Dunham Massey - 27 April 2014

Eleven of us had an excellent day at Dunham Massey working with head ranger Andrew Wyllie.  Today was the first workday for three of the group and the second workday for three more.

The job for the day was to resurface a ditch opposite the sawmill left in a poor state by the contractor that had laid utility pipes to the new Visitors Centre.  The upper crust of earth had baked hard and if left untreated would not reseed successfully.  At best nettles would grow on it.  We broke up the surface with forks and spades and then raked in about six tonnes of fine topsoil such that the soil resembles the soil in the rest of the deerpark.

Many hands make light work...

When it next rains Andrew will reseed the area and by the end of the summer it should have greened over.  Dunham have taken expert advice about what type of grass to sow.  They don't want a grass that will outcompete the surrounding parkland grass and instead want the parkland grass to encroach over the ditch.

After the next rain the ground will be reseeded

It's been a while since we've worked with Andrew and it was good to catch up with him and hear the latest Dunham news including the great success of the Stamford Military Hospital.

Hare Hill on Sunday 13th April 2014

What a fantastic day - admittedly a bit cold when the wind was blowing, but otherwise dry and sunny for a mixed day of work at Hare Hill with Julia the NT Ranger.

Ten of us (including 3 out with us for the first time) spent the first hour just outside the Hare Hill car park, cutting tree branches that had already been felled or had fallen during the high winds, to a more manageable size. We used loppers for the thinner branches and bow saws to cut the larger ones. These were then dragged or carried to nearer the car park railings and out of the way of the main gate where the NT vehicles gain access to the lake. The ground is quite boggy in places in front of the gate and, without a larger area to drive over, the jeeps could easily get bogged down in the mud.

Once this was complete, we walked down to the lake where we looked at the copse where we would be doing a rhody bash after our morning coffee break. When we got back to work, Gordon got the fire going really easily and it wasn't long before most of the volunteers were busy cutting down the rhododendron ponticum and burning it on the fire. We managed to burn all that was cut down (that was the remit, so no cut rhody was left around, in case the cows ate it the next day) and left the site nice and tidy.

 

There was also a job to do painting the railings around the lake but most people were having so much fun with the rhody that only Adrian and Julia volunteered and went off to do this task.

It was a super day and a good time was had by all:-)

Path repairs and shalom removal in the Northern Woods at Styal

I took the day off (decided I didn't fancy getting tied up in the marathon.....

Thanks to Adrian for leading and providing the photos and text

We worked in the northern woods in the morning mending a path which had been damaged by a sallow tree falling over, we got the timber revetment in and the path will be surfaced properly in the week. In the afternoon we went further into the woods and removed an invasive species called shalom which is low growing and a bit like ivy.

Path tidying at Styal 30 March 2014

Two volunteers turned out to Styal for a workday that was hastily rearranged from Hare Hill. 

The day was spent clearing mud of paths near Chapel Bridge and improving the drainage of water off them

Dunham Massey - grass "repair" 23 March 2014

Eight volunteers turned out to Dunham Massey and spent the day digging over and raking out compacted ground.  Various areas where services have been laid in trenches had been back filled but were not recovering well - with luck the remaining turf / grass will now recolonise the freshly dug and raked out soil.  Returfing / seeding is awkward due to the difficulty of sourcing correct grasses.

Biddulph Grange Garden - clearling land on the woodland terrace - 16 March 2014

Four volunteers turned out to Biddulph Grange garden and spend the day working with one of the regular gardeners on the "woodland terrace" - which we helped to replant some years ago.  The area had become a little over grown and the spring bulbs were becoming invisible behind / under willows and "dogwoods".

The task was therefore clearing out an area which is going to be turfed for the moment to reduce the amount of maintenance required.  With the potential addition of some borders and other features in the future.

Between us we cut down and grubbed out a significant number of the dogwoods and willows.  We also cut out and removed a lot of "ghost bramble" which has vicious thorns to make sure that no one grabbed them by mistake!

Hayfield - Sunday 9th March 2014

Nine volunteers joined 4 Hayfield Rangers and their 4 dogs on a glorious day in the Peak District.

We met in the Sett Valley Trail carpark then drove to Park Hall Moor in the National Trust LandRovers and one of our cars. Here is a photo of the snowdrops near where we parked - aren't they glorious:



We then headed up the slope and were given large white hessian-type bags to collect any small rhododendron that we saw in amongst the heather, dead rhody stalks and other ground covering. Not an easy task spotting it all, but we did our best. Some of the rhody had already been sprayed with herbicide so we didn't need to do anything with those, and the larger area's of rhody were going to be sprayed by contractors in the near future but the small stuff that was starting to re-grow needed to be pulled out so it didn't get established.

After lunch (great cakes again thanks to Karin and 'a well known supermarket chain') we headed  to another part of the Moor, quite high up and, bearing in mind it was a scorching hot day, allegedly hotter than Greece!!!, we took our time walking up. Adrian and Sue had an unexpected stop when they came across a large furry caterpillar on the path which they stopped to admire for some time to ensure it was off the path in case anyone else came by so it didn't get trodden on.

Once Sue and Adrian got to the top, Adrian took a photo of the rest of the group in the distance on the other side of the valley, walking along with their white collecting bags(you'll have to look very closely at the photo to see them): 

We were so lucky as it was such a glorious day to be out in the Peak District:-)