With some rather damp weather in the past couple of months a lot has still been accomplished and spring is in full flow in Simmons Park, writes park-keeper James McGahey.

Progression has been made on the rose garden with new gravel laid around it, a number of new roses planted and also the benches in there getting a much needed repaint with the final three to finish.

The typhoon swing has been closed for the past month while we renewed all the inner working on it and also the tension ropes at the top. We are just waiting for parts to arrive to also renew the seats so all moving parts will be new on it and we hope for it to be open for the Easter Holidays.

Within the past month a range of colour has started to show itself in the flowerbeds with some warmer days recently making it feel like spring has arrived.

Considering how wet it was during their flowering period it was a very good year for the crocus which again have spread in all areas they are sited which is all part of the management scheme we have in place to encourage these to spread back to the amount there once was in the park many years ago.

Also the daffodils, snowdrops, primrose and magnolia stellata by the main gate are now flowering and the bluebells aren’t far away.

A number of flowering cherry trees have been planted in the park bordering the car park which should, in time give a nice array of colour to people arriving into the park in spring. Also a number of native tree species have been planted into areas where the diseased Ash trees once were.

Also the ponds are now teeming with life with a lot of pond-skaters, caddisfly and dragonfly larvae and with the majority of the tadpoles hatching the newt numbers in the ponds are on the rise again.

Once again, this was all part of why the dogs aren’t allowed in the ponds to protect the life in them and the dogs being on leads has aided this with plants growing now in the ponds and species numbers up.

The bird boxes are back up around the park and are getting a wide variety of interest from a number of species and we hope the pair of nuthatches will be back in the boxes this year after they had a successful year last year in one of our boxes.

With conditions hopefully warming and drying up in the next month we have the wildflower area by Westbridge to rotavate and apply an overseed too. The skatepark to carry out some running resurfacing repairs and hopefully finish the outdoor painting before the grass mowing begins in full force.

If you see me in the park or around the town I’m always happy to answer questions you may have.