News

Volunteer Rules and Guidelines

At long last we are permitted to organise Work Parties once again.

Covid-19 rules must be applied including:

• social distancing,
• not sharing tools unless they have been disinfected before, and then after use by individuals, and
• not sharing drinks and or refreshments.

Weather Forecast- long range

Sunny Intervals and a gentle breeze.

Work Party Leadership

As always, we are short of volunteers prepared to act as Leaders on a regular basis, and we will introduce a roster if this will help solve the problem. For Insurance purposes Leaders should have attended a WHBC run Leadership Training Course.

Similarly, Work Parties are required to have somebody qualified as a First Aider in attendance. In practice we have been forced to meet this latter rule by having a qualified First Aider attending at least one of the Work Parties, with an up-to-date first Aid Box to hand, and available on the telephone to attend the other Work Party in an emergency.

Work Party Strategy

As usual we are planning to operate Two Work Parties as this provides us with the opportunity to offer volunteers work in areas where they have a preference, whether in the Fernery Garden or out in the Nature Reserve.

Work Party No. 1 – Fernery Garden

Sarah Marsh and Jenny Hawkins will be Joint Leaders

Tasks

There are a variety of tasks needing to be undertaken, mostly planting, weeding and general maintenance. This might include dead-heading of daffodils, mulching, weeding and more planting. Direction will be provided if necessary.

Depending on the availability of resources we will also aim to clean up some chalk graffiti in the rockwork, and try to bury the water pipes over the dropping well more permanently to make them less visible and hopefully less liable to interference or vandalism.

At some stage Maydencroft are due to install more effective rabbit proof fencing around the perimeter, and we might therefore expect to see them on site.

Work Party No. 2 – Nature Reserve – Park Field

Leader – Harry Ward

Until volunteers step forward, our Hon. Secretary Harry Ward has offered to lead this Work Party on the 15th April. It is hoped that Chairman John Roper might also attend to help.

Tasks

Until we re-establish a regime or schedule of work with Chris James’ replacement at the WHBC Landscape & Ecology Department, we will concentrate on furthering the work started at our last meeting, as follows.

Sequoia clearing

It is hoped that a small group formed by Andy Trotter and Stephen Jupp will continue clearing the fencing surround to the sequoia near the cattle corral by the entrance road to Danesbury House.

Path Clearance

The main group will work on clearing scrub and the paths on the North West Slopes of the Park Field. It is of paramount importance that at all times volunteers observe and avoid scrub and sites where birds are in evidence of nesting.

Preparations before Arrival

Before arriving, volunteers are asked to consider which of the two working parties they would prefer to join, i.e. the Nature Reserve, or the Fernery, as this helps team organisation.

For Covid-19 reasons it will be necessary for all practical reasons for volunteers to bring their own favourite tools with them, which might usefully include loppers and secateurs. Otherwise all tools will have to be disinfected before use, and after use, and not shared between volunteers.

Bring a hot drink and refreshments with you. Covid-19 rules dictate that food and drinks should not be handed around or shared.

Please wear strong boots or shoes and good quality gardening gloves.

On Arrival

On arrival please add your name to the List of Volunteers attending and the Leader will allocate tasks.

On your first visit the Welwyn Hatfield Borough Council (the Owners) require that you complete a Personal Details Form which will be retained by them for Public Liability Insurance purposes only.

Meeting Points

Fernery Work Party

Meet at the Fernery 9.45 a.m. for a 10 a.m. start

Nature Reserve Work Party

Meet by the Kissing Gate in the Lay-by outside 38 Carleton Rise, AL6 9RG 9.45 a.m. for a 10 a.m. start.

(This always used to be our meeting point from 1998 until 2016, before the Fernery Project emerged).

How to find the Fernery

If you have not visited us before you will be made very welcome. Please read the directions to find us.

The Fernery has dried out nicely now and it is safe once again for you all to freely enjoy the spring bulbs. The Friends of Danesbury Fernery thank you all for your patience and indulgence while openings were restricted to weekends only during the recent bad weather.

