Birstwith - 2nd, Glasshouses - 3rd and Pateley Bridge - 7th March 2023

 

  Plant, prune and lay!

The NCVs have had the opportunity to do a triple duty over the last seven days and quite a few rose to the challenge.

• Last Thursday a group of eight sped off to High Birstwith to plant trees at Martin House and managed to plant a good number. The clock is ticking for any planting jobs now as the spring has sprung and the sap is rising. Here they are in action...

 

As usual - tree stakes and guards 

were laid out in position first.

 

 

Knocking in the stakes was helped by 

the use of this handy little stake knocker-inner.

 

 

 Then it was all spades to the pump in order to 

plant as many of the stakes up as possible.

Sarah's performance was closely checked

 by a nearby Highland cow that 

had volunteered to be quality 

controller for the day.

 

A sit on a comfy seat and ....

...a piece of cake at breaktime was much appreciated.

(Thanks Sue and Ian!)

• Last Friday  three returned to continue working along the top wall line of the SSSI woodland below Guisecliff, removing any overhanging branches to enable a new fence to be built. Regular readers of the blog will recall that the last time the NCVs worked here they were fighting off a Jabberwocky. There were no such worries this time....

 

Yes - thought Ken - this fence clearly

does need to be replaced!!! 

Will made a gallant effort to prune back the 

branches that would be in the way of the fencer.

 

 

Having checked that the fire is burning well, 

Dave adjused his gloves before heading 

off to do further pruning. 

• Today a much bigger group answered the call to arms - this time to lay the hedge at the Sunflowers nursery in Pateley Bridge that was prepared back in the middle of January. Again - this is the kind of job that has to be done asap, as the trees within the hedge are all starting to sprout. Let's see how far they got....

  

 

Two stretches of hedge, planted  

about 15 years ago, lay in wait.

 

Firstly, as always, there was a lot

 of thinning out to do - both along the front

and around the back.

 

 

 

Dave, smiling as always,

 got busy clearing the brash. 

 

Julia, too, gathered up armfuls

of the deadly blackthorn.

 

Down the path it went to the processing 

area which soon got overwhelmed.

Half inch down sticks could be thrown 

over to the chippers. The big stuff had to 

be put in a separate pile.

As the NCVs could gradually see the 

wood for the trees, laying could begin.

 

 Things were not so easy down on the other stretch. 

Big  holly stems and tangled blackthorn 

caused all kinds of problems.

However - there was a good deal of hilarity

(between the cursing!) 

 

Lunchtime in the warm sunshine was a treat. 

(Note the spectacular view for the children 

in the nursery and high school next door.)

By close of play a good section of stretch A....

 

...and a good section of stretch B had been laid.

 

Brenda and Anita utilised one of the nursery's

 mini-wheelbarrows to collect up the small clippings. 

Unfortunately the chipper machine 

went on strike at about 1:45pm so 

all the brash had to be piled up, as tidily

 as possible, until our return next week.

A Special Message

Today was honarary NCV Harry's 9th birthday.

Happy Birthday Harry!!

🙂🎂

Days from a bygone age number 11

Now - who could this possibly be hiding behind the facial hair? Take a guess and check next week's blog to see if you were right.