Plot owners offer land for Growing

Do you have a plot of land available or need somewhere to grow your fruit and veg or flowers?

Have you heard of Landshare?

Post your location and contact details to the website now and join the growing revolution.

http://www.landshare.net/index/
http://www.landshare.net/map/

Its Time To Start Watering Your Trees

As we move into April the flowering trees are resplendent with floral colours and the leaf buds are breaking through.By mid May all the trees will have come into life.

This means that the trees will be drawing water from the soil.

In the trees' first year the roots need to grow and stabilise the tree.With the shock of lifting at their nursery near Southport and getting used to their new home the trees will require a little help with water.

This is where you come in.For those with a water butt you can draw water from this.For those without there is the tap.

A litre of 5 each week will keep these trees healthy for years to come showing year round colour each spring!

All trees are subject to a two year maintenance arrangement with our delivery contractors.

For maintenance calls ring us on 01925 816 217.

Spring Arrives at last in Northwood!

What can we expect to see this spring in and around Northwood?

St Marks Grow Project Kicks Off

The grow project (allotments) is now to go ahead from April 2011.For more details contact Christel or read the previous blog post http://bit.ly/hFYyEp

Community and Funders Celebrate Trees

Local residents group Northwood Mums with their kids joined local councillor Terry Garland and representative of Knowsley Housing Trust's Advantage funding, Kerry Kirkpatrick, in celebrating the planting of one of the 150 or so trees planted across Northwood.

Work Starts

Work on planting pavement and verge trees has started in Northwood Kirkby Merseyside this week.Contractors for Blakedown Landscapes broke ground and installed the first trees on Bigdale and Brook Hey Drives before moving onto Kennelwood Rd and Roughwood Drive.

It is hoped to have all the trees planted by mid February.

Green Streets Coordinator for The Mersey Forest Ben Greenaway said 'the first trees are now in and already the impact is quite substantial.The trees should have an impact of making the distances between places feel shorter especially when walking on foot or by bike; and which will give the area a greater sense of character as the seasons progress.'

North of England based landscape contractor, Blakedown Landscapes has been appointed to deliver the Green Streets project around Northwood,near Kirkby, Knowsley.The work involves the excavation of over 150 tree pits and the planting of extra heavy standard trees of about 3-4m in height.

The trees, planted in pavements,verges will give a sense of instant impact to the streets.

Bright green guards will protect the trees from accidental damage from cars whilst allowing the clearance of litter or debris build up around the tree.

Residents will be encouraged to plant up around the trees with bulbs or small flowering plants.

The contract is estimated to take around 3 weeks to complete in readiness for spring bud break when trees burst into life!

Blakedown Landscapes were delighted to have won this contract.Having worked with The Mersey Forest in a similar project in the Wirral the project's coordinator Ben Greenaway said 'we are confident that this project will be delivered with the efficiency we are used to with this scale of planting'.

Consultation Almost Complete

With another bout of door knocking out of the way the project delivery is set to begin in January 2011 with the planting of around 130 street and green space trees on Roughwood Drive, Gilescroft Avenue, Bigdale Drive, Trecastle Rd, Brookhey Drive, and Kennelwood Rd.

If you are a resident of any of the above roads and still want a free tree planted on the front of the pavement or a free water butt to water the tree or your garden please contact the project at mail@merseyforest.org.uk

and mark your e mail 'Northwood Green Streets'.

The Mersey Forest is working with Knowsley Housing Trust, Knowsley Council, local residents groups to bring the project to fruition.

Looking for more information?

Go to 'Older Posts' at the bottom of this set of posts

0r contact the project coordinator Ben Greenaway on 01925 816 217

Funding Confirmed

Knowsley Borough Council today confirmed additional funding to extend planting across the target project area to plant an additional 40 trees. This now means that trees can extend across key walking and commuting route Bigdale Drive and link The Old Rough Park with other green space, residential property and schools.

Rob Allen of Knowsley Council's Neighbourhood Management team said "the additional funding comes from Knowsley's Environmental Blight Fund dedicated to Northwood".

Ben Greenaway Project Coordinator for The Mersey Forest said "it is hoped that additional tree cover will besides the obvious benefits of a beautiful tree lined street will benefit the community by bringing much needed shade on hotter days when older residents are getting from A to B or just waiting for a bus"

St Marks Grow Project

St Marks Community & Enterprise Centre have applied to The Community Spaces Fund for help with establishing a community garden and allotment project on their site at the church. Currently the land is just large amounts of grass which is hard work to maintain; and not well utilised by the community. The plan is to create a space which is much more user friendly.

It is intended that there will be wheel chair accessible pathways, seating areas, herb beds, trees and a water feature.

Overall, a much more usable and exciting space than is currently in existence at the church!

It is hoped to create an area of raised beds or ‘mini allotments’ which would be intended for various community groups from around Kirkby.

