Gardening at night

Philip and I went out on a Friday evening, in an attempt to plant some of the season's last trees. Back to High Brow at Meltham to add another 60 trees to the earlier planting. It rained a bit a the start, but then cleared up into a pleasant almost spring like evening. And the two of us planted 60 trees in under an hour and half. Which wasn't bad.

Oh, and the blog title is the title of an old REM song.

Carry on, mind that chicken. The sequel

Our second week at this site, and we were joined by Mrs Shires and Lindley infants OWLs group. Incredibly brave of them, condsidering it was a miserable rainy morning. The kids didn't seem to mind though, and another 400 or so trees got planted. Amazing progress. Thankyou again to Yolande for organising, and for all the parents and children who joined in. Lets hope the weather is nicer next time. I took no photos this week, as it was a bit wet, and I have to admit I'd left the batteries in the charger anyway. So thank you to Duncan for the picture. In just two Saturdays around 1000 trees got planted on this site, pretty darn impressive.

Carry on, mind that chicken!

Dave, Duncan, Neil, and chicken, and whiskey.

Our first week at Glen View Marsden, where there are quite a lot of trees to be planted. Thanks to Brian we had a good turnout, with Richard, Roger and Ramsay joining us. Old stalwarts comprised me, Philip, Neil, Dave, Trevor, Peter, Brian, Geoff, Heidi, Duncan - and making a special guest appearance Ali. Neil and Sarah the landowners also pitched in, and were a bit taken aback at how speedy we were. We planted around 400 trees, which is a good mornings work. We were mildly harassed by chickens, who were excitedly looking for worms even before we had finished digging a hole. Homemade biscuits at break time. And Whiskey courtesy of Brian. Weather was kind to us, cool at first, but brightening up at the end. Fingers crossed for next week at the same site. Down the hill to the Riverhead afterwards, though some of the mature chaps went to the Vineyard, the gentlemen only club at Slaithwaite (imagine a cross between Last of the Summer Wine, and Deliverance).

Ali adopts a chicken.

Trevor surveys the distance.

Huck Hill. Will plant for soup.

The soup that was not.

Third and last week of this season at Huck Hill, and we got the majority of the 600 trees planted over the three weeks. Some were left for Iain the landowner to do later when his scrape and pond liner are in place. Weather was mixed, some drizzle and lots of low cloud, but once or twice there was a bit of brightness and a view. Lots of extra volunteers again, thanks to Rob and Mick, and to Diane and several friends. Diane had brought soup along, but her camping stove had run out of gas. So we had to make do with the home made lemon drizzle cake and luxury biscuits provided by Ian. Its nice working up at Huck Hill, but a long slog getting up there.

Apologies for not writing this sooner, Ali.

Assembled throng.

Hubris at Huck Hill

Dave, in the mist.

Well, I shouldn't have been so delighted with last week. This week was a bit more grim. Same site, entirely different weather, foggy, with snow and sleet. Plus we were in a different part of the site, which had tough grass alternated with boggy bits. Hard going. Geoff was doing more filming, we are getting used to his prescence. Our happy band consisted of Trevor, Peter, Brian, Neil, Geoff, Dave, myself, and Iain the landowner. One more week on this site should do it, it jolly well better, we still have a ton of trees to do elsewhere. It was nice warming up in the pub afterwards. Sorry, nearly forgot Duncan, who struggled manfully up the hill, but then got poorly with his asthma and had to go home.

Geoff, the docu-mentalist.

Glory, glory, glory!

Geoff and Philip on the horizon.

It is one of the unwritten rules of this lark, that the most glorious morning of the season will be the one when hardly anyone turns up. Your loss, people. It was stunning up there this morning. True, it was cold, and there was a little snow on the ground, but the sky was deep blue and the sun shone. We were high up above the Tunnel End and Canal centre at Marsden. We planted there two seasons ago, and we have a new moorland fringe field to plant up with 600 trees this season. Iain the landowner joined myself, Philip, Dave, Geoff and Diane. We had a lovely time and ate very substantial apple flapjack. Geoff made a start on his documentary about us.

Honestly, there is nothing like a bit of hard work, on a cold sunny morning, up high on a snowy hill.

Looking back down towards where we had to climb up

A cunning plan.

High Ridge, Meltham

A pleasant morning planting 185 trees in a field overlooking Meltham. We were mob-handed, with help from Richard and Roger, as well as Angie and friends from the Slubbing Billies. The usual suspects were also at work, Philip, Dave, Dan, Brian, Trevor, Peter, Geoff and myself. Fine weather and the job got done in quick time. Then on to the Mid season meeting at the Sair (pub).

