Memorial Gardens improvements

Rochdale Memorial Gardens in spring this year

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The next phase of the improvements to the Memorial Gardens are planned to be carried out between mid August and mid October to spray out the weed regrowth, install stone edging to create a number of discrete flower beds between the indents where each bench is located and plant new flower displays in each bed.

The designs for these new flower displays have been agreed with Rochdale Township and will alternate between beds that are chosen for the variety of foliage interest and will therefore provide all year round structure and beds that are full of summer flowers for a colourful display.

These will follow a colour wheel, so as you walk along the path you will go from reds and oranges through yellow and white as neutral and then into pale and dark pinks then purple and blue flowers.

The restoration of the Rochdale Memorial Gardens landscape, aiming to improve the area, has been ongoing since early last year.

It began originally as a £35,000 improvement plan for the commemorations for the centenary of the outbreak of World War One in July 2014.

Works already completed includes:

• Removal of lime trees that were damaging a retaining wall around the sunken garden and making the play area dark and unwelcoming. Replacement with silver birch trees in keeping with the existing birch tree avenues and expansion of the orchard, so that for every tree felled, two have been planted.
• Renovation of a retaining wall around the sunken garden and two flights of steps down into the sunken garden to solve cracking and uneven steps.
• Importing 20 tonnes of soil and horse manure mix, and subsequent restocking of the rose garden in the sunken garden with over 500 new roses.
• Reforming edges of annual beds and creation of edges to the beds in box hedging and central features made of plants for all year round structure.
• Over a thousand box hedge plants were planted and will probably take about three years to knit together. 
• Importing extra soil and manure to raise the beds, which had sunken badly.
• Replanting the 'blind garden' (walled garden) to the rear of the gardens and the sensory garden in partnership with Petrus, a charity which supports homeless people and people with addictions, that has now taken on the maintenance of these floral features.
• Replacing one poor quality bench by the war memorial with a proper memorial bench. Replacing one of the poor quality benches in the sunken garden with a replica of the ornate benches originally there in the 1950s.
• Working with a local school to produce a ceramic poppy display for the annual bedding areas directly behind the cenotaph, which are in store at the town hall and will be brought out in time for Remembrance Sunday.
• Stripping out the weed infested herbaceous border that was beyond redemption, with very few plants left, and mainly weeds.