Pavilion Refurbishment Update – final week October 10, 2017

It’s the final push!

We have but 2 days remaining of our month-long crowdfunding appeal to raise funds to refurbish the Martineau Gardens’ Pavilion. Refurbishing this much-loved building means Martineau Gardens can continue to be the place where people, plants and wildlife meet.

We’re tremendously pleased with the response so far, by day 17 we had reached 47% of our target.but we need to ask you if you can continue to share the message so that we can reach even more people. Please share our film and donate page: localgiving.org/appeal/martineaugardenspavilion/

If you haven’t yet donated, would you consider it please?

Buy a Martineau Gardens t-shirt
Or you can post a cheque (payble to ‘Martineau Gardens’), telephone the Gardens on 0121 440 7430 to make a card payment or pop into see us 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.

What’s happening next?

We’ve already reported on the completion of Phase 1 of the refurbishments; Phase 2 is booked to start in November. We do have enough funds for work to commence, but more donations will enable us to fulfil all that we want to do.  The Gardens will stay open during the renovations, but there may be a little more noise than usual, with access to some areas restricted. We’ll do our best to keep you informed, via the website.

Last chance to donate is midnight, Thurs 12 October.
Let’s transform the Pavilion from a crumbling building into a warm, dry space that can help keep Martineau Gardens free to enter.


What’s On October Half Term and Halloween October 4, 2017

Earth Oven Baking, Wildlife Activities, Day of the Dead and Halloween Storytelling

The nights are drawing in, and  it’s tempting to spend more time indoors but come and enjoy Autumn outdoors at Martineau Gardens this October with a range of activities.

Lizzy Bean (course tutor) stoking the fire

Sat 21 October, Baking in an Earth Oven Course, Martineau Gardens 10am – 3pm   Just in time for the bonfire season, come and learn how to bake outdoors on a wood-fired earth oven, in Martineau Gardens very own outdoor kitchen. Click here for more details and booking info. £40, advance booking essential.

Autumn Half-Term Family Fun, Martineau Gardens, 10am – 12noon on Tues 24 October and Thurs 26 October       Come and have some autumn and Halloween themed fun this October half term. Ideal for finding out more about the wildlife at Martineau Gardens with plenty of fun and play along the way. Click here for more details and booking info, £5 per child, advance booking essential.

A celebratory altar will be created in the glass house

Sat 28 October, Day of the Dead Celebrations, Martineau Gardens

Join us for these special festivities. Members of the Mexican Community in the Midlands are running a ‘Day of the Dead’ activity here at Martineau Gardens to share the tradition with you. Visit the altar that will be set up at Martineau Gardens,  keeping one of Mexico’s most ancient traditions alive. Children’s Sugar Skull 30 min workshops, £3, booking in advance essential. click here for more information  

 


Tues 31 October, Halloween Story Night, Martineau Gardens 6 – 9pm with the Trad Arts Team   A rare opportunity to enjoy Martineau Gardens at night, in the company of storytellers from the Traditional Arts Team. Click here for more details and booking info, £5 per adult, £2 per child, advance booking recommended.

Scarlet Elf Cap credit: A Curran

And of course Martineau Gardens is open everyday (except Sunday), from 10 and until 4pm – entry is free (unless there is a special event on).

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Pavilion Appeal Reaches Halfway September 29, 2017

Week 3: The Martineau Gardens Pavilion Refurbishment Appeal

In just 17 days, we’ve raised half our target – this is TREMENDOUS! Please keep the momentum going: spread the word, encourage people to view our film and donate here:  martineau-gardens.org.uk/2017/09/pavilion-refurbishment-appeal/

If you haven’t yet donated, you can post a cheque (payble to ‘Martineau Gardens’), telephone the Gardens to make a card payment or pop into see us with cash. It all counts.If you’re a UK tax payer, we can claim the Gift Aid making your gift worth a further25p per £1 you donate.

Media Release: Issued Fri 29 September

In just 17 days, Martineau Gardens, the community garden and charity, in Edgbaston has reached the half-way point in its crowdfunding appeal to refurbish its Pavilion, with £19,518.75 donated to date. The Pavilion refurbishment work will transform a crumbling building into a warm, dry space that can be used by school groups, training courses and people holding celebrations.

Phase one of the refurbishment has already been completed (replacing the roof and external paintwork applied). The funds raised through the current appeal will be spent on knocking through walls to create more space, fitting a kitchen to better serve refreshments, insulating walls with sheep’s wool, fitting secondary glazing and a wood stove.

As well as simply providing a warm, dry roof overhead, the Pavilion refurbished, becomes a  bigger, brighter space where the Gardens can extend its current Education Visits service by teaching more Birmingham children about nature. More businesses and community organisations can hold events and meetings and the public can hire the building for family parties and celebrations. This income will contribute towards keeping Martineau Gardens free to enter.