Guerrillas in the mist - Wholestone Moor

Trevor, Philip, Diane and Brian

Another week at Wholestone Moor, and another variety of weather. This time thick fog. Got plenty done, in a nice convivial atmosphere. We have planted around 700 trees here so far, and will now wait until the fencing contractor has been and done his work, then we will return and plant alongside the new fence. This weeks cake was a rather crumbly but delicious apple cake. Someone (ungrateful cur) only rated it 7/10, so it'll be plain cream crackers for them in future. We did do a little bit of cheeky guerrilla planting today, slightly over the boundary of where we should have been. Wild and crazy us.

Wholestone Moor week 3 - good in parts

Neil, Philip, Dave, Heidi, Geoff, Duncan, and Matt - Trevor and Brian in the distance, somewhere

A very cold day, and the atmosphere wasn't just meteorological. There needs to be some sort of tree society Oath that everyone takes, including promises not to criticise or correct other volunteers work, and not to argue unecessarily. Ask not what your tree society can do for you, but what you can do for your tree society. Aside from all that, we had a productive morning, in brilliant cold sunshine. Probably planted around 250 trees again, which wasn't bad going given that some were frozen solid and unplantable. Lets hope those trees thaw for next week, and that some of those frozen people skills also warm up.

Wholestone Moor - Finally we get to plant some trees!

Dan and Dave figure out which trees are which.

Officially then this is the second week at Wholestone Moor, a very large shelter belt site between farmland and the M62, but in reality this was the first week of real planting. I think we managed to plant over 200 trees, which wasn't bad going after having to transport the trees to the site, and acquaint everyone with the planting plan. Still deep snow in some places, and Trevor, who is six foot four, managed to go groin deep into a snow drift. So that gives you some idea. Cake was a luxurious bakewell tart. Other notable topic of the morning, Dan's new realtree multifunction gloves, with "trigger finger" (or nose picking) capability.

Winter madness

Philip knee deep, Neil in the background.

Well, it has begun to thaw, and we were determined to do something rather than nothing. So we went to Wholestone Moor to dig some holes. Snow was about 3 ft deep in places so it was a bit of a fools errand. Still, we got some fresh air and exercise, took some nice pictures, and had some nice cake. Cake was a lovely date and brazil nut affair, but Cath had her own date-less portion.

The Cath in the hat.

Slaithwaite Spa

Before, annoying tree in way.

After, much nicer view of Spa Mill

We are still up to our ears in snow, so we opted for some maintenance work this morning. The Society planted trees at Slaithwaite Spa some years ago, and the friends of Slaithwaite Spa had asked us to come back and trim or remove some trees that had begun to obscure the view of the valley from the benches. Its Kirklees land, so the Environment unit had been advised. Philip had his trusty chainsaw (plus safety trousers, helmet, gloves and ear protectors), and he was joined by Duncan, Guy, Heidi, Dave and myself. We had a pretty good time, though it was damned hard work because the trees in question were planted on a very steep slope. Duncan has kindly provided some great photos. There is a before and after pic after Philip took down the main offender tree, a pic of Philip at work, and a pic of me pinned under a bit of tree that I had just dragged down the slope. Oh, and we went to the Commercial afterwards for a rest and a pint.

Foolish boy

Man at work

Rotcher Wood community orchard

Duncan, Philip and Cath digging away.

The site we were going to go to was inaccessible this morning, and the little trees would be frozen together solidly anyway. So, instead Duncan took us to the Rotcher Wood community orchard, where we dug out some Oak trees that will be in the way of the fruit tree planting there. Very cold, until you got digging, but then I soon managed to get down to a t-shirt. We took away about 30 small trees and placed them in a trench in Duncan's back garden, so that we can replant them elsewhere on another day.Duncan saves a tree.

Bare rooted trees "healed-in" to the trench in Duncan's garden.

Winter Hill, Hemplow and Wholestone moor

Brian graciously accepting tea from the landowner.

Bit of a three-for-one deal this morning, with people headed off in all directions. Dave and Neil transported materials off to our next big site. Guy, Duncan and Heidi went back to Hemplow/Butterley. Myself, Philip, Geoff, Brian, Peter and Trevor went to Winter Hill and planted 90 trees in a small field there. Owner was very nice and brought us tea on a tray. Our cake was jam buns, as pictured. V.good. An excellent morning, the weather was passable, and later worked itself up into a lovely sunny winter's day. And the Sair has started serving its own beer again! Turned out nice again.

Trevor striding purposefully past his work.

Oh, and Neil pointed out that the blog had had some unsavory content added via the comment section. Don't panic, I have blocked the offending material. It actually was pretty mild pictures of a scantily clad young Chinese woman, and all the text appeared to be in Chinese too. We must have followers in that part of the world.

Heidi, Guy, Neil and Dave at Butterley

Hemplow Wood week 3

Cath, Me (Simon) and fruit cake.The pool behind me is known as the swimming pool, though I wouldn't want to.

