Archives for 2018

A Grotesque Welcome (1)

19th December 2018 By John Roper 3 Comments

We reported last month how a small team led by Harry erected the Fernery Welcome sign at the top of the Entrance Poles. See a Welcome Sign.

The next stage of the project to restore the Entrance Poles to their original state took a step forward on 1st December when Harry started trials to dress the poles in tree bark. This is how they would have been dressed originally, and termed ‘grotesque’.

This first experiment involved fixing battens with wire, and then nailing and gluing the bark to them . There will probably be several trials before we settle on the best method.

When that is done, we will select a final ‘live dressing’ of either ivy or some other evergreen climber which we hope will bind it all together.

See the next stage – Grotesque Welcome (2)

Report of Working Party – Thursday 13th December 2018

14th December 2018 By John Roper Leave a Comment

Weather and attendance

The 7-day weather forecast was quite wrong and we met on a beautiful bright day but with a very cold wind blowing from the East, which picked up as the morning progressed.

We welcomed new member Andrew Moffatt, and had a turnout totalling 17 volunteers

We also welcomed Ann MacDonald and Chris James from WHBC.

Tasks Completed

Planting

On the North Chalk Bank we planted more of Jenny’s wild flowers, and this group worked hard weeding out various strains of the dandelion family.

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is P1110252-1024x576.jpg — Wild Flower Planting – North Chalk Bed

Sarah and another small group worked on the edgings of the formal beds, planting Hearts-Tongue ferns (Phyllitis Scolopendrium) that Harry and Hilary had brought along.

Weeding

Small groups under Sarah’s direction carried out weeding on the Planting Beds and on pathways.

Gathering fallen leaves and tree detritus

Andrew and Colin ploughed their way through the pathways with leaf blowers, accompanied by a small fleet of volunteer rakers and leaf gatherers.

The leaf mulching cage was soon filled up and a second cage was immediately constructed, adjacent to the first, and this too began to rapidly fill.

Plant Protection

The Tree Fern (Dicksonia Antarctica) in the Central Bed had received Harry’s straw protection last month but this task was finished off with a total wrap for complete winter protection.

Publicity

On Monday 3rd December Lucy gave a Presentation to the WGC WEA, who generously donated £50 to our funds.
On Wedneday 12th December 2018, the Welwyn Hatfield Times Magazine published a full article about the work of the volunteers at Danesbury Fernery.
Ann Macdonald announced that the Organisers of the Anglia in Bloom Competition (the FODF won the 2018 Conservation Award) have expressed a direct wish to re-visit the Fernery in 2019.

Xmas Celebrations

We broke off at 11 am and enjoyed home-made hot sausage rolls and a selection of home-made cupcakes, minced pies, Stollen Cake and other traditional sweet things, washed down with piping hot Mulled Wine. This was an enjoyable break, well planned by Hilary with help from Sarah and contributions from many others.

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is P1110265-1024x576.jpg

Xmas Greetings

Eight volunteers who were not able to attend, sent their best wishes, and all the Friends of Danesbury Local Nature Reserve/Fernery join together in sending all readers of the website our best wishes for a Happy Christmas and a Successful New Year.

Notice – First Aid and Leadership Qualifications

11th December 2018 By John Roper Leave a Comment

First Aid Course

We congratulate four of our members who qualified today at a WHBC organised ‘Emergency First Aid at Work‘ Course and who have, as a result, been Certificated.

Harry Ward
Sarah Marsh
Colin Adlam
Andrew Beattie.

In Harry’s case this was to update his existing qualification.

Leadership Course

We also congratulate Lucy Alexander who attended a WHBC Leadership Course on October 5th.

Our thanks

We congratulate them all for their commitment which allows us, more readily than before, to continue to lead Working Parties responsibly, and with our personal safety always in mind.

Notice of Xmas Work Party – Thursday 13th December 2018

6th December 2018 By John Roper Leave a Comment

THE WEATHER FORECAST (Long Range)

Light Rain and a moderate breeze

TASKS

Xmas Task List

It is our intention not to do too much heavy work on this Special Xmas Work Party.

