Tales of wonder and magic to delight and transport you – a festival of storytelling, music and more in the grounds of an intimate green oasis.

An experience of the outdoors to reconnect you to the richness of a natural setting. Enjoy the sights, sounds, smells and even tastes of a wild little corner of Birmingham that will revitalise you, your friends and family whilst we entertain you with the power of storytelling. By day, you and our performers will share their grassy arena with birdsong but as twilight falls, lanterns will be lit and the crackle of campfire will become the backdrop.

Earth Oven Yarns, Gathering Tales, stories in woodland dells – performances to move and inspire you. Knowledge of the Earth through the wisdom of storytelling weaves the Festival together.  There’ll be plenty of activities to keep the younger ones involved including Teddy Bears picnics at this family-friendly event. During Friday and Saturday evening there will be two one-hour performances for older children and adults plus a Fringe Fireside experience around the bonfire as twilight falls.

The Martineau Gardens Storytelling Festival is brought to South Birmingham by the Traditional Arts Team, the people who are passionate about staging storytelling, music and dance events with a traditional twist.

The event is brought to you by people who care about our natural surroundings and believe that the arts have the power to transform.

Tickets:

Fri / Sat evening (6pm – 10pm):  single £7,  family £14

Saturday day (10am – 6pm): single £10, family £20

Tickets available in advance, to callers in person to Martineau Gardens, by post or on the gate on the gate (subject to availability). To avoid disappointment, advance booking is recommended. Cash or cheque only. Martineau Gardens is open Monday to Saturday, 10am – 4pm, 27 Priory Road, Edgbaston, Birmingham, B5 7UG

Festival Information:

A Garden Event:

This outdoor event takes place in the grounds of a beautiful community garden, dress appropriately for the weather. No gazeboes, but chairs and picnic rugs are welcome. Some of the events will take place within marquees, other activities will take place on the lawns and in the woods. Most of our paths are bark chippings.

Timings:

Friday 22 June 6pm – 10pm, gates open 5.30pm    Saturday 23 June 10am – 6pm and 6pm until 10pm

Entrance will be by wristband, with tickets being swapped at the door for wristbands.

Refreshments:

Salads, sandwiches, soups and cakes will be on offer from ChangeKitchen. Tasty  vegetarian, food, inspired by cuisines from around the world. Non-alcoholic drinks will be available. Or you are welcome to bring your own picnic.

Disabled Access:

Wheelchair users will find the gardens reasonably accessible. Depending on the weather, parts of the gardens may be only accessible to the determined and the paths through the woodland are bark chippings. The women’s toilet is accessible to wheelchair users.

Getting to the Festival:

Martineau Gardens, 27 Priory Road, Edgbaston, Birmingham, B5 7UG

Martineau Gardens is located on the B4217, 2 miles  from Birmingham city centre, opposite the Priory Hospital and close to the mac (Midlands Arts Centre) and Warwickshire County Cricket Ground.

There is a small car park at the Gardens, and parking on surrounding streets is limited. Please choose the green option! Travel by boot, bus or bike recommended or arrange to be dropped off close to the Gardens. Martineau Gardens is well served by buses. The nearest bus routes are  1, 45, 47, 61, 63, X62, X64. The nearest train stations are Five Ways Station (then a 15 minute walk  or bus journey) or New Street Station, with a 15 minute bus journey to the Gardens. To plan your journey by public transport, visit TransportDirect and use the postcode search – Martineau Gardens postcode is B5 7UG.

Produce from the Gardens will be on sale

Come and enjoy a great event in the Gardens. The Spring Event returns on Sunday 20 May2012, from 11am – 3pm. Treats in store include live performances from Black Adder Morris, Carlo Mahalo and the
G-Strings Ukulele band, Ingrid’s Accordion Band and Moseley Village Band. Black Adder Morris will be bringing dancers and musicians (including Northumbrian pipes, violin and mandolin) to entertain you.  In addition to performing dances, they will do a workshop or two where you can try your hand (and feet) at this traditional dance form.

There will be wildlife activities and drop-in pottery sessions organised for children.

Homemade Cakes

As always food is an important focal point to the celebrations – volunteers will be lighting up the Earth Oven and you can try your hand at outdoor cooking . You’re welcome to bring your own picnics, but there will be delicious home-made cakes, salads and sandwiches and other refreshments on sale.

Chard in the Vegetable Beds

The Martineau Gardens team will be staffing the plant sales area, answering your gardening questions. You’ll be able to stock up on Martineau Gardens Spring herbaceous plants (which are grown on site) and compost, plus freshly-cut vegetables and salads for sale. We’re delighted that Plant Heritage (the garden plant conservation charity) are returning and will have a fascinating selection of their plants for sale.

