Archives for 2018

We had a good turnout of 12 volunteers on a bright sunny day, firm underfoot, and following a very windy spell of weather.

Tasks Completed

Mulching the Parsons Bed

Clearing a fallen Hawthorn tree.

Planting Wild Flowers

Jenny brought trays of cultivated flowers which she and Lucy planted on the North Slope.

Sara planted 50 x Primrose plugs near the Team HQ

Replacing one more fencing panel, and measuring the entrance gate

A Donated Fern planted in the Entrance Bed    – Elevensies

The Weather Forecast

Light Cloud and a gentle breeze .

Tasks

Parsons Bed – Mulching

Last month Maydencroft re-profiled The Parsons Bed (see Report of Working Party 20th September) and Sarah and Jenny afterwards relaid the membrane ready for the planting which took place on 2nd October 2018.

This month we have to cover the Bed in mulch and, if everything runs according to plan, Maydencroft will deliver a load of mulching material during the week in time for the volunteers to spread it on the bed.

A few key volunteers will be missing this Thursday, so we will rely on a good turn out to help shift the mulch. I will bring my wheelbarrow, so hopefully with two wheelbarrows we should be able to build up a momentum.

Leaf Blowing

If we have sufficient resources  we must use the leaf blower to gather up the recent sudden leaf drop following the high winds.

Watering

Watering is unlikely to be required!

Weeding

This is something that can be done at any time, if time and resources allow.

Of special importance is the need to keep the Perimeter Tree Whips clear of smothering weeds.

Meeting Place

The full team will meet 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 us to split into two groups, a First Aider will attend each group if possible, but failing that, then the respective leaders will maintain telephone contact.

For those not familiar with the location of the Fernery, full details may be found on the website but, simply stated, the closest access point is North Ride, on the Danesbury Estate, AL6 9RD as follows: 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.

Tea Breaks and De-Briefing

A tea break is taken at about 11 am.

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

WHBC Visitors – Wednesday 24th October – a date for your Diary

The Borough Council Environment Overview and Scrutiny Committee, comprising Councillors with Officer support,  are due to visit The Fernery at 2 pm on Wednesday 24th October.

It would be convenient if one or two volunteers could be on site to welcome them, and to be available as informal guides if such are required.

If you are able to attend, please use the WhatsApp Fernery Gardening Group to confirm your intentions.

The Task

On a bright morning, eight volunteers turned-out for an ad hoc meeting arranged via the WhatsApp  ‘Fernery Gardening Group‘** .

The single task was to work with Sarah, our Garden Adviser, who had laid the plants in position in the newly profiled Parsons Bed, and to start planting them.

The Parsons Bed is in the sun for longer periods of the day, and is therefore drier than the Central Bed.

Sarah’s planting objective therefore is to plant ‘Tropicals’ in the Parsons Bed which will thrive in those conditions, using plants that the Victorians themselves would have chosen for that position, and designed to complement the planting in the Central Bed.

Planting List

Together with purchased stock plants, some beautiful plants were donated by the volunteers themselves.

The Planting List included:

yucca gloriosa, purple sage, cistus, sedums, carex grasses, phormiums, euphorbia, bluebell ‘river’ ferns (various) including dryopteris and asplenum.

Mulching

It is planned that the Borough Council will bulk deliver material to the site, timed for mulching to be a main task at our next Working Party on Thursday 18th October 2018.

** WhatsApp – ‘Fernery Gardening Group‘

If you are a Friend of Danesbury Fernery, and have a mobile phone, and would like to join the WhatsApp – ‘Fernery Gardening Group‘, please contact the Administrator John Roper

We had an excellent turnout of 12 volunteers, plus Chris James from WHBC.

The winds were always high, at about 45 mph, but the dell provides good protection. Hilary was busy watering before the rain started in a short but heavy burst, conveniently at the moment we took our elevenses break. The volunteers were well protected by the oak tree at Fernery HQ and the rain stopped as soon as we were ready to continue.

