Task Reports

Having spent several days digging and clearing rubbish and vegetation from the top section of this new garden, we were now able to install a simple log bench and extend the brick path along from the steps. 

Great progress was also made with the uphill section of wall and a new area of the garden was cleared in order to make it more accessible. A few low branches were cleared to improve access, but any other tree work will be considered in the winter months. 

The residents group will continue to make changes to the site, and they are waiting to hear if they have been successful with a funding bid that enable BEES to continue our involvement. 

We had another productive day on the moor clearing areas of bracken. We were using both hand tools, scythes and sickles, and the autoscythe in a denser area. Thanks to Ali’s keen eye spotting a loose were we able to cut a large swathe, the challenge being to rake and clear the arisings. 

We have one more visit this year on 4th September. 

Well, we can’t say we weren’t warned! There was a Met Office weather warning so we knew we were in for a wet day and that is how it turned out. But despite becoming very soggy we managed to undertake a few summer tasks. 

We started the restrictive pruning of the cordons in order to keep the branches in a contained shape. We harvested the last of the blackcurrants, gooseberries and worcesterberries and the first of the apples. The beauty of Bath were starting to fall from the tree so we picked those that were coming off at a touch. But they were still fairly sour so we are hoping a bit of sunshine will sweeten them up before they fall. 

We harvested onions but left the garlic until a drier day. We cleared around the bottom of some of the trees, and mowed paths though the grass, but left some as it is still a valuable habitat for the frogs, moths, spiders and other invertebrates that our part of our cultivation management. 

We replaced a small section of path leading to Belvedere and tested using some stone to replace the bark on the path. It seems like it may be a good alternative but we will bring the wacker plate up one day to finish off the task.  

Parkside Community Garden, part of The Parkside Centre now part of Bradford Trident’s portfolios of buildings in BD5, had come into to fruition and provided many fruits and vegetables to the community café based at The Parkside Centre.  The garden provided onions, broad beans, potatoes & courgettes which were gratefully received.

There is an article in the June addition of the BD5 magazine on page 7 about BEES and the Parkside Community Garden:

http://www.bradfordtrident.co.uk/newsite/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/TRI…

Other tasks of the day included sycthing the grassed areas around the fruit trees, weeding the raised beds and clearing blackthorn suckers from the hedgerow that BEES laid last autumn.  The area surrounding the raised beds was also covered in ground sheet and topped up with woodchip to create better access to the raised beds.

Sydenham Place Community Garden is the vision of local residents in and around Sydenham Place in Undercliffe.  BEES have supported the development of an overgrown, neglected space sandwiched between Harrogate Street & Sydenham Place.  The task today involved continuing the dry stone wall and putting copping stones on the top of the wall near the step.  We also started on a red brick path to snake around the community garden area, thoroughly cleared the flattened elevated platform of weeds such as bindweed and had a bonfire to burn all of the brash.   

This was our first visit to the moor this year as we embarked on our fourteenth (!) year for bracken control. As usual with our first visit, we returned to some of the patches we have cut before. We like to concentrate on some of the sparser areas so there is no risk of disturbing nesting birds. Our next visit is on 21st August so all nests will be complete by then.

We were pleased will be able show Dave Key form Natural England and John from the golf course our approach and our achievements.

There were plenty of Ringlet and Meadow Brown butterflies and several Small Heath. We found an Oak Eggar moth caterpillar and a large frog. The grouse, oyster catchers and meadow pipits were our audio backdrop, but I don’t recall seeing or hearing swifts and swallows which is unusual.

For the second year in a row we travelled to Hutton Roof for our summer outing, though this year we entered the hill at Park wood and split our time between some dry stone walling and a short walk to look at the flowers and butterflies. 

Luckily for us, Wal, Ann and Charles (CWT wardens) joined us and lead the walking group through the woods, noting the most northerly natural Field Maple trees, and onto the limestone grassland. There were plenty of Common Blue butterflies flying as well as Ringlet and Meadow Brown. We were also treated to the sight of a couple of Fritillary butterflies on the wing, specialities of the site and a focus of the management. The flowers spotted included Common Rock Rose, Spring Sandwort, Fairy Flax and Carline Thistle. And the views of Ingleborough, Morecombe Bay and the Lake District peaks were great. 

Meanwhile the workers did a great job repairing two sections of derelict wall, adding to the sections Dennis has been working away at through the summer.

15th June 2015The task, working at our base today at The Culture Fusion Meadow and in the undercroft where we store some of our equipment. Part of the team spent their time tidying the store area and picking the best pieces from our timber repository to use in the woodwork workshop, where we produce benches, planters and the like, for use on various projects.

The other part of the team spent their day on the meadow removing some of the more dominant species and tending to our vegetables. We also covered a growing frame with plastic sheeting to protect some young tomato plants. Cucumbers, squashes, lettuce, sweetcorn and peas were weeded and thinned out and replanted. The temperature on the meadow must have been in the mid to high twenties celsius. A perfect spot for a picnic which the team partook of at lunch break. There were eight of us today.

Our work today focussed on the entrance to the woods at the top of Lynton Drive. Damage had been caused when a major water main burst earlier in the year, and Yorkshire Water needed access to gardens through the woods for their repair work. 

We installed four steps to improve accessibility at the entrance to the woods, but we also took the opportunity to clear snowberry shrub from the woodland in preparation to plant some native trees to create a more varied area of scrub later in the year. We also cut back bramble and other vegetation from a footpath leading up to the meadow, exposing a section of steps and making it easier to walk through. 

Yorkshire Water had planted a collection of replacement trees at the Lynton Drive entrance, but in order to hasten the establishment of woodland ground flora, we undertook some sensitive translocation of a few plants from other areas of the wood. This work was continued by local residents.