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The primroses and bluebells are now long gone and have been replaced by lots of bracken and grass as you can see in the following photos.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