Admission:

£3 (non-members), £1(concessions), families £6 (maximum two adults)

Free to members.

Location:

The Spring Event takes place at Martineau Gardens, 27 Priory Road, Edgbaston, Birmingham, B5 7UG. Located five minutes from the MAC and opposite the Priory Hospital. There are a few parking spaces available on site or the Gardens are served by buses 1, 45, 47, 61, 63, X62 or X64.                          

The Shipwreck Play Area

The event will take place on Saturday 8 and Sunday 9 September, 2012,  from 10am – 4pm.

The Honey Show is a chance to find out all about the fascinating craft of beekeeping, you’ll be able to talk to local beekeepers, view observation hives, make candles from beeswax and buy locally produced honey direct from the beekeepers. There will be plant sales and refreshments available. Find out what a community garden is and Martineau Gardens’ role in providing a home for wildlife so close to Birmingham city centre.There’s woodland, an orchard, formal gardens, ponds, a hot house, an earth oven, wildflower meadow,  and more – all to be discovered at Martineau Gardens.

The Birmingham Honey Show, Sat 8 and Sun 9 September, 10am  – 4pm. Free entry.

For specific information: The Honey Show Manager – John Gale on 0121 471 1267

Organised by The Birmingham and District Beekeeping Association, supported by Martineau Gardens. A Heritage Open Day event. To find out more about Heritage Open Day events in the area, visit Heritage Open Days 2012.

Travelling to the Birmingham Honey Show:

There is limited parking on site, and so we recommend that you travel by public transport to the event. Martineau Gardens is served by buses  1, 45, 47, 61, 63, X62,  X64, 143 and 144.

Use Transport Direct to plan your journey – use the postcode search. Martineau Garden’s postcode is B5 7UG

Don’t miss: The Autumn Event, Sunday 23 September, 11am – 3pm. (Admission fee applies.)

Bee Keeping Courses Sat 16 June Sat 18 August

Calling all intrepid Egg Hunters! Follow a Trail around the Gardens, answering a nature quiz along the way and at the end, you’ll receive a chocolatey prize for your efforts.

Plants, preserves, Martineau Gardens’ t-shirts, produce and compost will all be available for purchase, plus hot and cold drinks. Enjoy the Gardens in all their spring glory.

Cost: £1 per child, Adults free.

Information: 0121 440 7430 www.martineau-gardens.org.uk  info@martineau-gardens.org.uk

Martineau Gardens, 27 Priory Road, Edgbaston, Birmingham B5 7UG

Red Admiral Butterfly, Martineau Gardens

Also, the birds have been more active with Spring approaching.  Some have started singing, including Dunnock, Wren and Nuthatch, and Great Spotted Woodpecker and Treecreeper have both been present.  The treecreeper is a small, inconspicuous brown and white bird that climbs trees looking for insects.  An old name for it is ‘Mouse Bird’.

Several species of fungi have also been found, including Candlesnuff Fungus, Jelly Ear Fungus and Scarlet Elf Cup.

Candlesnuff Fungus / Stag Horn Fungus, Martineau Gardens

 Grow something new this year! Join us for an afternoon in the company of Garden Organic, the organic growing charity, to find out more about non-traditional crops like shark fin melon, chickpeas, haloon, mustard and many more.  Experts from Garden Organic will be running a growing workshop and a talk on seed saving  - telling you everything  need to know to try out these crops. There’s even a seed giveaway laid on, so you can get free seeds and information to take home.

It will be a chance to refresh your plans for the gardening year ahead, all in the  surroundings of a beautiful organic community garden. Tea and cake available, picnics welcome.

Dudi Fruit

Jamaican Pumpkin

sharkfin melon

Kodu Seeds

Photo credit: Garden Organic – for more photographs and information about these non-traditional crops, visit Flickr and for mouthwatering recipe ideas, Garden Organic has lots of ideas.

Seed Event : 1pm – 4pm       Free entry.  Martineau Gardens, 27 Priory Road, Edgbaston, Birmingham B5 7UG

0121 440 7430 www.martineau-gardens.org.uk

This event is part of the Sowing New Seeds project, funded by the Big Lottery Fund Local Food Scheme  and ensures that the skills for growing non-traditional crops is preserved for the future.To find out more about the people that have been involved visit www.sowingnewseeds.org.uk.

