Valley  Primary School have experienced a Plant Professor session with Juliette, Felicity and Abbie  – which included tasting three types of mint.



Wildlife update March 20, 2019

As custodians of this precious green space, close to Birmingham city centre and surrounded by urban sprawl, we take our role in looking after the wildlife who visit here seriously. In recognition of the variety of species who visit, the wildlife area is designated a SLINC (a site of Local Importance for Nature Conservation). Pictured here, our volunteer wildlife surveyors, Andrew Curran (Left) and Brian Perry (Right), are running annual checks on our bird boxes— the nesting boxes are cleaned, at a time when they are not in use, to reduce the risk of parasites infesting young birds in the nesting season.

Brian explains: “We have two types of nestboxes, ones that can be removed from the tree and others that can’t. So the first photo shows us removing a box from the tree. The second shows Andrew with a fixed nestbox. It’s obviously easier to clean the removable boxes – if not, we have to clean whilst perched on a ladder. As the photo shows, Andrew has found a way to sterilise the box –  he’s pouring boiling water into it from a thermos!”

Thanks to the generosity of a Friend, who has supplied us with a regular delivery of bird seed for a number of years, the birds at Martineau Gardens are fed throughout the year. They enjoy a wild bird seed containing black sunflower, red millet, white millet, canary seed, naked oats, rape seed and wheat.

Find out more about the birds at Martineau Gardens here



Co op Edgbaston volunteer day March 19, 2019

Earlier this month, we welcomed Volunteers from Co-op Edgbaston who donned gardening gloves and worked with Stewart and our volunteers in the glass house, potting up cuttings for the Gardens. The team were really enthusiastic to find out more about Martineau Gardens and the therapeutic horticulture project, for which Co-op is supporting through the Co-op Local Community Fund. Josh Dredge, Manager of Co-op Edgbaston said: “It was fantastic seeing first hand the incredible work Martineau Gardens does in our community. We can’t wait to tell our customers all about it!”

Martineau Gardens has been selected to receive funding from the Co-op Local Community Fund. It means that we will get a contribution towards the Therapeutic Horticulture Project. But we need your help. The more support we get, the more funding we could receive. So if you’re a Co-op Member log in to your Co-op Membership account and choose us.  Visit the supporting stores (listed below) to see how you can make in-store purchases count.

To date the amount raised across the four supporting stores is £1,305.54 – great news!

Co-ops Local Community Fund – Giving back to local communities

By choosing to buy from Co-op, Co-op members are helping local causes on their doorstep through the Local Community Fund. Every time Co-op members buy Co-op branded products and services, 1% of their spend goes to a local cause.

Local stores supporting Martineau Gardens

Birmingham, Colmore Row B3 2BJ

Birmingham, Newhall Square, B3 1RU

Edgbaston, Wheeleys Road, B15 2LJ

Moseley, 154 Alcester Road B13 8HS

You can view (and share) our Co-op page here.

 



Good news Co op Local Community Fund February 5, 2019

 

Today we met with the team at Co op Edgbaston to discuss collaborating on fundraising events for the year. Martineau Gardens has been selected to receive funding from the Co-op Local Community Fund, which means we will get a contrubtion towards the Therapeutic Community Fund. To date, over £700 has been raised across our four supporting stores.

Read the full story here and find out how you can make in-store purchases count.



Martineau Gardens is in the Press! February 5, 2019

Second City – Garden Haven … so proclaims the title of a recent feature in the Kitchen Garden Magazine. Journalist Sally Cunningham visited the Gardens and wrote this lovely piece about us.

The article describes the Therapeutic Horticulture project, and includes photos of Stewart Holmes and Miranda Kingston (our Therapeutic Horticulturalists) plus volunteers. There’s details on the vegetable beds, the bee hives and fruit trees and some good pictures of our Wildlife Volunteers Brian and Andrew examining the moth trap. Here’s a copy of the article  below (thanks to Kitchen Garden Magazine for providing these).

Click on the thumbnails to enlarge them



Tuesday Gardening Group December 10, 2018

Thanks to funding we have received from a charitable trust, we have been running a pilot programme of social and therapeutic gardening sessions designed to improve the wellbeing of people living with dementia. Once a week, these volunteers came together in the Pavilion for supported sessions which included horticultural, craft and sensory-based activities. Martineau Gardens staff led the sessions and were supported by the huge generosity of some of our regular garden volunteers who came every week to enable the activities to be enjoyed by all. Together the group have planted up troughs with bulbs and plants, harvested potatoes, planted onion sets and made lavender bags. They have laughed, sung, gathered pumpkins, sown broad beans and pictured here, are Margaret and Sarah making a winter bird feeder together.  Activities are being observed by a researcher from Coventry University and we hope her findings will be used in developing future programmes. Observations so far are extremely promising and in a focus group with carers, one person reported that the self-confidence the experience gave his loved one, lasted for two days after  each session. She got so much from these pilot sessions that we are hoping to include her in our regular therapeutic horticulture programme.