Friends of Bebra Gardens

 next meeting Thursday 28th October 2010
at Knaresborough House 7pm.

Working towards Green Flag status for Bebra Gardens in Knaresborough

Volunteer gardening days  

We will be in the gardens Monday mornings from 9am    EVERYBODY WELCOME

Re-planting April 2009	All planted up April 2009
Junior Soldiers from Harrogate's Army Foundation College            dug out the large old shrubs            March 2009	Emptied, dug over and raked smooth!       March 2009

Wonderful News!!!! 

In 2009 £3,470 from Yorkshire Forward and £7,900 from Awards for All paid for planting-plans and thousands of plants. 

Smaller amounts from Knaresborough Town Council and Knaresborough Spa Baths Charity were needed for all the other expenses involved.  Harrogate Borough Council contributed by removing vast amounts of plant-waste for composting and supplying lorry loads of wonderful rotted compost. Their help and advice with sourcing and ordering plants was also invaluable, as well as safe storage of plants, and of course removing some trees all timed-in to fit in with our tight schedule.

THE 'MASTERPLAN' FOR THE RESTORATION OF THE GARDENS WAS FUNDED BY AWARDS FOR ALL

Following the Masterplan in 2007 we next had detailed planting plans drawn up for the first sections of the gardens with these funded by Harrogate Borough Council. Then we were succesful in getting funding from  Renaissance Knaresborough, and from Knaresborough Town Council, all of this helping to pay for a new fence and around two thousand plants. Volunteers removed the old fence from alongside the castle moat and local contractors put up a smart new fence. We began planting near the paddling pool early in 2008 and all the way around the edge of the gardens to the main gates in Brewerton Street. With lots of help we removed old shrubs, dug the soil over, incorporated compost and put in all the new plants. Next we had funding from Yorkshire Forward and planted a large area in the centre of the gardens, as well as doing lots of weeding and general tidying. In Autumn 2009 we removed a section of tarmac path and replaced this with soil and turf to create a bigger, more impressive bed.  Various large rockery stones were uncovered as we removed plants, but the stones were scattered over a large area. We moved the stones to group them more logically and finished that area by planting about 800 plants.  More plants have now been purchased for the next area and when the snow goes we will be continuing planting well into 2010.

Volunteer gardening days ...

During 2010 we will be in the gardens most Monday mornings from 9am.....
phone for details  07885 543453

PLEASE COME AND JOIN US!

Our next monthly meeting Thursday 28th October 2010, 
at Knaresborough House 7pm.

There used to be a path here. Tarmac was removed, built up with soil, rocks re-positioned, hundreds of plants planted and turf laid -   all during September to November 2009	We emptied and replanted this area in winter 2007 to 2008

Bebra Gardens, Brewerton Street, Knaresborough, North Yorkshire, England, UK.

Article of 8th Sept 2006 click here	Knaresborough Post article of 7th February 2007 click here	Knaresborough Post article Spring 2009

Junior soldiers helped us to remove a tarmac path            September 2009	A volunteer day on the big rockery July 2007.
Volunteers planted a lot of turf, September 2009	Hook-a-duck fun at our consultation event in the gardens          Spring Bank Holiday 2007.

Following installation of the new fence the beds were dug over and planting continued, February 2008.

 

Who we are
We are local people living in Knaresborough who have formed a group to improve this park in our town.

What we do
We have been meeting monthly since August 2005 and are a properly constituted group. We work closely with Harrogate Borough Council "Parks" and we are hoping to make Bebra Gardens a more vibrant and attractive part of the town of Knaresborough. There is a super new sign inside the main entrance. Some trees have been taken out around the entrance and near the rockery. The rockery is planted with alpines and around the entrance we have planted six hundred polyanthus to brighten the gardens during spring.

We put out to tender the job of designing a masterplan for a way forward to improve and develop all of the garden. Funding for the design came from the AWARDS FOR ALL grant which we were succesful with in 2007.. The Master Plan is complete and we have replanted around half of the gardens. We were not succesful with our 'Playful Ideas' grant application to install a childrens water play feature, and it proved difficult to envisage just how the necessary equipment could be incorporated in the gardens. We are now looking into ways to renovate and improve the paddling pool.

If you know where to stand you can enjoy this view from Bebra Gardens. We hope to create a viewing platform here.	Our chairman busily slicing up tarmac before removal of this path. September 2009
Pruning opened up some views. 2007	Volunteers began planting thousands of shrubs and herbaceous plants in the gardens, Spring 2008.

Website by Councillor Andrew Willoughby.

Links

Knaresborough Today

Knaresborough In Bloom

Knaresborough Nidd Gorge Conservation Group