Wallingford Green Gym: Seeds of Love

By the session leader:

Seeds with love or at any rate, wildflower seeds, including cornflower, scattered with a gentle blessing on to soft ground lovingly prepared for them: that was the main task for us this week.

The tools laid out ready for us give an idea of the scale of the job …

and photographs from last summer show what we may hope for IDC:

The results of our work at the exact same spot last year

“The best show of wildflowers we’ve ever had”

There were times during the session when all twelve volunteers were engaged on the wildflower front, with the session leader following the excellent principal of leading by example:

‘Lifting and sifting’ was the name of the game: some of us lifted the soil with forks/spades (aka “plonk, dig and turn”); others winkled out the young grass, which apparently grows too vigorously to be allowed in a wildflower meadow (“shake, rattle and roll”). Notice the broken fork, giving rise to calls for “fork handles” – even so, still usable, indeed possibly the best tool for the job. Meanwhile, another fork broken in use in a previous session had been dutifully mended by our wonderful Tools Officer, and was proving well fit for purpose:

One special plant had managed to reseed itself and regrow. This was duly rescued and replanted:

Posts were also driven into the ground, so that the area can be roped off. It is hoped this will deter horse-riders from letting their mounts trample over the meadow-to-be.

By tea break, the wildflower-patch team reckoned they were just over half way.

Thankfully, after the break reinforcements were available, for in the course of the morning there were other small tasks, carried out by detachments from the main force. On the whole, the session leader just let us in the satellite group(s) just get on with it, unless we summoned help. “Everybody’s business is nobody’s business,” as the down-to-earth folk of Wisconsin say. These jobs were largely completed by tea-break.

The team working on clearing sections of ivy, which had potential to overhang the public right of way, had discovered (then re-covered) this Long-Tailed Tit’s nest:

Site staff were able to tell us that the birds use lichen and cobwebs to construct these remarkable little homes.

On the other side of the bridleway, vegetation either side of pathways for the local forest school had been cut back – a task requiring the volunteer to view the ground from PoV of user, and trim branches accordingly. The trick in this situation is not to leave spikes ready to poke in the eye someone who is only 3-4’ high.

Oh and a bramble bush was “rejuvenated”, ie razed to the ground, on the assurance that it will grow back with renewed vigour: