Thursday 8th June 2023

Multi-Tasking

Today we powered into multi-tasking mode. As part of our move towards getting volunteers on power tools Valerie continued her training on the petrol lawnmower.

After another read of the instruction manual and a brief refresher session with myself, she was off mowing, complete with new safety boots.

The end result was the beautifully manicured grass borders at the entrance to the arboretum.

The Herbarium

Following on from our demonstration of flower pressing by Dr John Bailey, we made a start on putting together our own herbarium featuring specimens from around the arboretum.

Jennie had willingly volunteered last week to give it a shot, and armed with some fairly dry cuttings that I took at the weekend began experimention.

We have a laminator, a basic home-made flower press, a microwave, drying paper and thanks to Jennie the determination to put together a routine for collecting pressing and mounting samples. First results are very encouraging. Some of the samples were probably not dry enough, but 3 or 4 came out very nicely, and are certainly good enough to start our collection.

Knowing Jenny's persistence and patience she will become quite the expert in no time and we shall soon be steadily adding good quality samples to our collection.

The Hollies And Some Ivy

The rest of the crew got stuck into our favourite pass time. Cutting back unwanted growth around specimen trees.

This time we started to clear around our holly trees. We have a small grove of them near the bottom end of the arboretum.

By mid morning the cold start had passed and the sun was splitting the trees. Great weather for working outdoors.

As usual I was astounded by how much the team managed to clear. I am continually surprised by the quantity of work we get through. Well done, everyone !

Berry Good

Finally, a small job that has been on the to do list for a while. We have two red currants which have been sitting in our tree nursery area for a while.

Now that we are in a warm dry spell, they have been suffering a little when I have forgotten to water them. I was determined to get them out of their containers and into the ground before they were lost.

We already have an area near the top gate where currants are planted. It took a short time to prepare the ground and drop the two new additions in. Musn't forget to water them occasionally !