Caroline Hutton, Director of Martineau Gardens said:

“Care of the environment and the natural world, getting children in touch with nature, promoting positive mental health through gardening and all its pleasures, growing and eating healthy food is at the heart of what we do. Refurbishing the Pavilion will help to create an additional income that will enable Martineau Gardens to continue doing these things.”

The Gardens are inviting would-be supporters to view a one minute film which explains the Appeal and to donate, via this weblink: https://localgiving.org/appeal/martineaugardenspavilion/



A space for you September 26, 2017

Week: 3 The Martineau Gardens Pavilion Refurbishment Appeal

The Pavilion is at the hub of our Therapeutic Community Garden, it helps us to deliver the activities and events throughout the year that make Martineau Gardens such a special place to visit. It’s a multi-functional space for YOU to hire for your parties and family celebrations; a place for your organisations’ meetings and training courses and a place where Birmingham’s school children come for environmental education.

Like so many of our volunteers, visitors and visiting school children, we love the outdoors at Martineau Gardens, BUT … the Gardens needs somewhere warm and dry when the weather is not. The Pavilion provides a bit of indoors for all the times it’s not pleasant to be outside.

Our Pavilion was constructed pre-war – it’s intrinsic to the ‘feel’ and special character of Martineau Gardens and it’s a much loved building – but the current layout of the Pavilion is limiting its potential.

The Floor Plan for the Refurbished Pavilion

By knocking walls through (see above), the refurbished Pavilion creates a big, dry classroom space providing a better experience for local primary school children who come to the Gardens on environmental education visits. It will also extend the school visit season beyond the drier months.

The Pavilion is ideally located to faciliate educational environmental visits – five minutes stroll from the Pavilion door, is our SLINC status woodland, rich in biodiversity, with a range of habitats and wildlife to observe. Currently our Glasshouse doubles as a classroom, ideal for studying propogation in plants (pictured right above), but it’s too hot in summer and too cold in winter. The Pavilion will provide a warm, dry insulated space where a whole class can be accommodated whether it be for eating packed lunches or in between their outdoor-based field study work on a rainy day.

At weekends, in the warmer months, the Gardens are regularly booked by a host of returning customers, booking us for their celebrations (family gatherings, birthday parties and community events).

“Martineau Gardens is a great place for parties, but what about when it rains?”

By creating a bigger space, we plan to install a modern kitchen to better serve refreshments.

With space for more delegates, more community groups and businesses, (like regular bookers, ‘Thrive’) will be able to book the Gardens for meetings and training courses.

Refurbishment helps us to increase our income from venue hire to help keep the Gardens open and free for the people of Birmingham to visit.

Campaign Update

It’s Week 3 of our Crowdfunder, The Martineau Gardens Pavilion Appeal. With two weeks under our belt, we’ve raised nearly a quarter of our target. So please keep the momentum going: spread the word and share the donate page: localgiving.org/appeal/martineaugardenspavilion/

If you haven’t yet donated, you can also give by posting a cheque made payable to ‘Martineau Gardens’, telephoning the Gardens to make a card payment or popping into see us 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.

Watch our film here:

Be social and share this:



A building that won’t cost the earth September 19, 2017

Week: 2 The Martineau Gardens Pavilion Refurbishment Appeal

Refurbishing our Pavilion means Martineau Gardens can continue to be the place where people, plants and wildlife meet. The refurbishment will create a bigger space that’s warm and dry in winter, light and airy in summer.

Care of the environment and the natural world; getting children in touch with nature and the outdoors; gardening and all its pleasures; growing and eating healthy food – this is at the heart of what we do.

Warm, dry and watertight, the Pavilion will need less ongoing repair work. By cutting our energy usage, we’re protecting the wider environment as well.

The Next Steps:

Refurbishment will involve:

  • Changing the layout of the Pavilion, knocking walls through
  • Installing a wood burning stove (already pledged to us!)
  • Fitting secondary glazing on the windows
  • Adding new guttering and drainage
  • Rewiring
  • Removing remaining asbestos
  • Insulating the walls and roof with Sheep’s wool
  • Putting in a modern kitchen

We stand for social equality, which is why we use social enterprise Jericho Construction (pictured above) for the refurbishment work. Spacious, water tight interiors means we can teach more children about nature, whatever the weather; more people can hire our Pavilion for celebrations and meetings creating an income that contributes towards keeping Martineau Gardens free to enter.

Campaign Update

It’s Week 2 of our Crowdfunder, The Martineau Gardens Pavilion Appeal: we’re delighted with the good start to the appeal. In our first 7 days, more than 14% of our target has been achieved. So please keep the momentum going: spread the word and share the donate page: localgiving.org/appeal/martineaugardenspavilion/

If you haven’t yet donated, you can also give by posting a cheque made payable to ‘Martineau Gardens’, telephoning the Gardens to make a card payment or popping into see us 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.

Watch our film here:

Be social and share this:

Photocredit: Swaledale sheep – “Photo by DAVID ILIFF. License: CC-BY-SA 3.0”



Pavilion Refurbishment Appeal September 8, 2017

Join in with our Crowdfunding Appeal.

