The first volunteer day this year took place last Saturday. Despite the rather damp, overcast weather a dozen or so people came throughout the day, some to volunteer, others just to take a look around.

At the end of last year, using volunteers from Barclays Bank, a small area was cleared, ready to allow for the beehives to be sited, just south of The Glade area. The photo below shows our new installed and very well camouflaged shed, next to the area where the beehives will be sited.

Equipment shed for our bees

Tim Barnes clearing leaves from the flower area

The newly built pond, looking very healthy

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Yesterday’s volunteer session had another busy day of activities. As well as the normal tidying up of The Glade area, it was also necessary to check up on our pond. It’s looking more and more as though it’s been established for quite some time. Two frogs were seen in the nearby grass, while the ponds plants look healthy.

View of the pond in The Glade

Purple Loosestrife adjacent to the pond

Meadowsweet plant growing near the pond

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Today’s latest session made the most of warm sunshine, something that has definitely been in short supply recently!

Today was in The Glade area, concentrating on weeding, pond maintenance and tidying up our dead wood pile.

Our apple and pear tree trees are producing a healthy amount of fruits, although as can be seen they’re quite small. Weeds have made the most of the warm weather with Rosebay Willowherb taking over around 20 sq yards of soil just to the side of the grassed area in the glade.

Smaller both in size and numbers than pears in general.

One of the many pears now growing

More pear fruits rapidly growing.

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This morning’s volunteer session saw 2 new volunteers arrive and the return of 3 others.  The main focus of the day was to take the saplings we ordered and to plant these on the footpath leading from the top of our newly installed steps, leading towards The Glade.

Two committee members infront of an overgrown fence, before work started to plant the area

Volunteers filling in the cleared trench with newly planted saplings

Committee members planting our newly created thicket

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Last Saturday saw our first volunteer session of the new year. In addition to our usual plan of general weeding and making sure all is well inside the woodland, the main aim today was to plant 5 elm saplings which were supplied to us from The Conservation Foundation (www.conservationfoundation.co.uk) who have supplied us with 5 elm saplings as part of a project to see why some elms survived Dutch Elms Disease and to see if saplings which show disease resistance can be successfully grown.

The photos below show the saplings in their pots before they were planted and 2 volunteers getting ready to plant the saplings. The label shows the variety of the elm and the location from where it came from. Over the months we hope to provide updates of these saplings with their health.

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