A rare non-native plant found last year, at Martineau Gardens, that has kept the experts guessing, has finally been confirmed as the tooth-pick plant (Ammi visnaga (L.) Lam). A garden volunteer was weeding an area around the sundial lawn and spotted a plant that she didn’t recognise. Our wildlife advisor, Brian Perry (pictured here) , called in Mike Poulton (Botanist for the Birmingham and Black Country Wildlife Trust) who took a sample which was sent to the Botanical Society for the British Isles (BSBI) referee for alien plants Dr J. L. Mason who confirmed our find. Mike says: “The Martineau Gardens tooth- pick plant find is a first for Birmingham.” The plant is an annual, so we will have to see if it returns.

Milk Cap

We have been appreciating the fungi in the woods today. I am told by BP our wildlife recorder, that the mild weather has extended the season for mushrooms and toadstools. Today I have just been shown wood blewit, milk cap, bell cap and a wonderful shaggy parasol nestling in piles of leaves in the wildlife area of the Gardens.

Why not come down to the Gardens this week and see if you can find any fungi? You’re welcome to borrow a field guide to help you with a fungus walk whilst you’re here. Have a look at these pages on the Woodland Trust’s website for further details.

Tune in to a short piece on ‘The National Lottery: Secret Fortune’ which starts at 8pm on BBC1, on Saturday 10^th September. OPAL (the Open Air Laboratories Project) selected Martineau Gardens to be the venue for the promotional film to support its bid for the finals of the National Lottery Good Causes in the Best Environment project category. The film is short – just over two minutes long, but it’s a chance for you to see scientists and children exploring the environment, together, in our beautiful gardens. A great example of the educational work that goes on here.

The Green Flag Award Scheme has given Martineau Gardens  a ‘thumbs-up’ ,  in recognition that the site is a well-managed and welcoming place, central to the local community. We celebrated the good news on the official announcement day (Monday 25 July 2011) by unfurling the flag and inviting visitors to join us for a cuppa and home-made scones. Martineau Gardens is a community-run garden that’s open for free to the public. This award is a tribute to the dedication of our volunteers who work hard to keep the gardens a beautiful and tranquil spot for Birmingham people to come and relax in. If you haven’t been to the Gardens recently, come down  and enjoy them in all their summer glory. In the orchard, pears, apples, mulberries and figs are ripening; there’s shade and tranquillity on the sundial lawn and the glimpses of darting dragonflies really lifts the spirits. And, if you’ve enjoyed yourself, why not go to www.greenflagaward.org.uk and vote for us in the People’s Choice Award to win a further award.

Veronica Lawrie, Ecologist, Atkins, surveying flowers

On March 18 2011, in the bright sunshine of early spring, Veronica toured the Gardens recording her findings:

“As winter passes to spring there are a few species that start flowering much earlier than most. These species include snow drop and spring crocus which are just finishing flowering at Martineau Gardens. The first yellow dial-like flowers of lesser celandine were found open, and purple toothwort could be seen emerging through the soil of a new location within the garden. Patches of lungwort and the less common red lungwort were recorded, as well as a variety of daffodil species. In the woodland the flowers of creeping comfrey and early dog violet were found. Primrose flowers were just opening. Several species of bee were seen foraging around these early flowers. Spring is underway at the gardens.”

Martineau Gardens now have 246 confirmed species of flowering plants within the Gardens. A full Botanical Species List which draws all the previous plant surveys into one place will be available on the website soon. A fantastic resource for us all. Our thanks to Veronica and Atkins for this support!

Mollie Martineau Launching the Nature Trail

Aiming to explain how we manage this part of the Gardens for wildlife, the Guide also illustrates what habitats can be seen and what species to look out for. The Trail leads you along a numbered track through the wooded, wildlife area (designated a Site of Local Importance for Nature Conservation or SLINC) before emerging by the wildflower meadows and the Bird Hide.  The guide has been written by Brian Perry and Isobel Swinscoe, and paid for by Be Birmingham. A donation of £1 per copy will help us raise funds to keep the Gardens open.

The Trail was launched today (31 March 2011), by patron for the Gardens, Mollie Martineau. Mollie equipped with secateurs sniped through an evergreen, ‘living’ ribbon made from foliage of the Gardens.

Martineau Gardens is named after the Martineau family. Mollie Martineau, who has lived nearby for over fifty years and knows the Gardens well said:

“This Trail will help explain to our visitors the conservation work that is

undertaken to keep the Gardens wildlife friendly. As a community garden, it’s here for everyone. It’s a place where children can run and play freely and get close to nature.”

We have been happy to welcome back building firm Carillion. They have built a coldframe for us, in which we are growing tender crops. They have also improved shelter for humans by re-roofing the area where volunteers chop logs and built a shelter for the bike-shed (no more wet saddles!). Our thanks to Nick Reay and the team.