January - early March 2020
Happy New Year to all our readers and welcome to the first
blog of 2020. The Wednesday conservation team began the new decade working in
the Strawberry Castle play area, where our task was to refresh the bark
chippings around the play structures. The enjoyment, however, was short-lived
as we soon found ourselves back to clearing ditches and working at clearing
leaves from the Ha-Ha.
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| Raking bark chippings at Strawberry Castle |
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| Job done, now it's playtime |
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| Clearing drainage channel West Woods |
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| Free flow |
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| The Ha-ha |
Towards the end of January, we found ourselves working in
Snipes Dene. There is a plan to remove some trees from Snipes Dene and our task
was to thin out some of the many silver birch saplings to make spaces for the
tree surgeon to be able to move the felled trees out by using horse power to
pull out the felled tree trunks rather than large machinery, which would be
more damaging to the environment of the Dene.
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| This way up. |
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| Almost complete |
February began with a trip up towards the Column to Liberty
once again cutting back the invasive rhododendrons which line the sides of the
“serpentine path”. This time the team were attacking the newer growth and the
stumps were then treated with an herbicide to hopefully prevent regrowth. A
blue dye had been added to the herbicide to indicate which stumps had been
treated.
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| The problem: new growth |
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| The team at work |
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| Cleared |
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| Spot the treated stumps |
After missing a couple of weeks (which included a trip to
help out at Craster on the Northumberland coast), I found myself back at the
Ha-ha in early March. I picked the wrong weeks to be away, didn’t I? Hopefully
now most of last year’s leaf fall has been cleared, bagged and transported to
the leaf store near the walled garden.
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| Ha-ha almost cleared |
Spring has begun, the daffodils and crocuses are in flower,
birds are singing, a green woodpecker was heard calling frequently and red
kites are searching for a quiet spot to build a nest.
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| Snowdrops |
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| Purple haze - crocuses |
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| Rainbow |
Phil Coyne
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