Sometimes the workers need a break: a mathematician, an ecological conservator, and an agronomist exchange notes while taking a breather from the hard task of removing laurel stumps. We hope to clear this by the end of the month and plant with sage bushes in preparation for a sundial which has been promised for the memorial garden. Well done lads……
And that was a Brazilian, a Canadian and an Indian, so I think we are doing well on the diversity scales!
We were also visited by an ex volunteer and old friend from the Isle of Wight, so we had a splendid time in the sunshine with 17 people out all morning enjoying the sun, the work, and the company.
The redstarts are still around: a flock of about 20 has been a regular visitor in the park. And the Goldcrests have been around as well. It is a pleasure to watch them. They are like little hummingbirds.
A couple from the Ailanthus stump which I haven’t identified.
Sunday 16 Feb. A nice morning, dry but cold, with a good turnout and plenty was done. Sunderland street edged and weeded, and the Memorial Garden had the front lawn edged, and the laurels and privet removed from round our splendid Wintersweet. This will give it more light and we might underplant with something nice when the laurel root has died. We also trimmed the Ailanthus sprouts from around the Stump. This is a plant that should be taken out completely in the park as they are invasive, short lived and can cause a lot of damage when they fall. We have three other fully grown trees. At least we can control this one.
Thursday 13 th Feb, we had a splendid turnout from Your Park Volunteers with Carol Sgtone and Mali Kedward, to provide a dead hedge to fill in a gap in the boundary hedge on Henrietta Mews.
Great Job 🙂
Your Park dead hedging
Another surprisingly decent morning’s gardening with 10 of us out despite the apparent gloom. 100 wood anemones planted in the woodland bed in the Memorial Garden, and the roses in the Sunderland Street entrance have been pruned. We will be going out next week to discuss tree planting with the council tree planting officer as we have had a three offers of trees. This is very welcome as so many have come down over the last 3 years, and two more need to be taken out. the Narcissi are coming out as are the crocuses, and here are a couple of other flowers and a lovely fungus for you to find in the park…and don’t forget to see the frog spawn. And finally we are starting a WhatsApp group for the park, mostly for the gardeners, but everyone is welcome…..
A man on a bike with a trailer stole all but half a dozen of the logs that we had cut on Thursday morning between Thursday evening and Saturday night. He was seen, and we know he went down the canal towards Bathampton. I cycled to Claverton just now but there were no logs and no further sightings from the canal people, so he might have gone to Larkhall. Disappointing, as now we can’t make a path through the proposed fernery. Never mind…
The crocuses have taken a beating this year, but the Snowdrops and Aconites and the Narcissus bulbocodium are in flower. The rest of the narcissi are in full growth,
George came and cut the logs into manageable sections for us. And several people have suggested we make a walkway out of the smaller ones. We will come up with a plan :–)
Thanks to all the hard work from our Gardening Volunteer Team, the “Your Park” volunteers, and to Jane Robson from the Parks team, whose initial idea it was, we were awarded the winners certificate in the Community Connectors category for the Fernery. This has been taking shape over the last three months between the loos and the main entrance on Henrietta Street. We have been clearing the patch of laurel surrounding the logs and stumps of trees cut down and trimmed over the last year, and which provided shelter for unlicensed commercial activities. We will be cutting and arranging logs, bringing our some stone from the compound, spreading compost and chippings, and then sowing with a range of woodland herbaceous plants but primarily ferns. We may plant two small native trees to provide some shade, say Sorbus aria, the Whitebeam, several species of which are native to the Avon Gorge. The full write up will appear in our awards pages soon.
A splendid event in the newly refurbished Beacon was much appreciated, and thanks go to the Bristol and Bath Your Parks team for providing so much support now that the Council have cut the Parks team so much. The street photo shows we were definitely in Bristol…
Good to see budding artists and marine biologists at work in the park….
Street art: Octopus . a future marine biologist
