Last Saturday saw our first volunteer session of the new year. In addition to our usual plan of general weeding and making sure all is well inside the woodland, the main aim today was to plant 5 elm saplings which were supplied to us from The Conservation Foundation (www.conservationfoundation.co.uk) who have supplied us with 5 elm saplings as part of a project to see why some elms survived Dutch Elms Disease and to see if saplings which show disease resistance can be successfully grown.

The photos below show the saplings in their pots before they were planted and 2 volunteers getting ready to plant the saplings. The label shows the variety of the elm and the location from where it came from. Over the months we hope to provide updates of these saplings with their health.

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Our last volunteer session was on September 5th. Rain and dark clouds didn’t make a promising start, but we had 7 people today, including a first time volunteer! The focus today was to put in more steps for the internal path and more weeding and tidying up of the access routes inside the woodland in preparation for our Grand Public Opening on Sunday 4th October.

Volunteers standing in front of newly created steps.

The photos show volunteers standing in front of our newly constructed steps.  The steps now start near the recently added gate next to the Seren Park Gardens car part and are almost at the top of the woodland, where the topography flattens out.

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Today’s volunteer day was the first of 2 planned sessions for June, taking advantage of the warm weather and to build on by far the most important activity the organisation has seen for some time.  It has been our aim since we started to have improved access facilities to the woodland from the western side, and as a result of many hours of planning, today marked the first volunteer day where we can use our newly installed gate for access.

Volunteers going off to work!

Our Sunday morning session started at the Lasseter Close side of the woodland.  On a hazy and humid morning we assessed that further weeding, path clearance and additional removal on non-native species would be today’s aims.

Part of this morning’s activity involved the further removal of non-native species.  As the woodland is surrounded on all sides by people’s gardens, it’s inevitable that plants sometimes find their way in to the woodland area.  Some may have arrived accidentally, others may have been deliberately planted for ornamental affect.

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Spring was definitely in the air for the woodland’s 2nd volunteer day of the year. Blue skies and sunshine greeted the 9 volunteers in the morning.

Tools of the trade!

This morning work’s main aim on the Maze Hill side of the woodland was to undertake weed control. Previous volunteer days have shown that within just 4 or 5 weeks bramble and common nettle seeds are widely present in the top soil, and that digging over these areas allow fresh plants to germinate.

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The day started with being unusually warm and sunny when we arrived at the Maze Hill entrance, and ended up in torrential rain. Committee members arrived with several dozen native woodland plant plugs and several dozen plant plugs that are attractive for bees, which were generously funded by our grants.  Our plan for the day was to clear an area to the south of the orchard and get the plants in to the ground before colder weather sets in.  The photos below show the pluglets before they were put in to the ground.

One of the trays of plants, ready to be planted.

Greater Knapweed pluglets.

Betony plants, all looking healthy.

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