Dunham - Plant pulling

Due to holidays only 3 turned out to Dunham Massey on 13/7/8. With the small numbers the available the pond was given a miss and the group instead turned to Balsam, Thistle, Ragwort, and Bracken! We hope the wardens children enjoyed the spare cake that was available that day

Rhodadendron through and over the garden fence @ Shugborough

5 Manchester volunteers and 9 from a similar group based in Wolverhampton turned out to the Shugborough Estate last Sunday.

We had plenty of cakes - as Daniel had brought some home made chocolate muffins - while Joe (the Gardener there) had provided a 2 cakes with the assistance of the tea room (Cherry / Apple and Date).

The task was simple the Rhododendrons along the edge of the gardens needed to be cut back away from the fence between it and the grazed "parkland" - to ensure that live stock do not poison themselves later in the year, we managed most of it - and left at the end of a successful day, full of cake with only a small section to be finished by the staff on Monday.

Joe also talked some volunteers from both groups though the decontamination procedure required if we ever have to work on plants affected by Phytophthora ramorum

Sand, wind and rabbit fencing

8 vounteers turned out to Formby on, despite weather warnings, on Sunday and spent a few hours patching a rabbit fence - that should help keep them out of the tree nursery. We then had some ice cream, walked round the squirrel sanctuary - spotting three, looked at the beach, where the wind and whipped up a lot of foam before coming home.

Fencing and Thistles at Lyme

10 turned out to Lyme Park (2 of whome were dads) and we worked with Chris the assistant head warden taking down a section of barbed wire cattle fence and re-placing with new posts & wire. Working in small sections to avoid the cattle escaping. Tony used the a mechanical post driver to put in the posts which saved a lot of effort.

As there were too many of us to keep busy on the fencing, some of us dug out thistles, which is a hard task, where the turf is dense it is difficult to get the spade in!

Bumper turn out after 2 cancellations and a wedding

There is a bit of break in the dates - due to external factors 2 workdays had to be canceled.

We sometimes don't work on bank holiday weekends but a number of our members were out and about - celebrating the wedding of Megan and Daniel.

After three weeks off we made up for the rest with a large turnout or to quote our leader for the day.
I think you'll agree we had an excellent day rhody bashing at Dunham today. I've only once before rhody bashed in warm sunny weather and it was a change to see the rhodies' bright vivid greens and purple summer flowers breathe their last on the pyre. Usually the lights a lot more subdued and the colours muted. Bumper turnout too - as much to do with the venue as the promise of walnut & chocolate brownies. Two were left over - both for me because Megan doesn't like nuts :). Good to see that we all managed to find an alternative route to the car park first thing given that unexpected closing of Charcoal Road for resurfacing.

Cotton Grass on Kinder

6 Volunteers turned out last sunday and spent a few hours on the Kinder plateau planting cotton grass.

A big project with a lot of plants still to be put in. One of the limiting factors being the time taken to get up there.

I was supprised how much bare peat there was - it would be interesting to go and get an after photo in a few years time...

Sunday 11 May - cancelled

due to external circumstances the group had to cancel the planned work for this day