Category: Gardening

Nat West Staff battle the rain.

Last week we had to cancel the visit from Nat West Staff to help clear graves. As you all may remember, we were suffering from heavy rain and storm conditions -so we were concerned when it appeared things were going the same way with their replacement visit today! We needn’t have worried as three of their staff turned up undaunted and made amazing inroads into clearing the front of Section 8.

                                        

I think the difference is evident from the photographs above.? Thank you ladies and thanks to the FBEC volunteers that organised the day.

Welcome back Deutsche Bank.

We welcomed Deutsche Bank staff back to the Cemetery today to continue helping us to clear some of the more overgrown areas . Luckily the weather was relatively settled so we were all able to clear a large section in the time they were on site.

FBEC rely on the help of volunteers and corporate groups to be able to continue uncovering graves buried under shrubs and Ivy and clearing self set trees.

We are pleased to say that we still have several groups booked in for the remainder of this year so should be able to make inroads in other sections of the cemetery.

Our thanks to all our volunteers for giving up their time.

Access to graves improved in Section 7

Bereavements and the Friends have received requests from visiting families for low hanging branches to be lifted, in Section 7, as they are making access to graves difficult.

Both Bereavements staff and ourselves had a look and agreed that something needed to be done. The Cemetery Superintendent, knowing we had a Grave Gardeners session, asked if we would be happy to tackle the problem so 4 of our team set to and removed the lower 8 feet of hanging branches.  All looking good for now. Maybe further action needed in 2025?

 

Volunteers support gardening project.

Eleven volunteers turned out on August 10th to help FBEC committee members continue their Grave Gardeners project. Lots done again but always plenty to do. Several graves can now be seen where previously all you could see was shrubbery. The pile to the left was removed to uncover these graves. You can see that there are more to reveal further along.

Our thanks again to Ray and Sue Howell for continuing their work in the Civilian Garden. They give a lot of their time to keep it looking as beautiful as it does.

 

HSBC spend a day in Brandwood End

As a small charity, the Friends depend on our supporters to help us with many of the projects we undertake. As those that follow FBEC will know, we are undertaking a long term Grave Gardening project to remove self set shrubs, Holly and Ivy from graves. We run regular volunteer sessions and members of the Friends also work in pairs on site when they can but without corporate groups to support us everything would take much more time.

                               

Today we were joined by a team from HSBC in Birmingham. They spent all day on site working hard clearing two sections B4 CE and B6CE and you can see the finished effect above right.

This was just one of 4 large piles of leaves, sticks, weeds, self set shrubs and small trees that the team removed during the course of the day. By the time we left, the whole of B4 and B6 were looking far more ‘open’ and cared for. Thank you to all the volunteers from HSBC who worked really hard but were a joy to work alongside. Here’s  to the next time !! A special thankyou to Anita for organising the HSBC side.

Busy June for the Friends.

June has ended up being a really busy month for the Friends.  The started off with a Gardening session trying to clear some annoying Mares Tail weeds. I have to say, even we were surprised at the difference a few hours work by half a dozen people made. Thank you Volunteers.

We followed that up with a mornings litter picking and 12 volunteers managed a bag each. We are so pleased to see that the actual litter is mainly flower paper and not ‘dropped’ litter. Can we remind you again to take the paper off any flowers that you leave on loved ones graves. Well done everyone.

We still have several other events to attend, supporting other local groups and lots of preparation for our own July events! Watch this space……

Grave Gardening Session

We will be holding another Grave Gardening session on Saturday 1st June and welcome everyone, with or without green fingers! We do suggest that you wear boots and bring gloves and whilst we do have gloves and tools, we understand if you prefer to bring your own. The most useful will be loppers, shears. secateurs rakes and brooms. We will be working in the Civilian Garden but meeting at the Cross of Sacrifice on the main drive at 11am. The session runs till 2pm but feel free to go when you wish.

 

 

Great Gardening last week

Three teams working in the cemetery recently. Three ladies trying to give the Rhododendrons a chance on the main drive as they were choked with brambles.

Team two were freeing our recently planted perimeter trees from a tangle of very long and strong brambles.

Team three were tidying the Civilian Garden and laying rock salt on the paths to clear weeds.

Thanks to Malcolm for taking charge.  We also have to add our thanks to Gill for treating the pathways in the Civilian Garden of Remembrance with Rock Salt to get rid of the weeds.