A bit of a caper

The Easter break covered the first two weeks of April 2023.

I began with a litter pick covering the whole of the park. By the time I finished the western side, I had managed to fill a sack full (again mainly bottles and cans), fortunately the rest of the park wasn't too bad, especially for a holiday period.

During the litter pick I came across an unusual looking plant that was growing along the fence-line. Using google lens, I quickly discovered that it was Caper Spurge and part of the euphorbia family. 

As Amy was away, I later assisted Matt the warden with removing some of the old iron fencing that still exists in parts of the woodland. This dates back to mid 19th century but is not particularly visible, as it covered by vegetation or been flattened and buried (in some cases, trees have grown around the wire that runs between the posts!). 

Matt used an angle grinder to cut through the posts. Unfortunately they are too deep in the ground to remove the whole post. I used bolt croppers to cut the wire and unthread it from the posts or haul it out of the ground where it was buried.

We managed to clear a couple of areas where it was sufficiently accessible, and load it into the truck.

The second week of the holiday involved a mornings worth of strimming, mainly around benches and planted beds. The grass, nettles & weeds etc are really starting to grow, so we can expect more of the same from now on. 

Having cleared one of the planted beds, we then mulched it with three truck loads of woodchip, tipping it and then racking it across the bed.

Unfortunately, the next job involved pulling up the Caper Spurge I had discovered the previous week. Apparently, all parts of the plant, including the seeds and roots are poisonous and can spread very quickly. Using gloves to protect us from skin irritation, we carefully removed them by their roots and bagged them up for disposal.

On a brighter note, I managed to get a photo of the beginnings of a new apple orchard. Hopefully, this will be added to in time and make the park even more beautiful.