October volunteer day

Another lovely day in the woods today!

Following on from our recent open day, today was all about planting trees. We spent the morning clearing the necessary spaces, felling elder trees and undercutting nearby rhododendron. After a picnic lunch and the delivery of some emergency tea bags (thanks Debbie!), we started planting.

Today’s trees were a Mirbeck’s oak (Q. canariensis) an evergreen tree from the south of Spain and a rare Chinese dogwood (Cornus wilsoniana). Whilst digging a hole for the latter we unearthed lots of old crockery and bottles, including an old torpedo shaped Schweppe’s bottle (likely dating from 1830-1900), and we also found a very healthy looking slow worm!

Once in the ground we constructed fencing around the young trees to help protect them from deer and squirrels. These will now need regular weeding and with luck will grow happily and be enjoyed for many years to come.

A big thank you to everyone that came along!