We did very well on this unscheduled work party only a week before Christmas. 14 volunteers turned out on a cloudy, breezy day to plant 10 oaks kindly donated by RBC. Intended to replace trees they donated 2 years ago that have either died entirely or are struggling, they arrived unexpectedly last week, before we had chance to prepare an area for them.
Rather than replant in the same location as the failed trees, the plan was to clear an area immediately south of the area where we first planted canopy trees 5 years ago, but this would have required substantial bramble clearance and might still have been too small to accommodate all 10 trees. Instead we found a variety of locations, mostly either side of the main path. We set about clearing the ground, digging fairly large holes in the clay for the substantial root balls, planting the trees along with plenty of fallen leaves as mulch, and installing stakes and ties.
Job done, thanks to everyone’s amazing help. But we also accomplished a few other things: Bill tried out the brush-cutter on some of the aforementioned bramble, producing a couple of “scallops” to reduce encroachment onto the path and hopefully improve biodiversity; young Cole picked litter and also tried his hand at cutting down a few invasive sycamore saplings; and David distributed more stones to some muddy sections of path.
Thanks to all, John.
