In response to a request for projects that will encourage community involvement among scouts of all ages and abilities, the WHBC Landscape & Ecology Department has proposed to Tony Lyall, Mid-Herts District Commissioner, that groups of Explorer Scouts (14-18 year olds) might ‘rabbit proof’ the cattle fence which surrounds the Danesbury Fernery. This news will […]
Work Party Report – 21st June 2018
For the first time since September 2016 a small working party of volunteers returned to the Park Field to resume our traditional role of ‘scrub-bashing’, while a second work party continued to tackle recently scheduled tasks in the Fernery. Park Field We started to clear the scrub around the sequoia at the entrance to the […]
Welwyn Festival Open Gardens Day – Sunday 17th June 2018
Rewards The 2018 Open Garden Day was another great success, and a reward for all the hard work that the volunteers have put in over the past 12 months. In June 2017, following the success of our first Open Day, the volunteers collectively believed that we could not merit holding another Open Garden for at […]
Notice of Work Party – Thursday 21st June 2018 – After The Lord Mayor’s Show
Work Re-structure We have mentioned before that for the Months of July August and September we will cease excavation work in the Fernery and return to the Park Field to carry out some essential maintenance that we have been neglecting over the past year while we have been developing the Fernery. But because we have […]
Recovering The Central Bed – May 2018
During the week of 14th May 2018 Mark and Richard from Maydencroft removed all the rocks from the large Central Planting bed, then re-shaped and re-profiled it, before edging it with large stones. James and Im0gen finished it off by bedding the edging rocks with soil so that they looked as though they had always […]
Open Day 2018 Poster
POSTER WELWYN FESTIVAL (2)
Preparations for the Open Day on Sunday 17th June 2018 – Your Help is Needed
Work to be undertaken We have a great deal of work to do preparing the Fernery for the Open Day on Sunday afternoon 17th June, and it has been decided that we will continue to meet on each Thursday between now and 17th June, but for light duties only. We will clear and rake pathways, undertake weeding, […]
Notice of Work Party – Thursday 17th May 2018
NEXT WORKING PARTY MEETING – THURSDAY 17th MAY 2018 Visitors We are expecting to welcome the Borough Council’s Deputy Mayor Cllr. Barbara Fitzsimon Outline Work Plan – Immediate Priority – Garden Restoration As we stated two months ago, to prepare for the Open Day on Sunday 17th June, Garden Restoration now takes priority over excavation work […]
Puddingstone Identification Chart
The following photos taken by Diana Walsh of the Puddingstone Club, show the rich variety of Puddingstone found in Hertfordshire, and some of the uses to which it has been put.
Building the Fernery
In 1851 William Blake employed a highly-regarded Head Gardener Anthony Parsons. His obituary published in The Gardeners Chronicle of 1881 ³ confirmed his gardening expertise and sound judgement: he was “successful in originating some fine new varieties of British and other Ferns, one being named in his honour Gymnogramma chrysophylla Parsoni. When Wiliam Blake (senior) died […]