Friends of Preston Park

The Fitness Hub launch: Saturday 28 July on the bowling green in front of the pavilion. Free.

Brighton Pride: Saturday 4 August. The event will be longer than one day this year – details to follow. But on Saturday your Friends of Preston Park committee will, for the first time, be hosting a stall at the event.

Mayor’s Big Tidy-up: Thursday, 9 August 11am to 4pm near the Chalet cafe. Free, no need to book. A family-orientated event featuring a silent disco (it’s huge fun), children’s litter-themed stone painting (materials provided) as well as Mayoral involvement in drawing attention to keeping the park litter-free.

An Illustrated History of Preston Park walk: Saturday 8 September 2.30pm, meet outside the Rotunda cafe. Part of Heritage Open Days. Free, no need to book, takes about an hour.

A Tour of the Rock Garden: With Andy Jeavons, Saturday 8 September (and 2 other dates TBC) details of the meeting time and place TBC.

Bat walk: This took place last month; attendees were led by Sussex Wildlife expert Huw Morgan. A beautiful, still evening – just right for bats. Everyone had a good time apparently, and Huw was very informative. But there were no bats! Very disappointing. But thank you Huw.

Tree walk: Luckily there were a large number of trees available for Alister Peters’ and Peter Bourne’s very excellent tree walk. About 50 people attended and were fascinated by the richness of our arboricultural treasures in the park. Thank you Peter and Alister.

Preston Village Open Day: This happened to coincide with the England-Panama match (score 6-1 as if you could forget). We were kept up to date with the match by the roars coming from the local pub. The event was well-attended and everyone had an exceptionally happy time – which is what we were aiming for. And there was no rain!

It’s looking fantastic! Well done to Manager Andy Jeavons and the volunteers:

We’ve designed and had printed some leaflets about the park for the benefit of park-users:

The leaflet has a map as well as points of interest, a potted history and an example of the park’s flora and fauna. The leaflets are in both cafes, Preston Manor, the Whoopsadaisy pavilion and the Booth museum – they’re free of course.

Here’s the work under way to clean the stencilling . . . it’s looking really beautiful!

The borders around the garden – which, you may remember, have been recently re-planted – are looking really good. There were worries that the drought and the weeds may cause a real problem for the new plants, but diligent hoeing and watering have paid off. The borders will be mulched soon.

And new, semi-circular wooden benches have been ordered for the circular areas in the garden, see below.

Trees of Preston Park

We are holding a tree walk at 7pm on Wednesday 20th June – meet outside the Rotunda. The walk will be led by experts Peter Bourne and Alister Peters. There is no need to book and there is no charge. The walk should last about an hour.

You might also be interested in our new pages on The Trees of Preston Park, including hundreds of new photos.

Thank you to all who came on 3rd May to help sow the wildflower seeds. And an especial thank you to Park Supervisor Mick and staff who helped us. There was a terrific turn-out, helped by the fair weather, including children of all ages and abilities – we all had great fun.

Rain’s what’s needed now, but if there is a bit of a dry spell then the area will be watered.

Here’s some pics:

Trees were being trimmed and pruned in the park today. A burr – the knobbly benign growth on the trunks of some older trees – fell from one of the trees on Saturday, so that will be dealt with too.

The wildflower beds will be rotavated soon and the new wildflower seeds sown on Wednesday of next week, weather permitting. This year’s mix is called ‘Rainbow’ and was chosen for the brightly-coloured blooms and for early and late flowering.

The borders around the Rose Garden will be dug over next week and planting should begin on the 23rd of this month.