On a beautiful sunny morning the band of enthusiastic volunteers met for the September working party.
Unlike last month when there was a full complement of helpers, there were several of the group missing due to holidays and injuries. We also had to cope with the fact that the store cupboard door was still waiting to be repaired by the council, so we could not access our usual tools and equipment. Luckily our group leader Ildi had foreseen this and stepped up and arranged for the rangers to drop off some tools so that works could still proceed.
Once everyone was gathered, it was agreed to split the team into two groups to tackle specific tasks.
Team Dogwood
The first group, consisting of Zoe, Jenny and Andy took on the arduous task of uprooting and clearing Dogwood. This is one of those jobs that needs to be carried out on a regularly basis as it grows and spreads very quickly (it seems that as soon as one section is cleared then it pops up somewhere else)
Team Wildflower
Meanwhile the second group busied themselves in the wildflower area in front of the café. This involved raking and removing the cuttings left by council mowing, cutting back brambles. After this we sowed wildflower seeds, using a mixture of Scabious, Cowslip, Kidney Vetch, Yellow Rattle, Wild Marjoram, Common Centaury, Red Clover and Knapweed seeds. Some members of the group had previously collected these seeds on one of the butterfly monitoring walks over the summer.
Line Dancing..?
Seed sowing would normally be completed with the ground being pressed by a heavy roller, which we don’t have. So the finale to the mornings work saw both groups joining together to walk over that ground like a well drilled line dancing troupe, to help push the seeds into the ground.
Only some of the seeds will germinate next year, while others may lay dormant and germinate the following year. A great example of nature at work, as it enables the species to survive adverse conditions over long periods.
After that was completed, the group retired to the Holly Blue for the usual drinks, but this time with bonus of some honey tasting, the honey having been provided courtesy of Zoe the newest member of the group.
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