The main activity on site was the re-profiling of the Parsons Bed, undertaken by Mark of Maydencroft with his mechanical digger, under Sarah’s watchful eye. Harry and Alan had to work to clear the branches of the Laurel Tree on the Southern path which had split in the high winds and were blocking the path that Mark needed to bring his digger round.

During the re-profiling of the Parsons Bed, it was decided to merge it into the lower drop of the Gorge, making one large bed. Sarah plans to plant up the Gorge with bluebells and other light coloured plants to give the effect of a water drop.

Record photographs were taken of the wall at the southern end of the original bed which has now been covered.

Harry, Alan and Colin worked to place rabbit wire around new plants that Sarah had brought to the site, including two specimen Hydrangeas that Hilary and Harry had been carefully storing at their home. Other plants around the site needed repair and improvements to the existing wire protection.

Branches from the fallen Laurel were cut and loaded into the composting bins, and plants brought along by Sarah were planted in the bank above the Top Path. This was hard work for Sara, Nina and Jenny, as the ground at that point had never previously been cultivated and was hard as the rock underneath.

These new bedding areas on the Top Path will require careful watering attention.

In the May Bed, Sarah has sown Hollyhock seeds, and these are beginning to show. Care will need to be taken by gardeners not to weed these new plants as they develop.

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In the hope that the weather forecast will be wrong again, and that tomorrow we will enjoy warmth and sunshine between the hours of 10 am and mid-day, we list the folowing tasks which we hope will be achievable.

Parson’s Bed – re-profiling

Maydencroft are scheduled to be on site with their mechanical digger to remove the weed suppressing membrane and then some of the top-soil from this bed to make it more level. We have discovered that the front brick edging, that we had believed to have been ‘robbed’ of bricks, is in fact at its original height and much lower than we thought. If the bed were left as it is then, after planting, the top soils and wood chip dressing would simply wash off.

Sarah will be in charge to supervise this levelling but volunteers will need to be on hand a) to help remove the membrane (and replace it later) and b) create tidy heaps of top soils. An extra wheelbarrow or two would be very helpful.

Perimeter Tree Tidying

Those volunteers not directly involved in the soil moving task, will need to find weeding and tidying up tasks which keep them clear of the mechanical digger which will be operating from the base of the dell.

There is a need to continue the work of clearing weeds from around the base of the tree whips which were planted earlier this year.

It might also be beneficial to continue the work of lopping and clearing brambles away from the Compositing heaps, as they continue to encroach.

Thursday 27th September – Team meeting

Those of you who have not yet responded to the Invitation to attend the Meeting at the Scouts Hut, Lockleys Drive, are asked to contact John at your earliest opportunity, as we have to anticipate numbers attending for catering purposes.

We would like to see a big turn-out of our ‘regulars’, so that we can hear all your views and opinions on the direction we are going in, and discuss our priorities with  Ann and Chris from the Borough Council.

Thursday 18th October 2018 – Work Party

In anticipation that the re-profiling has been completed successfully, then Sarah will once again direct us in the planting needed for the Parson’s Bed. This is unlikely to be on the scale of the May 2018 Big Plant-Up of the Central Bed, as we understand from Sarah that her design will involve a fewer number of plants. We look forward to learning more in the next few weeks.

Saturday 6th October – Fernery Gardening Group

You probably all know that we regularly advertise in the Parish Magazine that this group meets on the morning of the 1st Saturday in each month.

Only once has a single individual actually turned up. It is very difficult to advertise ad hoc meetings, even though this does seem to provide the better way forward for us at the moment. But if we all agree that this is a worthwhile community gardening activity then we will need to encourage our friends and neighbours to join us, and this does mean advertising meeting dates.

Clearly this will be a subject for debate on the 27th September.

On another day that started with light rain but quickly cleared up, it was decided to focus work in the Fernery Garden, and not to attempt to operate a second scrub-bashing group in the Park Field.