Planting

Jenny is bringing more cultivated wild flowers for planting on the North Chalk Slope, and Sarah has two small trees and a few plants to go in.

Weeding

The priority will be to weed out ‘DFs’ on the North Chalk Slope where many are growing. (The dandelion family weeds are so-named and cover a range including Dandelions, Hawkweeds, Sowthistles, Hawk-beards or Hawkbits!

We will continue with the maintenance of all planted beds, but suspend clearing the nettle bed beyond the path at the North East corner until the next Working Party.

Leaf Blowing

We will continue the task of collecting and preserving the leaf drop in the dell. I will not be able to bring my wheelbarrow and we will therefore need to form a small team of leaf gatherers.

Watering

Watering is unlikely to be required!

INFORMATION

Rabbit Control

The Borough Council’s Licensed Ferreter visited the site two weeks ago with quite limited success, but many holes were discovered hidden in the bank at the far side of the North East nettle patch where we have started clearing.

The ferreter discovered too that the large rabbit/badger hole on the South East corner has been re-opened, (from the outside) and the WHBC now plans to direct Maydencroft to repair that hole once and for all.

The ferreter will be back, but probably not until the New Year, and after the hole has been repaired.

Whats App Communications

For further information about current activities, and notice of our occasional ad hoc meetings, please access the WhatsApp Fernery Gardening Group.

If you are not already a member of this Group, then please contact John Roper who is the WhatsApp Administrator.

XMAS MEETING ARRANGEMENTS

Timing

We will plan to break off from our tasks and enjoy refreshments from 11 am onwards.

Light Refreshments

Hillary and Sarah are kindly producing hot sausage rolls.

I will produce the annual Stollen cake, and between us we will produce hot mulled wine.

Sue will produce her special flapjack

Please bring nibbles, mince pies or any sweet things that take your fancy, to share among the team.

Bad Weather Plans

If the weather permits, we will erect the Pergola and our two tables.

If the weather is extreme, Harry has kindly offered his home in Roman Way, as a back-up location.

Visitors

Ann and Chris will join us from 11 am onwards.

Xmas Greetings

We offer our sincere best wishes and a Happy Christmas and (another) successful New Year to all the Friends of Danesbury Local Nature Reserve and Fernery who are unable to join us on Thursday.

Report of Working Party – Thursday 15th November 2018

23rd November 2018 By John Roper Leave a Comment

We had a good turnout again, on a fine Autumn morning.

Planting – Wild Flowers

Jenny Hawkins reports that a small team under her direction planted 8 trays, 2 buckets and 2 pots of wildflowers..

Sue planted Red Campion, Dog Violet, Selfheal and Wild Basil on the South side.

Christine and Jenny planted Kidney Vetch, Field Scabious, Knapweed,

Wild Marjoram, (1) Scarlet Pimpernel, Red Deadnettle,

Bird’sfoot Trefoil, Lady’s Bedstraw, Wild Basil, Lesser Stitchwort,

Small Scabious, Goatsbeard, Hedge Bedstraw and Red Clover..

Sara helped plant the last tray of Kidney Vetch..

New leaves were seen on some of the wildflowers we planted months ago which is a good sign!

Before we plant anymore wildflowers Jenny recommends that we dig out all the Dandelion Family (DFs) weeds first on the North Chalk Slope.

Weeding

Sara and Tony and Harry started to clear the nettles to the side of the North East path, and Margaret and Mary worked on the Top Bath.

Leaf Collection

Many people helped clear up the leaves that Andrew was blowing.

The Plantation – Norwich

23rd November 2018 By John Roper Leave a Comment

The following Report is written by Colin Adlam.

A group of us who visited the BPS East Anglia Group Indoor meeting in Norwich on 27th October 2018, took the opportunity to visit The Plantation in Norwich, which was very close to the BPS EA meeting place. We believed there was a rustic bridge at The Plantation, and as the Danesbury Fernery is missing one, thought we would take a look!

