Over the two days, an estimated 94 hours of effort was put into work within the Park itself.  Groundwork Northamptonshire contributed around 53% of the total effort within the Park.

Apart from collecting eight bags of litter, work mainly concentrated on completing restoration work on the rock garden that once formed part of the ornamental grounds of Weston Favell House.  The work included further removal of weeds and undergrowth, exposing rocks that had become covered with soil and recovering rocks from the pond and replacing them on the rockery.  The southernmost third of the rockery was almost completely reconstructed during this work.

The rockery soil on the middle and northernmost thirds of the rock garden was improved with the addition of 180 litres of general purpose compost purchased by FoEP.  A barrow load of ‘home made’ compost produced on site from green waste generated by our previous activities was also mixed into the rockery soil.  A further 60 litres of purchased compost was mixed with 25 kg sharp sand and a small amount of slow release fertilizer and used for planting.

Planting was carried out using mostly wild flowers that should survive on the semi-shaded slope of the garden with minimum maintenance.  The plants consisted of 50 wild daffodil bulbs (Narcissus pseudonarcissus), 50 wood anemone rhizomes (Anemone nemorosa) and 50 primrose plugs (Primula vulgaris) purchased by FoEP and a few cyclamen (Cyclamen hederifolium) seedlings provided by a member.  The plants were placed mainly in the middle and northernmost thirds of the rock garden although some primroses were planted in the southernmost section.

Additionally, emergent vegetation was removed from the pond margin adjacent to the rock garden and a quantity of silt transferred to the bank.  This area was then planted with marsh marigolds (Caltha palustris) and water forget-me-nots (Myosotis scorpioides).

Now that the restoration of this rock garden is almost complete it is proposed that it should be called ‘The Crescent Rock Garden’