There were 11 of this morning in pleasant conditions, being largely sheltered from the cold breeze that we encountered as we climbed the hill. The main task was planting 100 hawthorn whips donated by TCV, as well as 12 oaks grown by Diana from Sharphill acorns. The hawthorns were planted inside the fence, mostly along the southern edge (near the kissing gate) and more southerly parts of the western edge. These filled the main gaps identified when we surveyed the boundary last summer. This probably completes boundary planting, with the possible exception of some gaps on the eastern boundary, to be determined once fence repairs and work on the adjoining games area have been completed. There are plenty of places around the boundary where existing trees and shrubs are naturally extending out towards the fence, obviating the need for supplementary planting. Where we were planting on the western boundary, there were a couple of places where dead-hedging had rotted down or been removed, and we did some topping up.
Most of the oaks were planted in sunny positions among the whips, but two were deployed by the central path just south of the original “trial planting area”. A mini-work party in January had brush-cut a couple of scallops into the dense bramble here, and Mike and Bill spent a while this morning clearing the ground further and planting one oak in each scallop.
David and Celsa spent some time distributing stones to muddier sections of the western path.
The poor state of repair of much of the boundary fence is well known and has been reported to the developers who constructed it as part of the mitigation measures. However, this morning we found that a section at the top of the western boundary was leaning right over against whips planted in previous years, apparently because the posts had already rotted and were unable to stand up to recent gales. All we could do was lift the fence off the whips.
As usual, a fair amount of litter was collected, as well as some old canes and guards that had served their purpose.
John Elwell
