It is now an established tradition that MNTV visit Biddulph at least twice a year to put in and then remove the stakes along the iconic Dahlia Walk.
This year to make things a little different we met up with our sister group SSNTV (Shropshire & Staffordshire group). This is where our territories overlap and we have worked with them on our weekend away at Calke Abbey. So there were a total of 25 willing volunteers descending on Biddulph Gardens at 10am. They had arranged a few tasks to keep us all occupied:
- Planting ivy - a few in the group thought this was a rather alien concept, as they spend a lot of time in their own gardens removing ivy.
- Putting in the dahlia stakes and forking over ready for planting.
- Clearing the banks of the ”long walk” so they remain bluebell banks and not choked with other things.
We split into three teams, the larger team doing the most urgent task of dalhia stakes. We gathered together for elevenses and lunch on the old croquet lawn in the private garden. A setting a little grander than we are used to!
After lunch we all went up to the “long walk” which is an avenue of Giant Redwood trees planted only 30 years ago. They grow about a metre per year. We all worked removing vegetation from the steep banks.
Between us we cleared around 200m of bank, which is about half of the work needed, removing small and large saplings with tree poppers and brambles and other “weeds” with forks and spades.
On the way back to the cars I admired the rhododendrons around the fishpond. Nice to see some in flower that we haven’t demolished!
We left tired but happy to have done a good job, spent time with our friends in SSNTV and eaten lots of delicious cake :-)
Jenny
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