Task Reports

We  sowed some wildflower seeds   in the meadow and planted wood anemone and dog violet plugs in the woodland and cleared  and weeded the site. 

Winter tasks for the orchard include pruning fruit trees and soft fruits, coppicing, transplanting plants and hedge laying.

If you would like to join us please  meet us at the orchard, or be at Culture Fusion ready to set off by 10am, we will be travelling by minibus if it is back from the garage, or walking if not. 

If you would like more information please get in touch. 

We added some crush and run  to our prepared revetment area by the pond platform and defined paths in the woods, to reduce straying from them and erosion of the woodland.

We  prepared an area around a new pond platform and created paths in the woodland.

Volunteers did a fantastic job pruning the hedges around the orchard and preparing a sunny area for planting with hops. We also started clearing some Flag Irises that had firmly taken root, out of the pond. 

This was our second visit to Northcliffe pond this year. We dug out enough silt and mud from the pond to clear a large channel and allow a small waterfall to run at either end of the pond where it meets the stream.  We barrowed the silt to the banking of the woodland and spread it in as natural a way as possible to break down into the woodland soil. Fortunately the weather stayed fine for us as we carried out this at times strenuous task. 

Volunteers worked really hard to  complete the  meadow management and pond clearance tasks, leaving the site prepared for the winter months. We did some pond dipping and saw newts,  damselfly nymphs and a leech among other things. Our recent new volunteers have shown flair for using scythes, so we got the task completed in good time manually. 

We carried out meadow management on Lower fields extensive meadow land using traditional hand tools such as scythes, before we mowed. The pond was also cleared of unwanted vegetation by approximately one third. This was to keep the area around a bridge free from vegetation, so the children can pond dip easily from the bridge. Another benefit of clearance is to keep a healthy balance of plants and to stop more vigorous plants outcompeting more delicate plants.

We also saw three Friday frogs camouflaged by and hiding in the grass and what looked like a Tiger Moth caterpillar.

We made a good start clearing the pond and dug out the silt and mud to create a channel. This is quite a difficult task but the  pond is an unusual resource for wildlife in the  woodland and despite it’s manmade origins this pond has had stonefly larva in it, indicated unpolluted waters and will offer good  wildlife value for the wood. We will do another visit this month to complete the task. 

We finished clearing the majority of the meadow and all the pathways. We also carried out repairs to the render on the Apple Store after it had been broken into and  harvested more apples.