Priorities, and a cup of coffee.

The rain had held off all morning and our visit included a nice coffee stop on the way to Norwich at The Courtyard Restaurant. This was in the stable block of the one-time residence of Maharajah Duleep Singh the last Maharajah of the Sikh Empire, later sold by his executors to the Guinness family.

It’s a nice stopping place, and as we left, we heard they had opened a dedicated café. Oh well, next time!

The Plantation – our visit

“The garden was the creation of a local man, Henry Trevor (1819-1897), a successful and prosperous upholsterer and cabinet maker. In 1856 he took a long lease on a disused chalk quarry just outside the city walls”.

A 5 minute walk round the corner from Peter and Nick’s house we found The Plantation Garden approached through a driveway to The Plantation House.

The house is undergoing repairs possibly the result of sinkholes relating to chalk quarrying side-tunnels from the Plantation Garden site!. A gated entrance takes you to a reception area with a gazebo structure with information displays, and close to a greenhouse for The Plantation Garden Preservation Trust (PGPT).

Behind the gazebo you find two entrances to the main garden, one over the rustic bridge and one underneath. The planting was already interesting, with ferns, palms, bedding and shrubs a plenty.

The Bridge – too far?

We all had a look at the bridge from both above and below, but I think the consensus was disappointment. With a fairly wide span the bridge was, probably necessarily, quite heavily constructed of structural timber and steel. The only rustic element seemed to be the criss-cross decorative spars of the hand-rail. Hopefully we can come up with a more rustic feel for our much smaller bridge when time and funds allow that project to proceed.

Moving into the garden proper we were all mightily impressed. My description won’t do it justice so I recommend looking at their website 360 degree panorama.

The garden is a mix of formal lawns and beds with fanciful structures all around, in an approximation of a rectangle. The main end wall and the fountain centre grabbed our attention straight away. The fountain is a tall and fanciful gothic folly of three tiers in a circular pond.

The side wall, incidentally separating the garden from the house, climbs the quarry edge and is surmounted by a balustrade. As you get closer you realise the wall is no simple brick, stone or flint construction but is instead made up of what can only be described as Victorian building and church salvage. All very cleverly re-built to create patterns, alcoves and niches.

At the far end is the similarly fantastical wall with stairs and slopes up the face with even more elaborate decoration than the garden wall. You climb up three sets of stairs joined by three slopes before the final steps bring you to the rustic Summerhouse. There was once a path at this level back to The Plantation House, but sadly closed off currently and looking overgrown. I am sure the PGPT members have it in mind to open this up one day. More pictures can be found at: http://www.tournorfolk.co.uk/norwichplantationgarden.html

With time approaching the start of the BPS EA meeting we retreated, cajoling Sarah away from plants to identify, and wandered the short distance back to Nick and Peter’s house.

See the Report of the BPS East Anglia Group meeting.

Report – BPS East Anglia Group – Autumn Meeting – Norwich

23rd November 2018 By Colin Adlam Leave a Comment

On 27th October 2018 a small group from The Friends of Danesbury Fernery (FODF) met in Welwyn for a convivial drive up to Norwich for the regular autumn social get together of the British Pteridological Society East Anglia Group (BPS EA). Thanks go to Andrew for driving myself, Sarah and Harry all that way.

A visit en route to – The Plantation Norwich

The Plantation is a restored Victorian garden in an old chalk pit very close to Peter and Nick’s house, where the BPS EA Meeting was to be held. Before the start time of the EA Autumn Meeting we therefore took the opportunity to visit the Plantation under Nick’s guidance. Go to The Plantation -Norwich for a separate report.

The BPS East Anglia Group Meeting – attended by Andrew, Sarah, Colin and Harry

After our visit to The Plantation, everyone was pretty chilled so warming coffees pulled us away from the Fern haven of a front garden, rising in steps to the house. A very friendly welcome and a quick tour highlighted Peter and Nick’s love of India, as well as Peter’s vast and impressive collection of ferns. More impressive is Peter’s knowledge of ferns. Later we wandered outside again for the plant (fern) sale and got a chance to explore the front garden delights again and discover that the rear garden is similarly profuse with Pteridological delights.