The following is based on a Report from Andrew Beattie who directed the work.

Fernery Gardening Group –  Tasks

We had an excellent turnout, which included one first time volunteer, and two expected visitors from the Hertfordshire Metal Detecting Society. Fortunately early-arriving volunteers managed to clear up some school-holiday litter before the arrival of visitors.

Composting – the prime purpose was to tidy up the composting site which included the cutting back of bramble trailers to allow access later this year when leaf collection starts in earnest.

Weeding – weeds that needed pulling, were pulled, and much of the scrub behind the grass banks was cleared.

The grass banks on the Southern side near the Entrance have greened up very well.

Watering – this task was not needed.

Tree Planting – a fine young Oak was planted in the North Eastern corner that in the years to come will provide welcome shade in the early summer months.

Metal Detecting – key to site Mapping and Recording 

We welcomed Cathy and Mike from the Hertfordshire Metal Detecting Society, who made a preliminary survey of the field to the West of the Entrance, up to the roadway. They were able to confirm the position of the irrigation pipes discovered by Maydencroft in May/June.  They also surveyed the course of the pipes within the Fernery itself that Harry had mapped out preparatory to the 2018 Open Day.

It is very much hoped that Cathy and Mike will join us on a regular basis so that an authoritative plan of the pipework in the Fernery can be plotted, and an accurate record maintained of any artifacts that are discovered along the way. It is being proposed that we open a Column on the website to record any such findings if these outline plans reach fruition.

Team Meetings

At Team Pre-Briefing Andrew advised members that the Friends Committee had decided that we should hold a meeting of all ‘working’ volunteers so that we can address and discuss issues that have arisen since we formally established our FOD Constitution in February 2017.

Secretary Harry Ward will circulate a Notice to working volunteers to establish the most popular time and place for a meeting, following which an Agenda will be produced.

Issues that need addressing include production of a Priority List for allocating funds which are accumulating quite healthily. Priorities will need to be set to cover, for example, the costs of further planting and garden maintenance, the purchase and replacement (where required) of tools and equipment, and production of short/medium, and long term plans for restoring and replacing site fixtures such as the Entrance Gateway, Fernery fencing, and the commissioning of the design and construction of a Bridge over the Gorge.

We will also have to address the developing need to establish our own banking arrangements as we are becoming more and more active, and Danesbury Residents Association’s generous offer to share their banking arrangements with us, are no longer appropriate, as will be explained.

Date of the next Working Party – Thursday 20th September

Maydencroft are currently scheduled to have a mechanical digger on site to start the process of re-profiling the Parson’s Bed.

This will need careful planning for obvious H&S reasons. But volunteers will be asked to help remove the weed suppressing membrane immediately in advance of 20th September, and to be on hand on the day to stack the topsoils as they are dumped at the North end of the site for later restoration of the Pulhamite Outcrop.

Ad Hoc Volunteer Meetings

It has once again been proposed that volunteers might wish to form ad hoc Thursday morning work parties, particularly when we are in ‘catch-up’ mode due to bad weather, or we have to prepare for major tasks such as the Big Plant Up, currently scheduled for October 18th.

The Borough Council have agreed to ad hoc meetings in the past, provided we go through the proper process of putting Chris James on Notice, preparing and agreeing a Risk Assessment in advance, and have an authorised Leader and First Aider present. However, Chris has agreed in principle that we should not need to go through this formality if we are undertaking straight gardening work in the Fernery, but that in all instances she must be told of our plans in advance. We are also to ensure that at all times at least 2 members are present to provide security.

WhatsApp Gardening Group

The WhatsApp Fernery Gardening Group is providing a valuable tool for making informal planning arrangements, so if you are not already a member of this Group please contact John who is the administrator. Otherwise, please keep your eyes on the website Calendar even though this cannot be relied on to be up-to-date.