Blackroc - Hard times

So we were back for our second and thankfully final week at Black Rock Mills. The ground remained very hard and hard going, with little topsoil for most of the planting area. We also had some problems applying the landscape architects planting plan in terms of the areas to be planted. But in the end, after some unnecessary stress and disagreements amongst ourselves, we think we got it done.

We were: Hap, Stephen, Adrian, Jess, Dave, Geoff, Philip, myself, Rob, Dianne and Lizzie the dog, and Ben. Plus two very willing and able Scouts.

Today we planted: 75 Dogwood, 75 Dog Rose, 75 Elder, 75 Hazel, 50 Rowan, 25 Bird Cherry, 25 Hawthorn, 45 Holly, 50 Sessile Oak.  495 plants total. Most of these were protected with canes and spirals. The larger tree varieties received 75cm stakes and guards.

Nice tune this week, both artist name and title appropriate:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VY-T_-Az_z4

Looks benign, but was actually a thin coat of soil on shale rock.

Today was first day of planting at Black Rock Mill site. We were: Stephen, myself, Philip, Dave, Geoff, Adrian, John, Peter, Susan, Ben, Cath, Steve, and Hap. We were joined by local councillors Rob and Nicola, and by a small but effective number of Scouts, and one member of the local Linthwaite volunteers.

We planted a total of 625 trees and shrubs. made up of: 25 Rowan, 25 Silver Birch, 25 Bird Cherry, 125 Elder, 100 Dogwood, 100 Dog Rose, 75 Field Maple, 25 Hawthorn, 100 Hazel, and 25 Holly.

Several of us were hard at work today, Thursday. Hap and Stephen went to Wessenden to try and finish off up there. Myself and Dave were at the Nursery to receive, count, sort and heal in the annual tree delivery. 3500 odd trees stakes and guards. There were some shenanigans over the order, but we got what we got given, rather than what we had really hoped for.

So macho!

Hap broke his mattock. Like it was a twig.

Back to the far end of Wessenden to attempt to finish there (didn't quite).

We were: myself, Hap, Philip, Adrian, Geoff, Jess, Dianne and Lizzie the dog, Stephen, Tanya, Steve and Dave.

We did take 30 Hazel, 90 Oak, 15 Willow, 15 Birch, 30 Rowan and 15 Birch Cherry. Unfortunately, due to rocky ground (and Hap's cavalier approach to tool care) we did bring back  11 Bird Cherry, 9 Willow, 20 Hazel and 26 Oak.

https://youtu.be/s7DqwRKqyMk

For the record, there are 350 deer guards, 400 deer stakes, 50 short guards and 50 short stakes stashed near the cliff.