Milford Community GreenSpace

Introduction

In July 2020 work began to create the Milford Community Green Space, from 3 very overgrown allotments above the former Holy Trinity Church on the A6, with the aim to provide a green area for the Milford School pupils during schooldays and, outside of school hours, a space for other community activities. Four years later Forest School classes are being undertaken on the space several times a week, including Maple View school in Mackworth, as well as Milford School and many community wide events are now being run.

For a video showing the Greenspace facilities currently, see here.

 

Awards

The GreenSpace was part of the judging route for Milford’s 2021 and 2023 gold award winning entries into the RHS East Midlands in Bloom competition and so impressed were the judges that they gave the GreenSpace separate discretionary awards (see here) in September 2021 and in September 2023 (see here). It was also on the 2024 East Midlands in Bloom and Britain in Bloom judging routes – we await the results with interest. Already in 2024 we won the best community garden category in Belper Town Council’s environmentally friendly gardening awards in August.

Site History

Now going into detail about the history of the site and what we’ve achieved in the last 4 years.

A huge amount of work was undertaken by volunteers from Milford to completely transform the area (especially in the first 2 years) and provide a wide range of facilities, as described below.

Green space volunteers hard at work, September 2020.

In the last 6 months of 2020 an army of volunteer Milford residents  cleared mountains of undergrowth and lorry loads of rubbish from the site, built a sturdy entrance ladder and fence (materials provided by Belper Town Council (BTC)), laid bark chip paths and, with the help of the school children, planted fruit trees (also provided by BTC) and raspberries.

In 2021 facilities were added to the site at a breathtaking pace. Even in the lockdown work continued, with volunteers working alone or as single households. By March 2021 a new shed, a wigwam, a children’s story telling area, a composting toilet and hand wash station, 3 raised vegetable beds, a water feature and children’s kitchen had been added. In April 2021 a grant was received from Belper Town Council to improve the site further, including a fire pit, water storage facility, site stabilisation, native hedge and chickens. By September 2021 3 chickens had been installed (we now have 4) in a large coop and run made by one of the parents, and by November 2021 a large Fire Pit was installed after 4 months’ work (see article in Derby Evening Telegraph, here.). In December 2021 we held a Christmas community event there, with over 30 people in attendance round the fire, eating mince pies and drinking mulled wine.

In September 2021, we took over the tenancy of an adjacent allotment (choked with weeds) and started incorporating it into the GreenSpace. By December 2021 we had already cleared half of it of mountains of weeds and rubbish and converted it into a children’s maze, complete with beech hedges, bark chip paths and an amelanchier tree centrepiece.

By May 2022 the new allotment had been completely cleared and a wildflower garden and “Tinker zone” for the children to build dens etc. created and a “pallet bench” along the entire Tinker Zone length has since been added. A grant was obtained from East Midlands in Bloom for an 8 seater bench, which was been put at the entrance to the site.

We also in 2022 added a giant solitary bee house, installed a pond, planted a native tree hedge with 140 tree whips from the woodland trust, strengthened the raised vegetable beds with railway sleepers, improved the composting facilities and made permanent improvements to many of the paths round the site with weed matting, gravel, and chipped bark.

The biggest project in 2022 though was the installation of a new 8ft x 10ft shed in September, following a successful grant application for £1000 from Derbyshire County Council (see report here for more detail). The picture above shows it after being painted and then “decorated” by the Greenspace children during the Apple Day activities on the site also in September. We received a further £305 grant from Belper Town Council which allowed us to extend the eaves and put shelving inside. This new shed has allowed us to store many more materials to broaden the range of activities we can offer the children and the rest of the community. The extended eaves allow the children to shelter from the rain and store coats in the dry.

In 2023 we added a Pallet Wall to divide the site and provide shelves for the children to store precious things, put a sedum green roof on the new shed and drainage to water butts on both sheds. We also added a wormery and wildlife pond.

The biggest project in 2023 was the creation of The Peace Garden by the entrance.

In 2024 most of the big construction projects are complete and we have focused our efforts on increasing the number of flowering plants on the site to give all year colour. We’ve added a Fern Garden/Stumpery and a Shade Garden as well as bright flowered perennials all over the site. We have also created a “flowerpot person” near the wildflower garden and the striking “Greenspace” sign seen at the top of this webpage.

Community events on The Greenspace

We have been keen to increase the number of community wide events held on the Greenspace. In 2022 we held three – Apple Day in October (report here), a Bonfire Night in November (report here) and a Christmas Fuddle in December (report here) and in 2023 four – an Open Day in July (report here), Apple Day in October (report here), Bonfire Night (report here) and a Christmas Fuddle (report here.)

We are having a programme of community wide events in 2024. We had  a summer barbecue on the 11th August (photo above) and are having an Apple Day on the 12th October with many apple based crafts for the children and apple based pastries and cakes for the adults.

Note – we will also be selling tea, cake and pastries to boost our funds at the Milford & Makeney Flower & Produce Show 12-3pm on Saturday 14th September 2024 at Milford Social Club – please come and support us. 

Reports

The Milford Community GreenSpace committee was formed in November 2020 to co-ordinate activities and move the project forward. They produce regular update newsletters, which are published on this site, links below:

October 2020, December 2020, January 2021, March 2021, April 2021, September 2021, November 2021, February 2022, July 2022, September 2022  October 2022, February 2023, April 2023. July 2023. November 2023 and July 2024. We also have a Facebook page, here.

How can I help?

We are still very keen for more volunteers to come and help with improvements of the site, the list of current projects is shown below.  Anyone interested in helping out please contact Kate on 07794268059, or just turn up with gardening gloves and rough clothes – we have plenty of tools on site, and it’s good fun. Work parties take place all year round every Monday 9.30am – 12am, and additional ones are often organised at weekends for specific larger tasks. 

Current Projects

• Obtain some new pallets
• Replace the Tinker Zone work top with new pallets
• Dig out the composting toilet
• Turn over the compost heaps and extract compost; spread on vegetable beds along with composted chicken manure
• Collect horse manure from farm off Shaw Lane
• Replace the row of “dalek” composters with a row of compost heaps divided by pallets
• Create new vegetable bed at the top of the digging area
• Repair the propagator and put its legs back on
• Construct a couple of portable vegetable cages with pallets
• Grow a row of maize round the tinker zone
• Plant Japanese onion sets this Autumn
• The strawberry bed needs to be dug out and the baby strawberry plants (minus flowers) put back in place of the existing plants.
• The potatoes need to be dug out – as thoroughly as possible, so we don’t get a bed full of “sports” like this year.
• Acquire a permanent barbecue for The Fire Pit
• Ask Ben to make an arched plywood “Troll Bridge” strong enough to take a wheelbarrow
• Bring ferns to extend the fernery
• Create ‘please tidy up the mud kitchen when finished playing with me’, ‘welcome to the shade garden’, a clearer open/close sign for the loo and “no tipping of waste into this corner thank you” signs by painting on bits of pallet
• Ask Ben/Howard if they could make a ‘head’ reading chair carved from a tree trunk and some new seats made to look like mushrooms for the children to sit on in the Storytelling Area
• Create a rose arch by the Pallet Wall to mark the entrance to the shade garden
• Take some of the sedum growing over the edge of the roof of the Shed of Inspiration and use it to fill the gap that has appeared in the middle of the sedum roof.
• Reconnect the drainpipes leading into the water butt by the Shed of Inspiration
• Replace the toilet door with a new piece of thick plastic sheeting
• The top bench, small shed and Peace Garden chairs all need painting