Task Reports

In contrast to yesterday, it was wet today, but we completed several key tasks. The summer pruning of the cordons and espaliers was just about completed to restrict their growth. They are looking tidier. The hedges were cut. We used cardboard and straw to mulch round more trees, having been pleased with the results from the work done in June. 

There is still plenty of long grass – we watch a Large Skipper butterfly laying eggs, so we will leave the meadow until later in the summer. The alliums we planted earlier in the year were looking good and providing nectar for the insects. 

A hot day tackling the weeds and picking the black currants. 

We travelled to Potteric Carr today for our summer outing. This is flagship Yorkshire Wildlife Trust site near Doncaster. We chose it for the water habitats and hoped to see birds and dragonflies. As soon as we entered the reserve we had a good view of two gatekeeper butterflies showing clearly the difference between the male and female. As we walked we saw lots of Common Blue Damselflies, and later in the day saw Brown Hawker dragonflies hunting above the water. 

From the hides we watched lots of coots, mallards and Canada geese. Through the telescope we were able to identify a couple of Black Necked Grebe, and also saw Great Crested Grebes.  

 It was hot day and refreshments in the Kingfisher Café were a welcome interlude before heading back to the minibus. 

Our job today was to create a dead-hedge to mark the edge of the pond to prevent accidents.  We harvested willow, ash and alder to create stakes and the horizontal barrier. We stripped the willow to try and prevent it taking root. 

The meadows were looking gorgeous; lots of meadow vetchling, tufted vetch, tares and meadow cranesbill. There were quite a few ringlet butterflies and a few meadow brown, both species which rely on the grass species in the flowery meadows. 

We survived the early afternoon heavy rain (well, we are used to wet feet) to make it back to the office for tea and cake to thank Chris for his time with us which comes to end soon. We wish him well in his next ventures. 

We made a real transformation today. It is not a big space, but by the end of the day we had constructed three raised beds, installed a half-barrel planter and made good progress with the bench. 

First the fabric mulch had to be removed in order to level the compacted soil. Once the space for the beds was prepared, they were laid and levelled, which took a little bit of patience. Once the beds were lined with weed suppressant fabric they were filled with 'veggi-soil'. We are returning next week to plant seedlings with the children in the nurserey. One bed has been dedicated to robust herbs and we made a start by planting some mint. 

The photos from today are in the Parkside Gallery for the time being. 

Our primary task today was to tackle the Himalayan balsam. This plant can create a monoculture which leads to a 25% decrease in biodiversity as it competes for light, water, nutrients and pollinators. We started in areas that have been worked on my Friends of Northcliffe volunteers for several years. It was very encouraging to find only a few plants in the area above the pond, and much reduced populations elsewhere. That’s not to say that there are still masses of plants around, but each plant we removed reduces the seedbank by about 700. So, it’s not exaggerating to claim that we have stopped the development of millions of seeds. Hooray. 

In addition to the balsam we also dug out some of one silt trap, and made repairs to the revetment timber wall. 

This was the final day of a three day stint in the church garden. Through the week we have continued work on the path, compost bins and profiling the bank for the raised beds. These were constructed today using sleeper-style timber, and will be filled next week by the Shaping Spaces crew. 

Compost bins, paths, digging out spaces for the raised beds. 

More path work in the church garden, working with Shaping Spaces young people. 

The weather conditions have been great for grasses – we were met, not unexpectedly, be a jungle to clear. By the end of the day we had made quite a difference. The pathways had been cleared as well as vegetation under most of the trees. In addition we used straw to mulch some of the trees and will monitor how effective this is. 

We have been trying to increase the nectar sources in the orchard for pollinators for the periods when the trees aren’t in blossom (though Court Pendu Plat was still flowering) and the Orange Hawkweed and Vipers Bugloss were looking great. We intentionally leave some of the grass long as it offers habitat for peat control species, as well as butterflies such as Ringlet.