We began 'crown raising' in my last post, and I next spent the morning at a spot along the west woods which is a favourite of the Catton Park Runners. No doubt there'll be many more areas to come.
Next, we turned our attention to chopping down some dead elm trees near the 'squirrel sculpture'.
Firstly, we had to cut back and clear the surrounding vegetation.
We managed to down one of the smaller trees with a pruning saw.
After a cordon was put in place, Matt joined us with his chainsaw to fell the larger ones.
These were then chopped into smaller sections and dragged into the undergrowth behind.
Due to the continuous long dry spells this year, it was necessary to water the parkland trees.
Tabby has spent the last two days going round with the water bowser.
Unfortunately, even when full, the bowser can only really manage to satisfy 4 trees at a time.
Then it's a trip back to the lodge to refill.
I spent the morning strimming around as many park benches as I could (walking between benches with the heat and the weight of the strimmer soon saps your strength).
In between refilling the bowser, Tabby and I met up and headed to the entrance at Church Street in order to cut back the encroaching foliage. Tabby with the strimmer and myself using the hedge trimmer (another job off the list!).
Whilst Tabby continued with the watering, I sought as much shade as I could, litter picking and then cutting back further at various places as I happened upon them.
June 2026
More 'crown raising' and cutting back followed. This time it was along Oak Lane and St Faiths Road.
Dodging showers (made easier by working under the canopy of the trees), we cleared the fence-line from the car park to the start of buttercup meadow....
Absolutely covered in greenfly 😝 (I've been here before!).
St Faiths Road wasn't so bad as there was less sycamore, which the greenfly seem to love.
Here, we just concentrated on low branches and the worst outgrowth onto the pavement.
It's too long a stretch to include the strimming, raking and sweeping up. Fortunately, it isn't as dense as Oak Lane.
That said, we managed to clear a section from the ring road to the second park gate before the day ran out (good going I'd say for two of us).
The wet weather and the 'crown raising' continued, we also started a more thorough clearance of the fence-line back on St Faiths Road.
This photo gives you an idea of the intensity....
The vegetation has been cut back by about a metre, and all the leaves have been cleared from the pavement.
This needs to be done every two or three years.
With the return of much warmer and drier weather, it was decided that some of the parkland trees would benefit from having 'tree bags' fitted.
These bags wrap around the base of the tree and are then zipped up (see sample photo).
The bags are filled through a slot at the top of the liner (usually via a hose), which then slowly releases the water directly onto the roots.
Some of you may notice that the path through the east woods is a bit clearer.
Prior to fitting the 'tree bags', we spent the morning cutting back - mainly holly - to widen the route. The shade from the woods was a blessing on this hot and humid day.
More updates in a few weeks.
