Thursday 21st May 2026 - With a heatwave beginning to kick in the fair sized team grabbed some needed shade when and where they could as they split up to cover three sites.
Amassing at Richmond Green where the larger division of the team remained all day, some of the team set about continuing the weeding activities on the grassland and ephemeral pond before seeds start developing and spreading whilst the remaining portion devoted their energies to picking out loose stones on the bare soil and watering the plug plants put in two weeks ago.
With the rest of the team being mobile it was away to Therapia Lane Rough for the first stop where a couple of areas of grassland got a brush-cutting and thuggish plant species got weeded from the midst's of the desirables coming through before a return to Mellows Park Butterfly Bank yielded three full bags worth of weeded Docks, Brassicas, Creeping Thistle and brush-cut rank grasses.
Wednesday 20th May - With work taking place at various locations around Sutton Ecology Centre today we only managed to snap a shot of the final touches being made to a new installation in the Mini Beast Area.
Tuesday 19th May 2026 - The drizzly rain came to an end just as the substantial sized team kicked into gear for another days exploits at Queen Marys Woodland.
Dividing up to tackle a handful of tasks the site became a hive of activity as continuation of the brush-cutting to the central ride recommenced, a steady convoy of wood chippings was ferried too the trees planted up at the beginning of the year to provide a moisture retaining and weed suppressing mulch around them, thuggish plant species and Bramble were weeded out from various grassland compartments and lastly some barricading fencing was created to stem the trampling into the woodland interior to protect tree whips and patches of Dogs Mercury making a strong appearance.
Thursday 14th May 2026 - It was a mixed day of spots of sunshine and periods of sharp downpours (with thunder in the background) as a sizeable contingent of volunteers carried out works at Richmond Green and Mellows Park.
With another batch of plug plants to supplement the ones already installed last Saturday, the team divided up with the majority making good use of the kneelers putting in the plants along the re-profiled banks whilst the sliver of the team remaining set about a brief bit of grass cutting and weeding out Burdock, Creeping Thistle and Green Alkanet from the recovering trampled grassland.
After a fairly heavy further shower the smaller contingent of the squad departed for Mellows Park where some now heavily saturated grass-cuttings around the Butterfly Bank were raked and collected up and a start was made on weeding out the thuggish species making residence on the undulations including a number of waist height fearsome Spear Thistles.
