Here is Jonathan’s volunteer message for Valentine’s Day
Greetings All,
There’ll be a volunteer session at Fairfield Orachard, Fauna and Flora
this Saturday, February 14th, starting fragrantly at 10.00am and
finishing, in all likelihood, a little less fragrantly at 1.00pm or
thereabouts.
The romantically and the not so romantically inclined will find welcome
distraction from their pre-occupations with the following activities…
Several of our hedges have infestations of bramble so our main priority in
this session will be to cut back the bramble in the hedges:
down the Pads footpath alongside the Orchard / Big Meadow;
in the hedge on the south side of the Paddock;
between the Fauna path and the Grammar School field.
THICK GLOVES NEEDED for all of the above.
We’ll also be aiming to finish cutting the ivy surrounding trees in the
stump circle area.
We also intend to transport all the timber from the West Field to the Shed.
Some maintenance work is required on the living willow fence alongside
School Pond – WELLINGTONS VERY MUCH REQUIRED for this task.
We need to mark out the ‘beetle banks’ in Flora Field so that the plough
can avoid them.
We also need to measure the wildflower and bird friendly margins in Flora
Field to calculate seed quantities.
Last and by no means least, we need to cut down the self seeded saplings
along our Aldcliffe Road boundary.
And that’s about your lot for this time,
Love and kisses,
Jonathan.
Here’s what we did
On a pleasant Saturday morning 28 volunteers participated in the regular volunteering session plus 4 working to repair equipment in the playground, an impressive total of 32!
• We made a start to removing bramble from hedges
o Between the Orchard and the Pads footpath
o Between Big Meadow and the Pads footpath
o Along the southern boundary of the Paddock
o Between the School field and the Fauna path
(Brash to be removed next time)
• Repairs were made to the living willow fence alongside School Pond and further willow saplings planted.
• Further pruning of apple trees
• Timber was carried from the West Field to the shed for use in the new fence (still five lengths in the field, plus some tidying to do).
• The bird friendly and wildflower margins in Flora Field were carefully measured. For the record, the Bird friendly margin is 636m x 3m and the General, NE approved mix margin is 513.2m x 3m.
• The strip lynchets in Flora Field, now serving as ‘beetle banks’ were marked out with stakes so that the plough can easily identify and avoid them.
• A start was made on removing saplings growing in the Aldcliffe Road wall after consultation with a Council official. The agreed health and safety protocols were followed.