That's it for our evening volunteer sessions for this year - as the nights draw in, we at FoRCE draw a line under 2025's midweek working parties, but we certainly won't be hibernating! Our weekend sessions continue throughout the autumn and winter, keeping our green spaces clear of litter and tending the perennial plants, as well as staying busy with all sorts of major and behind-the-scenes projects. More about that in a moment.
Tending the Sensory Garden
The Suffrage Sensory Garden benefitted from some attention from some of our volunteers, removing faded blooms and trimming and shaping the perennials, while others took care of litter picking around the Esplanade Gardens. It's always surprising what you can achieve in an hour - we maintained two of the beds and filled eight bags with waste to be deposited at the collection point.
It's also nice to find other uses for the greenery we're cutting away. Potential uses could be for dried flower arrangements, a pot pourri bowl, or putting the herbs to use in the kitchen. Following the session, one of our volunteers took away some fresh rosemary which made a delicious addition to a well deserved post-gardening Gin & Tonic! Do you have any other ideas for using clippings? Let us know with our contact form, by
A Refreshing Sight
A different, more productive form of refreshment is taking place around the Esplanade Gardens and Churchfields as we move into the cooler seasons. While the weather is still fairly temperate, one volunteer team will be continuing to refresh the metalwork around our green spaces with smart black paint.
Here's one example of the ongoing refreshment work: repainting the railings next to some of the steps climbing up Churchfields. Before they can be painted, some preparation is necessary, especially as the air can be rather salty in such close proximity to the River Medway. We give them an application of Mordant Solution to chemically etch the metal and remove salts, which helps towards creating a good paint bond.
We then apply a coat or two of hard-wearing black paint, ensuring of course that all fresh paintwork is suitable marked with hazard tape to let visitors and passers-by know to give it a wide berth for a few hours. The results speak for themselves! We've also applied new paint to the cycle stands near Rochester Pier, and work to refresh benches and bollards is planned for this year before the weather turns too cold for painting.
Into Autumn and Winter
We're excited to have made the first tangible steps in our newest project: Hedgerows. This is going to be a big ongoing concern, as we plant and rear our first stretches of hedgerow in the Esplanade Gardens and look forward to learning the traditional methods of hedgelaying in the future. We're already talking to our friends at Rumwood Nurseries about sourcing native species to make up the hedges, which will provide food and habitats for wildlife and make a beautiful addition to our cherished green spaces. Keep an eye on our Hedgerows Project page to stay abreast of developments!
There will also be plenty of work going on when we're snug indoors through the depths of winter: our tech team will be hacking away at their keyboards adding new functionality to this website, and spending time on such exciting projects as future-proofing our membership database for compliance with the latest government legislation - what could be more festive?!
If you'd like to get involved with any of these projects, either as a volunteer or taking a more active role in planning and execution, take a look at our Join In page. Or if you don't have much time to spare, why not help us out by sharing this article with your friends and family using the links below? And as always, if you have any thoughts on the contents of this article, or anything else, a chat with us is only a click away.