Andy and Jean, the Dynamic Duo, met ranger Tim at 10:00 on a warm and still Sunday morning. We started the day clearing bracken from the small orchard behind Hollin Hall that Tim has ‘adopted’. It has a number of heritage apple trees that are healthy and produce plenty of fruit but bracken is starting to encroach from the neighbouring field.
We pulled up the bracken by hand, usually managing to take the rhizome as well. Tim is mapping the areas as they’re worked to see how effective this is compared to using a ‘weed whacker’.
After an hour and a half the orchard was clear of bracken, exposing some Himalayan Balsam! But that’s a job for another day.
The second task was the never ending job of balsam bashing. We worked in a gulley by the river just below the main car park, again pulling up the plants by the root. The balsam hadn’t started flowering yet so every plant we pulled avoided about 700 seeds being spread.
Three hours later the gulley is still green but nettles are okay and hopefully the underlying blue bells and daffodils will put on a good show next year.
Jean
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