Canford Park
(Page Updated May 18th)
The Society has had a long association with Canford Park, with its former chairman, Hilary Long, campaigning for many years to have suitably imposing gates placed at the entrance.
In addition, volunteers from the Society have planted many hundreds of daffodil bulbs in and around the park and have paid for the planting of a number of trees.
Volunteers also assisted in the changes made to the sunken rose garden, to make it more wildlife-friendly, while insisting that at least two of the existing rosebeds were left undisturbed. However, a subsequent lack of maintenance of this area left it completely overgrown with some of the species planting threatening to take over beds.In the autumn of 2024 new chairman Andy Renshaw arranged for members of the Society to work alongside the Council to maintain and transform the sunken garden area, removing weeds and cutting back overgrown areas so that the remaining plants can thrive. The first session took part on Friday, October 25th, when a dozen members managed to tackle three of the beds.
We originally intended monthly working parties, but this was quickly increased to fortnightly sessions as the work needed to get the area under control was found to be much greater.
We have begun to remove inappropriate planting for a formal garden and replace it with more suitable species. At the start of 2026, with the help of plants provided from Blaise nursery, we replanted one of the beds. Then in March 2026 we purchased roses from Blaise to replant one of the former rose beds that had been taken over by lemon balm.
Those rose bushes should be in flower in 2027. In the autumn we hope to be able to replant another of the beds.
We normally have sessions on Wednesday or Friday mornings from 10am. If you are interested in joining us on an occasional basis, e-mail or give us a ring! Dates can be found on the calendar, which can be viewed HERE.The pond in the sunken garden is drained every 5-6 years and was last done in 2022. Water in the pond is static and this has led to outbreaks of algae infestation. The council used weevils in the summer of 2026 to remove the algae and placed bales of barley straw in the pond to improve the water quality.
For the future, we would like to see the pond fountain restored, to provide aeration to the water and reduce the likelihood of future algae infestations. However, this is not part of the council’s plans. They have said that they will add oxygenating plants. Apparently, the pond’s fountain originally operated by having mains water pushed through it, but this was halted by the utilities company in 2019 due to the risk of pond water flowing back into the fresh water supply.
