A day at the Beech

It is now October 2022 and first up was to plant a 'Friends of Catton Park' tree (Texana Oak), complete with metal cage and woodchip mulching.

Next, we planted 2 Hawthorn Trees, carried out more strimming, removed the 'tree bags'* for winter and did some more work on the willow tunnel (planting, pruning, shaping).

*Tree bags are designed to be filled with a hose, then slowly release the water directly onto the roots. These bags wrap around the base of a tree and provide a slow and persistent water source.

October was turning out to be very mild, but we had heavy rain on the 20th. We started with a litter pick and then had an early break to dry off!

One of the less pleasing jobs was to level the ground where a park bench had been removed, tape-off the area and scatter grass seed onto it. The reason for the removal was because the bench had been vandalised by fire. 😡

At the car park on Oak Lane, the sweet chestnut had covered the ground with it's bountiful fruit, so it was necessary to clear all the husks etc back to the fence-line.

The mild weather continued into November.

The beech hedge lining the Church Street entrance needed topping, roughly to the height of the fence. We used a scaffold tower and began lopping & sawing through the trunks & branches, which were then piled into heaps around the corner awaiting chipping. 

We must have taken 6-8ft off the height of the hedge. 

The entrance was then blasted with the leaf blower.

Before and after photos

Another delivery from the Woodland Trust meant that the next 2 weeks involved planting approximately 400 seedlings or whips! These were placed in existing beds to increase the cluster of plants. Canes and plastic guards were added for protection.

We were joined by a new volunteer (Ben) on the second week, which also included some path edging along the main route.