Blyth Woods

Four of us were very lucky to have a wonderful sunny morning on February 1st to plant some new apple trees in Merton Wood Orchard to replace some that had died after the severe summer drought in 2022. It was surprisingly strenuous work. The grass was long and rough and tough and it was difficult to cut through and make the one metre diameter clear circles that will give the trees a good start. In addition all the mulch had to brought in by barrow and heavy containers of water on a sack barrow. It took us nearly three hours to plant 9  trees! We have been put in touch with an expert who has experience of planting orchards in the Sandlings and she will visit the site soon.

We found that several trees that we had previously thought were dead appeared to have survived after all, it will be interesting to see how these fare in the spring. The new trees that we planted looked in much better shape than the ones we had before with stronger root systems. They were all apples and were:

Adam’s Pearmain, Blenheim Orange, Cox’s Orange Pippin, James Grieve, Lawton’s Superb, Newton Wonder, Peasgood’s Nonesuch, Pitmaston Pineapple and Ribston Pippin.

At the end of the Christmas term 2023, year 5 and 6 walked from Wenhaston Primary School across Blackheath and then into the new Fox Hill plantation and finally  on to Bartholomew’s Lane. They had been invited to plant new trees beside the barn. 

After a brief introduction by Mike Gower the children got busy planting a range of native species trees with several adults to assist and supervise. They worked with great enthusiasm and by the time we had to leave , 80 trees had been planted.

Thank you to Mike and Trish who allowed the children to be part of their ambitious tree planting programme.

Saplings class of year 3 and year 4 children of Wenhaston Primary School gathered in Grove Woods with sparkling winter weather.

Jo Jarvis took a group to decorate slices of wood prepared by John for the activity. The children smeared apricot jam over the wood and then placed seeds and berries decoratively over the surface. The discs were lined up along mossy, fallen tree trunks and left for the wildlife to enjoy. 

The other group worked with miniature wreaths made out of elm twigs and raffia. The children collected, seed heads, grasses, twigs and leaves and attached them by binding raffia around the stems. Quite a fiddly job but the children persevered well and took home wreaths to remind them of the winter wood and wildlife, even if some needed finishing off at home.

Thank you to Jo for a lovely set of photos.

Marie

……….. and the next morning the platters were bare, someone had a tasty meal!

Not the biggest turnout we have ever had  for a work party but nevertheless we managed to get some useful jobs done. A stack of tree guards were removed from trees that were robust enough to manage without or trees that were needing to be rid of guards that were hosting ant hills or fungi. It was encouraging to see sweet chestnut and hazel trees growing well in the coppicing area of Malster’s and the hedge that was planted by the school is thickening up and creating a good boundary. The natural regeneration of trees like oak and hornbeam is filling up spaces and even becoming congested in places. The colours of field maple, dog wood, guelder rose and oak are glorious at the moment, it’s a colourful place!

We moved the meeting time into the afternoon to avoid the worst of the rain and we kept fairly dry but the three ponds were brimming. So it was particularly special when Judy found a great crested newt hiding in the grass.

Since the first interpretation board was designed, we have acquired three new pieces of land, Malster’s Little Field, The Copse and Vicarage Grove. So the map needed redrawing and we needed a name to cover the whole area, Grove Woods. We celebrated the new interpretation board with rock cakes and mulled wine and wondered what the next Blyth Woods celebration would be about.

There is still another hedge and some more trees to tend so look out for another work party date. Marie Rolfe

The sun was shining and it was a beautiful October day when nine of us gathered to mulch the fruit and nut trees in Merton Community Orchard. Thank you to Jo Small for the mulch she donated, we quickly spread it around the trees and added in some wood chip as well. The severe drought of recent years had killed several two-year-old trees and we hope that by mulching we can help the others survive. We will replant some of the trees in the spring and make sure they are also well mulched. 

29/10/23