Here we are again at Hemplow Wood, nearly done, just some tidying up to do next week. 250 trees added to this bit of Butterley Clough, and 150 Holly and Hawthorn to go further round overlooking the reservoir. Nice classic (appropriate use of the word) fruit cake this morning.

Trevor, Cath, Neil (waving) and Dan.

Hemplow Wood week 2

Ooh it looked horrible when we woke up this morning, sleeting. But that stopped and it turned out quite nice. Up to Hemplow Wood again. Dave and I were elsewhere ferrying planting materials around in car and trailer, but Cath, Geoff, Duncan, Neil and Diane did sterling work. Thanks to Duncan for the pictures. Cake was Carrot, though my mum seemed to have chucked a lot of other stuff in there as well...

Hemplow Wood

First day of actual real planting of the season, and we are at Hemplow Wood, next to Butterley Reservoir. Its a long walk from the nearest parking, and we had to carry all the kit over there. So it was a late start actually digging, and we got 50 trees planted. Lovely spot though, if a bit steep and rocky. First gratuitous cake picture of the year, fresh buttered scones.

All publicity is good publicity

Today I put up a small recruitment display in the Marsden Information point window. Just an A3 poster, some waymarkers, a mattock, and a t-shirt. Maybe someone will be enticed by the stylish t-shirt...

Nursery work

Still no trees to plant! So we did a substantial amount of tidying up at the Nursery. I am going to fetch several hundred trees myself this week, so it will be planting as normal next saturday. And we will be getting our proper delivery for the season soon.

Merrydale encore une fois

Another Saturday spent up Merrydale, we all know it well by now. Not the most dynamic of starts to the season, but we will survive.

First day of the 2009/10 season

Old tubes gathered, and old volunteers in the background.

First day of our new season, and what are we doing? We are up Merrydale again retrieving stakes and guards. Well, it does need doing. We haven't quite finalised our tree order for this year, as we are still waiting for a cheque to arrive in the post (Kirklees!). Still the weather was pleasant, and maintenance is part of our work. A core of old stalwarts, myself, Philip, Neil and Geoff were joined by special guests Steve and Chelsea, and Neil and Sarah.

Philip looking heroically into the distance, in big waterproof pants

New season recruitment poster

The joys of Photoshop

Merrydale, and more new sites

 

Another Saturday up Merrydale. Not quite such nice weather, as you can see from the Philip's and Neil's rainwear. Later on we went and visited some very nice people who would like us to help them plant trees in their  field above Marsden. 

Merrydale once more

There are an awful lot of stakes and guards up Merrydale. Serves us right for planting so many trees. Myself, Philip and Dave this morning, with a box of homemade biscuits. Philip and I left for an hour to go and visit a landowner and discuss some planting next to the M62. Sadly my camera had run out of batteries, so no pictures of today. But trust me, we worked hard and collected around 120 stakes to be reused, and filled a bag of old guards to be disposed of. Another lovely Autumn morning.

More Merrydale

Yet another trip up Merrydale to merrily gather stakes and guards. Just myself, Guy and Dan. Lovely September morning, almost an Indian Summer day. The cake of the day was coconut.

First attempt at propagating Holly

So, this is my first attempt at propagating Holly, which is a relatively expensive tree for us to buy. Collected cuttings of new growth in mid-September. Cut the cuttings quarter inch below a leaf. Trimmed off all but two or three leaves. Wet the base and dipped it in organic rooting compound.  Placed the cutting in a root trainer cell, having first poked a hole with a pencil in the general purpose compost. They will be kept outside on my mum's allotment. 2 hours work, but if they grow it saves us £30. Coming soon... Hawthorn!

Site visits

Clockwise: Well house farm, White Hall Barn, Philip at Green Owlers

 

A lovely saturday morning for some site visits. Philip and I went up to Well House farm first. This site had suffered from sheep attack soon after the first planting, so we were eager to see how things were going. Subsequent growth of both trees and grass shows that the field is now secure. There were some Hawthorn that had never recovered from being nibbled, and some strangely failed Scots pine. But other than that it looked good.

Next visit was Green Owlers. Again, our nemesis the sheep have attacked. It looked like a sheep or two had got in recently and nibbled lots of the tops out of the new trees. Very few were showing above the tops of the guards, but all were healthy inside. The owners son assured us that they were on the case as far as further sheep ingress was concerned, and they even had an electric fence down one side.

Just up the road was White Hall Barn. No sheep can get in there, and the owner has been carefully strimming around the trees to ensure them lots of light. Looks good.

Next we went up to Merrydale to look for Duncan, we collected some stakes and guards and took them off site.

Last port of call was to see a householder over by Jerusalem farm at Linthwaite. We discussed planting a windbreak down one side of the field behind his cottage. A small job for us, but every little helps.