Scrub bashing at Biddulph Grange Garden on 25 October 2015

Nine of us spent today at Biddulph Grange Garden clearing birch and brambles from a stretch of bank alongside Wellingtonia Avenue.  We cut back the brash with bowsaws and loppers, dug out the roots with mattocks and had a bonfire on top of the bank opposite.  The aim of the work is to return the bank to grass.

Before and after

The worksite was beside a 'sound installation', one of the 'Dangerous Discoveries' art exhibits taking visitors on a journey through Biddulph's history, heritage and the structural intricacies of plants.  Every fifteen minutes we were treated to thirty seconds of Native American chanting coming surreally from one of the wellingtonias (a loudspeaker was concealed halfway up the tree).

Biddulph were excellent hosts - as ever - and we had lunch in the volunteers mess room in the basement of the house.  Paul, head gardener, provided complimentary biscuits from the NT shop!

Daniel

Pub quiz at the Hesketh Tavern, Cheadle on Monday 19 October 2015

Sue, Andy, Daniel, Megan, Lyn, Louise, Phil and Pete met up tonight at the Hesketh Tavern for their popular Monday night quiz. We didn't excel this time (didn't come 1st, 2nd or 3rd) but did win a £5 voucher in the consolation draw at the end of the evening!

Things we learned:

- the Grand Canal in China is the longest canal in the world
- pogo sticks were invented by Germans Max Pohlig and Ernst Gottschall (Daniel was confident he knew this but couldn't convince the others) (Po + Go from their surnames is a giveaway!)

Workday at Helsby Hill on 18 October 2015 - cancelled

Unfortunately, due to circumstances beyond our control, the workday to Helsby Hill this Sunday had to be cancelled.

It's not often that workdays are cancelled and it's a shame when they are but hopefully we will have a good turnout at Biddulph Grange Garden next week.

MNTV Committee 

Picking rhody plants at Hayfield on Sunday 11th October

 

A beautiful Autumn day greeted eleven volunteers at Hayfield.

We worked up the slopes above Park Hall (by Little Hayfield) hand-picking small rhododendron plants that were re-growing from seed.

This is the size of the plant we were picking

The larger plants will be hand-sprayed by the rangers.

We had to scatter quite a distance to find the seedlings, as work over the previous few years (by our group and others) has cleared rhododendron from most of the hillsides.

We enjoyed the sunshine and the chocolate spice cake.

Text by Mick.

More rhodybashing at Lyme Park - 4th October 2015

As I once more slid elegantly down the steep muddy slope on my posterior, I contemplated the clear blue sky and thanked the gods of weather who seemed determined to confound the so-called experts at the Met Office who had forecast heavy rain for the day.  Having reached the bottom of the slope I turned back up the hill and surveyed the work being undertaken by the eight MNTVers who had turned out to continue the ongoing task of rhododendron removal.

The project on West Park Drive at Lyme Park is the creation of a mixed deciduous bio diverse rich woodland to replace the monoculture engendered by the rhododendron.  As a group we have been involved in the task since its inception and it is nice to see the ongoing progress.

We stopped for a brew at eleven and where joined by two lads and their dad for the remainder of the day.  The two lads aged nine and eleven carried out sterling work felling some very large trunks to joyous yells of ‘timber’.  After lunch some of the group went to a part of the site previously cleared to plant a mixture of oak, cherry, broad leaf lime and rowan, the base for the woodland - soon to be followed by an understory of hawthorn and blackthorn.

The day went well with plenty light-hearted banter and we left the site with a feeling of a job well done at about four o’clock.  Thanks to Craig the ranger for staying all day and looking after the larger of the two fires we lit to get rid of the rhody.

Tim
(photos by Adrian)