UNDER, OVER, ROUND ABOUT....
Readers may remember the willow structures down near the River Nidd at Millenium Green, Pateley Bridge. They were created at different times within the recent past and, as is always the case with living willow structures, are now in need annual maintenance to keep them looking right. So, this week the NCVs were asked to prune and weave the two willow tunnels before they became impossible to deal with.
So - here they are at work....
This was the first one to be done -
twice the height it should be.
The tall stems above the lower half
needed bending over and weaving in.
OR - harvesting to repair the other tunnel.
Liz invited us all into the bowels of the
structure and demonstrated what to do.
"All you need to do is this, and this and this
and Bob's your Uncle."
Hmmm. It wasn't always that simple.
Things did go easily on the low growing stuff... 
"Could someone just grab hold of the end of this for me?"
But the majority was not low growing.
Anyone who was tall, like Mick,
was in constant demand.
"I can reach it. I can. I CAN!"
Occasionally plastic tree ties had to be deployed
to stop the bent over willow stems twanging back
into position and sending an NCV into orbit.
Newcomer George seemed to enjoy the challenge.
Eventually the inside started
looking more like a tunnel
and less like a jungle.
And as for the outside -
all it needed was a bit of tweaking...
...and there it was. Done!
Now - while all this was going on, an elite team of
tree checkers went to battle with the nettles
and brambles to see how many of the trees,
planted as a hedge last year, had survived.
Ken's face says it all.
There were casualties.
Lots of casualties!
It is unclear what the main cause was.
Overgrowth by vegetation;
extremely poor soil quality; delay in getting
the saplings into the ground during a hot spell?
Any or all of the above could be reason.
After coffee this same team were
given a more uplifting task.
"Just build a willow den out of this tatty
willow bush will you lads? Ta."
Without further ado, and using some
willow wands harvested from the
tunnel prunings next door, the lads got going.
In what seemed like only the blink of an eye,
the job was done.Ta Da!!
A den fit for a king (or three.)
"Ok. On to the final job of the day.
The caterpillar tunnel needs attention."
Caterpillar tunnel? What caterpillar tunnel?
Clearly, this structure was less vigorous.
In fact many stems had died.
Oh dear, oh dear. What a pathetic looking specimen.
"Right - we can do something with this.
Where are the harvested prunings?"
"That'll have do do. We've run out of material.
At least you can make out the
fact that it is there now."
"Just try it out for size Brenda, please."
No comments:
Post a Comment