We four had interesting conversations with attending BPS members over lunch provided by our hosts. There is a great deal of knowledge in the group, as I’m sure there is in any enthusiastic and specialist organisation.

With most members comfortably seated in Peter’s lounge Andrew began the presentation of Danesbury Fernery. With much interest and questions, and the other three of us chipping in occasionally, I think we ran over our time slot a little, but nobody seemed to mind. There was surprise at how much had been achieved in such a short time by a relatively small volunteer group at Danesbury. I am sure we can expect a good group of BPS members when they visit Danesbury on Saturday 20th July 2019.

Two more interesting and varied presentations took us on tours of foreign lands with ferns in the forefront and many splendid photos. Time constraints meant we had to make our excuses and we packed the boot of Andrew’s car with our purchased ferns. Some were for individuals, but the bulk have now been planted at Danesbury.

If you wish to see the individual plants and know where to find them just catch Sarah or myself on one of the working party days. We moved many of the Dryopteris filix-mas (male fern) and Matteuccia struthiopteris (Ostrich, or Shuttlecock fern) to ‘themed’ beds under trees to make room for the more interesting varieties.

Ferns being ferns, they will look a bit sad for the winter, but with the return of warmth, and some moisture, I am sure they will look beautiful by the summer next year. The themed beds should slowly become impressive as they form homogeneous banks.

Colin Adlam

Our Own Pteridologist – an Introduction

23rd November 2018 By John Roper Leave a Comment

The following is written and posted by Colin Adlam

Am I a Pteridologist, or a Pteridomaniac?

I was looking through my old photos to see what triggered my interest in ferns. The photos show a tendency towards structural things, those not of family and friends. Buildings, trees, vehicles and latterly ferns. We used to visit a lot of National Trust properties with the kids and I think my first fern purchase probably came from one of them as a memento. In the mid ‘Noughties’ we had our front garden landscaped and had to re-plant the whole area. I acquired a small plot for the few ferns I had in containers and planted them out eagerly. The site was in the shade but above the root system of 2 vast Laurels that had once been the hedge, and a tall conifer. Not ideal.

Every spring copious watering would bring the ferns back to life again and continuous watering kept them lush for the summer months. I always looked forward to seeing those first croziers peek out and unfurl. They fascinated me. From about the year 2000 to 2010 my random collection grew to over 20 different species and cultivars with purchases at other NT houses and at Hampton Court RHS Flower Show, mainly bought from two guys that call their company ‘Fernatix’.

In 2009/10 we landscaped our back garden, with patio, water feature and fish pond, and I moved the main collection to two new areas. Leaving just a couple of large Blechnum nudum out front, the remaining plants were split between the small area next to our patio and a larger area below the pond. Both are on the southern boundary and shaded by a tree or the tall hedge. Masses of organic material was, and still is, dug in to keep the soil moist. Pride of place was given to the Polystichum setiferum ‘Plumosum Bevis’, a very darkly attractive Soft Shield fern.

Lower Fern Bed

The interest in collecting leads naturally to wanting to learn more about ferns; to see, photograph and uncontrollably purchase more. I am a besotted and incurable ‘fernatic’, or what the Victorians called – a Pteridomaniac! In the last 10 years I have taken over 3 further areas of the garden, the most successful being the shady and sheltered unused strip along the side path.

A few years back my wife and daughter, visiting the Chelsea Flower Show, saw a stand run by an organisation with an unpronounceable name. Deciding that it would be a good joke, they signed me up for membership of the British Pteridological Society. The regular publications started arriving, 3 different formats of newsletter plus emails, and I eventually got to this year’s AGM. I was fearful that the number of ‘Dr.’ prefixes in the organisation would make for a very academic day. Far from it. The day included a reasonably short formal AGM, some interesting presentations and slide-shows, a sale of BPS branded goods and a spore exchange. I met nice people with a similar interest, but often a far greater knowledge of ferns than I have memory capacity for.

