Opening up Hedges

At the work party yesterday, Sunday 8th June, we did more work near the entrance to follow on from the work done by the volunteers from BT who were with us last Wednesday (see previous blog). Seven of us went along and began by the welcome area near the entrance to the woods. 

Outside of the woods to the right of the entrance the hedge is becoming choked with grass and weeds.

And so too is the hedge to the left of the entrance.

It's quite important to clear away this grass and other stuff growing there to let more light in and promote the growth of the hedges.

Peter A and Eric got stuck into the left side and are making good progress, while ...

... on the righthand side Graham and Andy cleared away the grass and weeds that had taken over that area. 

Meanwhile, Erika has been very busy on the woods side of the hedge that Peter and Eric are working on, and she has almost finished clearing it. 

Before long, both sides of the two hedges had been cleared and are now in a much better state. 

Then, after a short coffee break, we moved off to the open area of the valley path near post 10 where there were lots of primroses and bluebells back in March and April.

The primroses and bluebells are now long gone and have been replaced by lots of bracken and grass as you can see in the following photos.                                                                      

This is looking uphill from post 10 - compare this with the primroses.

This is the same path looking back towards post 10 where the bluebells were.

We got stuck into the bracken scything and raking...

... and we soon had it all cleared away to leave an open space that will catch the sun and maybe produce some wild flowers!

The volunteers worked hard all morning to get the work done and both the valley path and entrance hedges were soon opened up again. 

BT Volunteers Clear the Way

Yesterday nine volunteers who work for BT came along to do some work in Filnore Woods as part of a company volunteering scheme. A couple were familiar with the woods but most were making their first visit.

The bracken and grass alongside the fence between us and the allotments has grown a lot and the grass in the welcome area at the entrance is considerably longer too, as you can see in the following photos.

The work for the day was to clear these two areas.

Most of the volunteers hadn't used a scythe before so we began with a training session. They soon picked up the basics and with some practice in the welcome area were ready for tougher stuff.

It was a steep learning curve but progress was swift and before long a lot of work had been done.

Soon it was time for a break after a long morning and we stopped for some lunch.

After a rest and some food we were ready to get back to work and set to with a will.

Work continued after lunch until the whole area next to the allotments had been completely cleared

The volunteers put in a lot of effort and worked really hard all day with no complaints. They were a pleasure to work with and achieved a lot. They will be welcome if they are able to return and help us again sometime in the future.

Return to the Paddock

In my blog post from last October about clearing the Paddock area I speculated that we would need to do it again when growth started. Well, it's not officially summer yet but a lot of growth has already taken place

For the work party last Wednesday 28th May, we returned to the Paddock and this is what we found. 

Over the winter and spring, the hazels have put on some growth and the ground cover has increased considerably. No sign of the path we created to run alongside the fence!

Four of us - Erika, Eric, Alan R and me Alan W had turned up for the work party. We decided that with only four of us the priority was to open up the path from the entrance stile, then clear alongside the fence to the exit further down Vilner Lane. This would create a usable path through the Paddock and leave some vegetation for the wildlife.

Erika, Alan R and Eric started to clear from the fence line back towards the stile while I went in the opposite direction clearing towards the lane entrance. 

Erika came back to help me and it wasn't long before we had established a path wide enough for easy access to the lane.

We left a lot of the vegetation in place, things like hart's tongue fern and Herb Robert. Anything that provides shelter or is good for pollinators will be beneficial in the long run.

Compare this photo with the one at the start of this blog. The tree left of centre and the hazel right of centre will help a comparison and you will see how much change can be made by only four people.

The volunteers worked hard all morning to get the work done and the paddock path was soon opened up again. I expect we will be back to do a similar job but probably this year in the autumn if not before.

Mowing at the Viewpoint - Take two

Last time we were at the woods we were up at the viewpoint to begin scything the grass. There were only four of us so the area wasn't completely cleared. For the work party last Sunday 11th May we returned to complete the job. Eight of us went along and set to. 

This photo shows what we left the last time we were working here.

The day was warm and sunny, and the grass was dry. Good conditions for scything.

Eric began dealing with the grass near the path edge ...

... while Jim and Andy started scything the grass further along near the bench. 

Aiden and Cathy had been mowing closer to the top edge of the slope and were now raking up.

Will, Jim and Andy are contemplating what they have done so far before carrying on to some tougher stuff further along the path.

Looking back the other way, new volunteer Helen has been cutting and raking some of the grass from last time that has already grown considerably.

We finished around midday and you can easily see the difference from when we started.

As usual, the volunteers worked hard all morning to get the work done. The viewpoint will be tidy - for a while at least, thanks to Helen, Andy, Will, Eric, Jim above. Also Aidan and Cathy who had to leave before this photo was taken. I just hung around with them taking photos and moving some grass around!

Mowing at the Viewpoint

In the last blog post I mentioned that we had started this year's grassland maintenance at Filnore Woods. At the work party last Wednesday April 23rd we continued this work up at the viewpoint to try and keep on top of it.

As you can see the grass is starting to grow quite vigorously as the weather warms up.

There were only four of us this time and Alan R, Jim and Eric are trying out some new scythe blades we have just bought. They are making good progress while I'm lagging behind with an old blade that's showing its age.

It wasn't long before we'd cut down a considerable amount of grass ...

... then had a break before raking up the arisings, though they look a bit grumpy. Maybe I'm working them too hard!

After we'd finished raking up the grass the viewpoint was looking much tidier but of course the grass doesn't stop growing so we will be back before too long.

This is looking in the other direction along the viewpoint and the grass here is just as bad. There were only four of us this time and we did well to cut as much as we did. We'll probably have a go at this bit next time.

                                                                            

Elsewhere in the woods we have lots of bluebells this year. They have followed on from the primroses which were also plentiful.

Five Men and Erika Went to Mow

On Sunday 13th April we started our grassland maintenance activity for this year. Six volunteers were present so we got the scythes out and made a start on the welcome area grass just inside the entrance near the tool store.

The grass here is getting quite long and tussocky and needs a good trim.

Looking to the right of the entrance along the path towards post 2 you can see that the grass to the right hand side of the path is also growing longer and could do with being trimmed, but ...

... with these bluebells, along with primroses and cowslips, growing in it, we will have to wait a while before doing that.

Eric, Erika, Peter and Aidan scythed away the grass...

... Chris found some material beside the stream bed that needed to be cleared, and I dumped the cut grass and took some photos.

After a good mornings work we had cut most of the grass in the welcome area and look forward to doing it again soon!