The Richmond Fellowship who work with amongst others, people with mental health problems, hope to use the garden as a form of horticulture therapy for their service users.

These beds will also be available to individuals who request a plot.

They’d be ideal for people who feel a full allotment is too big for them.Intended for use by all members of the community, be it for gardening or quiet contemplation away from the stresses of life.

If the funding bid is successful work will hopefully commence on the site in the new year.

Anyone who is interested in having a mini allotment or helping with the project in anyway should contact Christel on 546 9970 or email christel.stmarks@googlemail.com

John of local garden design specialists www.plantdesign.info said that his company were pleased to offer up their services to inspire the ideas for the project and help bring the project to life when funding became available.

Plan For Northwood Community Site Launched

£60K has become available from Marks and Spencer through Groundwork Merseyside and The Forestry Commisions Setting The Scene For Growth Programme to fund pathworks and fishing pegs around the Northwood pond site behind Shakelady Rd to the north of Northwood.

An entrance will be created at the end of Trecastle Rd off Roughwood Avenue and a 'hoggin' self binding gravel path will link the community to the pond.Soon you will be able to both fish and pond dip from a series of bespoke fishing pegs connected to the path by a board walk.

Plan are still in place to extend the scheme to link up with view points behind the pond and to the east of the site through an entrance on Simonwood through the secural of additional funding available through The Forestry Commission.
This round of works will be completed by March 2011.
Residents turned out to see the plans at a drop in consultation at Northwood Community Centre,November 1st evening.

the plan (click to enlarge)

A boardwalk....

A fishing peg....

A hoggin path.....

Residents Attend Northwood Bulb Planting Event

Several residents and children turned up to plant daffodil and narcisus bulbs in the newly improved green space in Northwood behind the Roughwood Pub off Gilescroft Ave.

Having planted over 280 bulbs in tough conditions they turned their hands to weeding a large new shrub bed on the site in preparation for the spreading of mulch.

Come back to the site in the spring to see a sea of golden daffodils.

Members of local residents group Northwood Mums want to bring more colour to the site and The Mersey Forest have now discussed with them the possibility of planting some small ornamental trees.

Drop In Consultation November 1st 2010 7 p.m.

Come along to our drop in discussion on improvements to the greenspace in Northwood. (see previous posts for a plan of the site)

Thats the space between the estate and the railway line with the pond space in it.

Your views count so come and have your say!

See the proposals for pathworks and fishing pegs and meet members of Knowsley Councils Green Space Team and Groundwork who will be working on this funded project

At Northwood Community Centre Gilescroft Rd off Roughwood Drive and Brook Hey Drive.

See streetview here:

View Larger Map

Residents Attend Northwood Green Streets Drop In Consultation Event

A drop in at Northwood Community Centre (Mon 13th October 2010) attracted young and old alike to see the plans for an ambitious street tree planting scheme across the main streets of Northwood.

Residents could see mock ups of their street lined with trees using The Mersey Forests software www.visualise2D.com

pictured above.

Amongst the visitors there were residents from Roughwood, Brook Hey and Bigdale Drives who signed up for the trees straight away using the tree choice and consent forms.

Amongst the attendees was a resident from Brook Hey Drive who commented that in the past trees had been planted but then removed and paved over a few years later.She was concerned that this didn't happen again and that she was a frequent requester for new trees when consulted by the council. She was now very excited at the prospect of the new trees.

Other residents asked about the potential size of trees planted and possible problems with roots and damage to property.The council tree officer Helen Sullivan was on hand to answer questions: advising that trees next to properties would be of a sturdy initial size of around 3.5m with a considerable steel guard and that most tree species were of ornamental non fruiting types with non aggressive root systems, typically growing to no more than 10m in height.

Having seen the mock ups one visitor commented that her initial scepticism about the project had waned and now she felt that having trees planted in a grey environment helped show you the changing seasons and looked forward to the autumn colours and spring flowers.

Green Streets Northwood Consultation Event All welcome

northwood green site launched

The dream of a green space in Northwood has now been realised by a local group through the Community Spaces fund managed by Groundwork.Northwood Mums worked with Knowsley's Green Space Team to deliver the new greenspace on the junction of Roughwood Rd and Gilescroft Avenue near the Northwood Community Centre. The space includes pathworks, seats, bins , raised beds, borders and a crocodile sculpture.

Let The Mersey Forest know your views on this site and any additional features you might think would enhance your enjoyment of this space e mail : ben@merseyforest.org.uk

bulbs , small flowering trees?

how it might look in spring with flowering bulbs! (click on images to enlarge)
how it might look with ornamental flowering trees to add seasonal variety!

images produced using www.visualise2d.com

how it looks now! skip spell and sit!


See more pictures and a full story of the opening event here:

http://blog.community-spaces.org.uk/2010/09/a-grand-finale-for-northwood-community-allotments/

Green Streets Northwood Explained

click on images to enlarge, once! move bars on screen to navigate round!