Having recently visited two couples in Norfolk who are Pteridoligical Society members I realise my collection, and my retention of details, is woefully short of optimum. So I consider myself a Pteridomaniac, rather than a Pteridologist, enjoying collecting ferns and learning what I can from browsing books and catalogues.

I hope to help the Friends’ of Danesbury Local Nature Reserve community that have welcomed me with open arms, and occasionally get the name of a fern correctly identified. I look forward to seeing you all at working days at Danesbury as often as I can make it.

Colin Adlam

A Welcome Sign

23rd November 2018 By John Roper Leave a Comment

This successful project, which was sponsored by a private benefactor, was led by Harry Ward. The work was undertaken over four distinct phases.

Pole Excavation and straightening
Pole Reinstatement
Banner – Design and printing
Permanent Fixing

Excavating and Straightening the poles

December 2016 As found

August 2017
Excavating the bent poles

Brick lined socket
Originally lined with oak

The poles were removed from the site and straightened under heat and hammer by a local blacksmith.

Re-Installing the straightened poles

Designing and Printing the Banner

The wording was agreed ‘in committee’; the font selected by Ann MacDonald; and printed in Knebworth.

The Banner was fixed temporarily in time for the June 2018 Open Day, but not permanently fixed until October 2018.

Banner Fixing

This final stage was completed in just 15 minutes with the constructive help of John’s son Simon with his ladder.

October 2018 – Installation Team: Andrew, John, Harry

Notice of Working Party – Thursday 15th November 2018

14th November 2018 By John Roper Leave a Comment

THE WEATHER FORECAST

Light Cloud and a gentle breeze .

TASKS

Planting

Jenny is bringing more cultivated wild flowers for planting.

Leaf Blowing

This is the time of the year when we have to collect and preserve the leaf drop in the dell. I will bring my wheelbarrow and we will need to form a small team of leaf gatherers.

Watering

Watering is unlikely to be required!

Weeding

This Working Party will focus on clearing the nettle bed beyond the path at the North East corner, where we want to prepare the ground in order to plant ferns.

If resources permit, then we will also need to continue to keep the Perimeter Tree Whips clear of smothering weeds.

INFORMATION

Rabbit Control

The Borough Council’s Licensed Ferreter will pay a visit to the site on Friday 16th November to assess the degree of the task facing him, now that we have further cleared the site since his last visit. He will also be able to take into account the extensive fencing repairs and improvements that we have implemented, including the rabbit security added by Maydencroft at the entrance kissing gate since our last Working Party.

December Meeting Date Change

To give you plenty of notice, it has been decided to bring our scheduled December Meeting forward by one week to the 2nd Thursday 13th December. Please make the change in your diaries.

Whats App Communications

For further information about current activities, and notice of our occasional ad hoc meetings, please access the WhatsApp Fernery Gardening Group. If you are not already a member of this Group, then please contact John Roper who is the WhatsApp Administrator.

MEETING PLACE

Organisation

The full team meets at the Fernery at 10 a.m.* for briefing and the allocation of tasks; and the issue of appropriate tools.

*Volunteers are encouraged to arrive earlier if possible in order to help with the distribution of tools and allocation of tasks, which will facilitate a prompt working start for everybody.

If resources allow, we sometimes split into two groups and a First Aider will attend each group if possible, but failing that, then the respective leaders will maintain telephone contact.

How to find us

Full details may be found on the website location of the Fernery, but simply stated, the closest access point is North Ride, on the Danesbury Estate, AL6 9RD

Either park in North Ride, or take the right hand fork of the unmade Road which leads to Danesbury Park Road, and a kissing gate entrance is about 500 metres on the right, not far from a lay-by which has limited parking space.

Tea Breaks and Briefings

Tea break are taken at about 11 am.

Please bring a drink with you, and wear strong boots or shoes and have strong gardening gloves too.