Cross O'Cliffe Hill Orchard, 24th January 2010
There was an excellent turnout of 19 volunteers for this task near South
Common. Welcome to 3 new volunteers, Steve, David and Karen. There were 2
jobs to be done: complete the hedgelaying we had almost finished last year
and cut down and burn some of the trees invading the old orchard.
For the scrub clearing, Richard, the volunteer warden had marked various
trees with green paint and we set about finding these and felling them ready
for the bonfire. The fire took a while to get going, but soon built
into a large LCG style inferno. Matt, the Lincs County Council
Conservation officer, advanced our task by using his chainsaw to fell and
cut up several of the larger trees.
The
hedgelaying party made good progress towards completing the final stretch of
hedge. Plenty of spare wood had to be removed before the laying began and a
smaller bonfire was started to dispose of that. Several volunteers had
the opportunity to learn this traditional hedge management technique from
the more experienced vols. Matt made good use of a folding pruning
saw, such that we have decided to buy a few of these for our tool
collection. Most of the laying had been completed by the end of the day,
although there was still some staking and binding to complete, which Matt
and Richard said they would be able to do soon.
All in all, a very enjoyable day, with only the drizzle that set in from
lunchtime to spoil it a bit.
Julian
(More photos on the LCG Picasa website)