Come to Enjoy the Fernery

The Spring bulbs are showing well now, and we respectfully ask all parents and guardians to discourage children from running over the flower beds, and certainly stop them from climbing the rockwork! Apart from being very dangerous, this could cause very expensive damage which we might not be able to repair.

The Danesbury Fernery has been restored with a great deal of hard work and commitment by many local volunteers over 5 years, and it has fast become an important site of historical interest and part of Welwyn’s rich heritage. It is being enjoyed as a community garden and we need all visitors to help us protect it.

Please stick to the paths.

We have recently learned that before restoration of the original abandoned chalk pit started in 2015, the Danesbury Fernery has been logged as part of a national Geo-cashing App. Clues, have been hidden in caches at various points in the Fernery dell.

Without wishing to spoil the fun, nor wishing to discourage adults and children alike from getting out and enjoying the countryside, it is clearly no longer appropriate that visitors should be tempted to freely clamber all over the rockwork and the gardens in the quest for hidden caches. It might have been appropriate when the site was an abandoned old chalk pit, but that is no longer the case.

We are happy to tell you that we have had an exceptionally prompt and understanding response from the local cache provider and, even though we could not find them ourselves (!) all the caches have been removed from the Danesbury Fernery.

There are geo-caches reported on the App in many other sites in and around Welwyn, including on the wider Danesbury Local Nature Reserve. These should serve to satisfy the most eager treasure hunting groups, who we hope will find time to visit and enjoy the Fernery at the same time.

We are reopening the Fernery, but at weekends only, from 9am Saturday to 5pm Sunday, until further notice. 

These restricted opening times will allow visitors taking exercise to enjoy the Spring bulbs, whilst limiting damage to paths and grass. 

Once the weather improves and the paths dry out, the Fernery will reopen as normal. 

The Friends of Danesbury Fernery thank you for your understanding and support.

 

Resulting from the recent extremely wet weather the Fernery Paths have inevitably suffered heavily from the footfall of our many visitors.

With our eyes on the current adverse weather streams approaching the country the Friends of Danesbury Fernery Committee have reluctantly agreed with the Borough Council that we should close the Fernery with immediate effect until Saturday 13th February 2021:

• for safety reasons,
• to give the paths time to dry out,
• to allow the grass to recover where it has been trampled, and
• to prevent emerging bulbs from being trodden on.
  

We do regret having to take this step and we look forward to seeing you all again in February 2021 so that you can enjoy the fruits of the volunteers’ labours.

The volunteers have planted thousands more bulbs since last Autumn and we look forward to a spectacular show of Spring Flowers.

We thank you all for your patience and understanding.

The Talking has to stop!

On Thursday 5th March 2020 John and Colin gave a Talk ‘Recovering and Restoring Danesbury Fernery’ to the Ashwell Horticultural Society (Chris James’s own). This is turning out to be the last for long time as next month’s scheduled Talk at the Ryde & District Gardening club has had to be abandoned until April 2021, and it remains to be seen if normality returns in time for us to give a scheduled Talk on November 18th 2020 to the St Ives Gardening Club..

It is very sad that many Ashwell members were intending to visit us as a direct result of our Talk but, hopefully, that will still happen sometime in the future.

A photographic story

One advantage of giving Talks is the chance to reflect on just how much we have all achieved in the 4 years or so since we started.

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The Volunteers

And a few of the volunteers who will return to work in the Fernery garden just as soon as they can.

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We have received a directive from Ann MacDonald, the Landscape & Ecology Manager, Welwyn Hatfield Borough Council, that due to the spread of Covid-19, no more volunteer Working Parties are to operate on the Borough’s nature reserves and gardens for the time being.

From Tuesday 17th March 2020 all work parties must stop until further notice.

Welwyn Festival Open Gardens – cancelled

For the same reason we have been advised that the 2020 Welwyn Festival programme has been cancelled. We will not therefore be holding our planned Open Gardens evening on 25th June 2020.