From 12 September to 12 October 2017 Martineau Gardens is raising money to refurbish the Pavilion. Can you share this page, help spread the word and make a donation to our localgiving donation page here: www.localgiving.org/appeal/martineaugardenspavilion

Refurbishing our Pavilion means Martineau Gardens can continue to be the place where people, plants and wildlife meet.  We’ve already completed phase one – the next step is to create a bigger space that’s warm and dry in winter, light and airy in summer. Spacious, water tight interiors means we can teach more children about nature, whatever the weather; people like YOU can hire our Pavilion for parties and celebrations, businesses and community groups can hold meetings and events, creating an income that contributes towards keeping Martineau Gardens free to enter.

Like to know more?

Click here for more details about the Refurbishment – find out what’s been achieved so far and what the next steps are.

Our campaign starts Tuesday 12 September, 2017.

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The Pavilion in Spring

 



Closed temporarily 5 and 6 Aug for New Roof August 2, 2017

We have reached the next stage of the Pavilion refurbishment: the roof is being replaced and so, the Gardens will be closed on Saturday 5 and Sunday 6 August. We reopen on Monday 7 August.

To find out more about our refurbishment work of our hundred year old Pavilion, click here.

 

 



John and Peter run for Martineau Gardens July 25, 2017

John Kingston and Peter Backhouse are running for Martineau Gardens in the Great Birmingham Run half-marathon on Sunday 15 October, 2017.
John Kingston is married to Miranda, the head of Martineau’s vegetable garden. He’ll be running for Martineau with Peter Backhouse, a full time carer for his wife, Lizz, who has early onset Alzheimer’s disease. Peter has been a runner all his life, whereas John started running three years ago. John and Peter have started their training for the half-marathon and hope to come in below two hours.

Peter Backhouse and John Kingston, running for Martineau Gardens

 

Pictured on the right here, John explains why he is doing this for Martineau Gardens:

“I’m a keen gardener, but often have to work away from home  – when I’ve had a busy week, there’s nothing I like more than gardening, it’s a place where I can unwind, relax. For many of the volunteers who come to Martineau Gardens, gardening is much more than a hobby. I’m married to Miranda Kingston, a therapeutic horticulturalist at Martineau Gardens. Miranda works with lots of different groups at the Gardens, including young people with special needs. They benefit enormously from the time they spend here.”

There is a huge commitment of time, effort and mental determination for anyone who decides to participate in a long-distance run, such as the Great Run. Please support John and Peter in their efforts to run for Martineau Gardens and sponsor them.

 

 

 How You Can Sponsor John and Peter:

1) By donating online through LocalGiving which is totally secure. Once you donate, they’ll send your money directly to Martineau Gardens and make sure Gift Aid is reclaimed on every eligible donation by a UK taxpayer. To donate on-line, please go to the fundraising page at Local Giving: https://localgiving.org/fundraising/johnandpeter4martineaugardens/

2) By posting a cheque to Martineau Gardens, 27 Priory Road, Edgbaston, Birmingham B5 7UG

(Please make cheques payable to ‘Martineau Gardens’)

 

If you would like to know more about how Martineau Gardens helps vulnerable people and others, watch our film: https://www.martineau-gardens.org.uk/about-us/what-is-a-community-garden/

 Your support would make such a difference

Miranda Kingston, Therapeutic Horticulturalist, with freshly picked blackcurrants



Flying the Flag at Martineau Gardens July 19, 2017

Volunteering is at the Heart of Martineau Gardens – the Green Flag award celebrates the efforts of volunteers and staff in keeping Martineau Gardens open six days a week, throughout the year.

The Green Flag is out again – eighth year running! Congratulations to all our volunteers, supporters and staff who help to keep Martineau Gardens, open for free, six days a week throughout the year. The Green Flag Community Award celebrates their hard work and dedication.

Green Flags are awarded by the Keep Britain Tidy environmental charity in recognition of lots of important things that go on within parks and green spaces. Many of these tasks are going on behind the scenes: from managing our biodiversity, keeping wildlife records and welcoming visitors to washing up the cups and keeping our paths accessible. As always, this award is actually a tribute to all the volunteers to give up their spare time to help Martineau Gardens thrive. We couldn’t do it with out you!

Pictured above, staff and volunteers celebrating the good news, by the vegetable beds, on one of the hottest days of the year. The beds which are organically maintained are well stocked with runner beans, summer salads and calendula flowers.



Announcing the Storytelling Festival programme June 13, 2017

As the summer solstice approaches and the forecasters are announcing a heat wave, we’re looking forward the Martineau Gardens Storytelling Festival, this Saturday 17 June 2017. There’s so much going on, from 11am through to 7pm, enjoy storywalks in the woods, campfire tales and family storytelling. The Traditional Arts Team have programmed a full day of activities which will also include arts, music and crafts.

For a sneak preview of the programme, hot off the press  – click on the images below:

 

There will be a few changes to the above programme, pick up the final programme on the day.

Ticket still available! Click here for details.