Saturday 23rd February

Hedge near gateAt last some drier weather so working on the Club's land is feasible once more.  The task for today was to make progress planting saplings to complete the hedge around the boundary and fill odd gaps where saplings planted last year had failed.

For this season we have a mix of saplings to plant:

  • Hopes Grove Mixed native Species
  • Woodlands Trust hedge mix (Hawthorn, hazel, holly, dog rose and dogwood)
  • Hornbeam (selected for its tolerance of shady conditions)
  • Blackthorn (to give greater variety of thorn to knit the hedge together)
  • Hazel and crab apple left over from last years planting.
  • And a couple of yew left over from a garden hedge project.

Car park hedgeThe first section to be addressed was the bramble patch to the left of the main gate.  After half an hour Sid, Joanna, Colin and Peter had a large pile of bramble trimmings in the car park and it was possible to see the four elder and hawthorn trees.  Whilst Sid and Joanna set about planting saplings Colin and Dan moved the truimmings onto the Club's land to start a bonfire.

Meanwhile Chis had been busy further east on the car park side where there was another patch of brambles.  Once those were all removed he was able to plant a double row of saplings through this section and fill the final gap.

Burning wasteJoanna and Sid worked at the far east end of the plot which is quite shaded.  Here hornbeam and holly were planted to replace failed plants and to augment the hedge.

After lunch we all moved to the section of hedge adjacent to the car park and east of the section that Chris had planted in the morning.  Last year this had been planted as a single row.  We copuld now extend the double row towards the mature hornbeam.

Thanks to all who helped today.  There is likely to be a final planting session in March as we still have a few hazel, dogwood and hawthorn left to plant.