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| Lonely little tree on the edge. |
Up beyond Eastergate, Marsden today. Bracken-bashing some of the National Trust trees. It seems doubly important given how many did not survive the fire. The ones left need plenty of light, and less competiton from other plants.
We were; Geoff, Tanya, Jess, myself, Philip, and Dan.
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| Me in my hi vis and camo combo outfit. |
This morning we up above Slaithwaite weeding some hedgerows we previously planted. Which does of course mean we had to have a debate and make tough decisions about whether the pretty flowers were less important than the future hedgerow. Given that hedges are rarer than flowers round here the hedges won, and the flowers are dead, or at least roughed up a bit.
We were; myself, Geoff, Kara, Dan, Tanya, Jim, Philip, Asad, and Peter.
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| Dan, battling brambles. |
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| Tiny tree, regrowing after fire. |
So today we were helping the National Trust identify and protect trees caught in last year's big moor fire to the west of Marsden. Lots didn't survive, but we found 300 that did, in just one morning. We have noticed from previous fires that seemingly dead trees will sprout again from the roots. But they are then tiny seedlings struggling against the rest of the vegetation around them. So for the 300 survivors we found we put new low profile plastic tubes on them to give them a better chance. This sort of work is very labour intensive, but quite satisfying. Weather helped, sunny with a good breeze.
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| Dave, Geoff and Dianne |
We were; myself, Tanya, Dianne, Jim, Philip, Geoff, Dave, Peter, and Kara.
https://youtu.be/R0vKLi6VgqA?si=I90b9up2kXn-RgUM And yes, reader, I own this record.
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| Ben tries to recharge by sitting under power lines. |
| Myself, Dave, Stephen, Ben and Paul were at Clark Hill giving a struggling hedge some tlc. 45 new plants were added, and many more were straightened, weeded, re-guarded. |
https://youtu.be/DbTG9YTbdc0?si=fo2ytbrFcZJUrJZp
Meanwhile...
Jess, Peter, Dan and Tanya completed the final 10m of the hedge planted earlier this season Crowther Laithe, Marden with some 40 plants (25 blackthorn, 15 hawthorn, 1 elm, 2 hazel), whilst I (Geoff) straightened and replaced guards and stakes from the contiguous hedge section done last year.
After break, Geoff, Jess, Dan and Tanya went up to the top hedge section of the Crowther Laithe plantings of 24/25 season to beat up some trees that died in last year's drought (10 hazel, 6 birch) and replace a fair few of the canes and spirals with hare guards and do general required maintenance on the rest due to severe weather battering the site had taken in the winter.
The major majority of plants from both sections are growing well, and the site now looks quite ship-shape. We finished the work just after 1.00pm. Nice photo from top section attached.
Meanwhile also...
Philip, Jonathan, Tarun and Andrew planted some 40 trees (25 oak, 10 rowan, 2 silver birch) on adjacent land with a different owner, slightly down the hill from Crowther Laithe
