Beetlemania

By the session leaders:

“Nice sunny day!” called out one volunteer as we arrived – wholly ironically, for there was a distinct nip in the air:

Another recalled that dawn had been so spectacular that for a moment she had wondered if it was the Aurora Borealis come unusually far south.

In this case, however, ‘red at morning’ proved to be good news.  For it rained just enough early on in in the day that the main task scheduled for us – painting outdoor furniture – was off.  From PoV of volunteers this was good, because Green-Gymmers prefer sessions which are “a bit more physical.”

There was certainly plenty of ‘physical’ on offer, and the range of tasks was definitely unusual, even for this site.  First there was outdoor-furniture moving, as soon as site staff had turned up with the key to a gate:

Take it from us: pulling a trolley loaded with a table, across uneven, claggy ground is quite physical.  The furniture then had to be tested, according to the strict health & safety regulations which apply to all poolside patio furnishings:

Then there was the digging.  Lots of digging.  One group was digging around the sides of a compost heap, which was threatening to overwhelm the fencing around it.  To mark International Women’s Day, we shall give you photos which – when it comes to the ‘physical’ – feature the women in the team:

Male and female alike, members of the group still had time and breath left to engage in another important Green-Gym activity: chatting. 

First topic today (for reasons not entirely clear to us, except that one of our number is a devoted Devonian): when consuming scones, is it jam before cream, or cream first, then a layer of jam?  Answer: “There’s no right way, except my way: cream – jam – cream again.”

Spurred on by dreams of summer and clotted-cream teas, the group shifted large quantities of compost away from the fence, to prevent the posts from rotting ...

and attached (precision work, this) a barrier to protect from further damage:

Deep in the woods, a third group was definitely acting in a suspicious manner:

A closer look suggested that “constructing a beetle-habitat” might be just another term for ‘digging’.  Specifically, digging a hole in the ground:

The specification for this particular roundish hole was that it should be 60 cm deep.  

By tea-break, it was 40 cm deep.

By then, normal Green-Gym weather-service had resumed.  The sun was not quite out, but the day had fined up nicely.

Re-invigorated by traditional Green-Gym tea/coffee and cake (or fruit, for the one keeping Lent), the workforce soon took the excavation down to the required depth.  Then the task became more artistic, for into the hole were placed pieces of rotten wood, which will apparently make for the perfect residence for stag-beetle larvae:

As the larvae may spend up to 7 years there, it is important that their dream home in the country is constructed to the highest standard.  Here volunteers are not so much fixing a hole as adding the finishing touches to meet the exacting requirements of the most discerning of customers:

Meanwhile, the compost-heap repair and maintenance being completed ...

after the break some of that workforce was re-assigned to repair and maintenance of the French drain we had built in a previous season.  The drain (a trench filled with pebbles) was working well enough to direct surface- and groundwater away from the nearby study centre.  The pebbles, however, in settling had sunk below the level of the path; and that had created a trip hazard.  A top-up of material was therefore required:

This job too was finished off to the satisfaction of some highly dedicated workers:

No mole hill was disrupted in the landscaping of this French drain

At session end there was some discussion about what the finished piece of domestic architecture should be called.  Although there was some talk of it resembling the work of Antoni Gaudí, in the end it was decided that the beetles’ new home had to be designated The Cavern:

On Angel Wings

Now that’s what I call Green-Gym weather: 

Unfortunately, that was yesterday: spring bank-holiday Monday, when buttercups stood by in their thousands to bless one’s boots with gold.  Today, at start of play, was chilly, wet, and windy:

“Your car looks as if it’s been to a wedding”

Nothing daunted, Green-Gymmers simply donned wellingtons and waterproofs, and set to.  Tasks on offer today:

• “Building dry-storage areas”, ie mini-sheds 

• “Removing invasive variegated yellow archangel” 

• “Painting outdoor furniture” – should the weather clear 

• “Putting in French drains (a short stretch by the Study Centre)” – given the forecast, this seemed a more likely option for today

A ‘French drain’ was a new one on most Green-Gymmers: a drain without a pipe (which may seem a contradiction in terms), to carry away surface water.  Essentially: a trench, filled with gravel.  Gradient: between 1 and 6% (1-6” drop for every 100’ length).

It took us a little while to get our heads round this concept.  Even more so, when we spotted a site warden delivering what looked very like a long length of flexible pipe:

“Why are you pulling that?”

A: “Have you tried pushing it?”

“Why is it called a ‘French’ drain?”

A: “Because you drink a bottle of red wine before digging.”

Joking aside, it soon became pretty clear that what was being asked for was not quite a classic ‘French’ (or ‘agricultural’) drain.  However, all that really mattered was to construct any kind of drain by any name, as long as it did the job – although, as volunteers cheerfully pointed out, “We’re on minimum, minimum, minimum wage!”  So site warden might have to be content with whatever she got.

Site warden explained what was needed:

Green-Gymmers started digging:

There was also a secondary task: moving those materials, which had proved surplus to requirement in construction of the study-centre patio, back to the shed-area.  In the first surge of enthusiasm at the start of a Green-Gym session, volunteers initially did this entirely by hand – looking, as someone else remarked, “like members of some strange religious sect, each carrying a paving stone, as penance for their sins.” 

However, a degree of mechanisation was soon introduced.  Here, in a moment of playfulness (and a brief outbreak of sunshine), a volunteer waits for the transport to arrive:

Transport, when it was arranged, evolved into a convoy system:

Materials safely re-located, those volunteers not deployed to the trench could divide into two groups.  One column advanced against the non-native plant-species.   ‘Variegated yellow archangel’ (Lamiastrum galeobdolon subsp. argentatum) is slightly misnamed.  It is quite pretty, producing bright yellow flowers, and although related to the nettle, does not sting:

It is, after all, prized as an ornamental plant by horticulturalists.  Strictly speaking, however, it is not ‘variegated’.  The blotches are caused not by absence of pigmentation, but by air pockets within the cell structure of the leaves. 

Even so, variegated yellow archangel is a blot on the landscape: OK in a garden; not OK in a nature reserve.  Unchecked, it spreads rapidly, crowding out other species such as native archangel, bluebells, etc.  This is one Archangel you do not want in your neighbourhood.

In the UK, it has only been recorded in the wild since the 1960s.  Before then, it appears to have been cultivated by gardeners, possibly as far back as Victorian times (when there was a vogue for ‘variegated’ plants), for the very ground-covering properties which make it such a nuisance now in the wild – or anywhere else where people would prefer a bit more bio-diversity.

The good news for those trying to deal with it, is that variegated yellow archangel does not have deep roots.  So it can be pulled by hand relatively easily:

The bad news is that it grows thickly …

and that authorities the world over agree it has to be dealt with by “manual clearance (labour-intensive)”.  Chemicals alone, nor intensive mowing, will not do the job.  Enter Green Gym:

Green-Gym Force #3 had accepted the challenge of using old wood creatively, to construct a storage unit.  Step 1 was to clear the construction site:

Step 2, to come up with a design.  Plan A:

“Surely we must be able to use this …”

“Perhaps if we lift it up …”

“… and move it over here”

“Or perhaps we should stop and think about it over tea-break”

The trench-diggers were also glad of a break.  For once the sun came out on a slightly more permanent basis, the temperature rose rapidly:

Note, in the background, signs of the work being done on electrification of the railway line:
a topic of hot conversation at tea-break

And at least one creature was glad to see the humans pause, for here was one – a ‘solitary bee’ – which had inadvertently been made homeless by the works:

A female Ashy Mining Bee (Andrena cineraria)

After the break, it was more of the same for Teams Drain-Pipe and Archangel.  The Creative-Construction team, on reflection, switched to Plan B:

By session end, the finishing touches were being applied to the new storage area:

This was pronounced to be a “perfect” home for wheelbarrows – or “a rest-home for old wheelbarrows”, depending on who one listened to.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the site, I found members of the Green-Gym Drain Team cleaning up the work area …

 

and standing back to admire their work:

Now we wait for the next serious rainfall, to find out how well the drain works.  And next time we are on site, we shall be able to see if the shed is still standing, and whether variegated yellow archangel has made an immediate come-back in the area which we think we have cleared.