Course tutor Dave Warburton showing the difference in length of inflorescence between timothy (Phleum pratense) and smaller cat’s-tail (Phleum bertolinii)
Thursday 10th September 2026 - After Tuesdays rain-soaked taskday an urgency to get sites cleared of arisings was definitely at the forefront of everybody's mind.
With the team at a fair size the day kicked off at Anton Crescent Wetland where the squad worked in close unison to load the trailer with the meadow cuttings gathered on Monday. As one full trailer weighing in at north of one tonne was despatched to the transfer station at Mitcham the remaining squad got busy clearing out straggling Bramble and a light bit of Tree regrowth ready for another tip run once the trailer was back.
After disposing of this second smaller load the final phase of the day had the team heading to Roundshaw Downs to shift more arising left over from Tuesday which luckily could stay on site at one of the designated compost heaps.
Tuesday 8th September 2026 - The rain was a constant factor falling in varying degrees of intensity as a full team bolstered by one new volunteer returned to Roundshaw Downs.
Having raked the grass arisings in the South-East corner up when they were bone dry last Thursday todays activity was much more of a struggle for the volunteers to shift the piles to the compost heaps as they gained weighty moisture minute by minute, luckily the Tractor and Harrow was on call to alleviate some of the burdon.
Thursday 3rd September 2026 - With numbers boosted by a new volunteer joining the ranks the team made a return to Roundshaw Downs.
Amassing in the South East region of the site, as the Tractor and topper finished off the last parts of the meadow cutting the volunteers devoted their day to the first phase of the clear up, raking the cuttings into windrows and heaps ready for moving to the compost heaps on a final visit.
Tuesday 1st September 2026 - Being joined by one new volunteer and one making a return after a good number of years, the squad spent an Autumnally sunny day at Roundshaw Downs.
As the Tractor and topper attachment headed to the South-West fringes of the site to carry out grass cutting ready for Thursdays task the remaining force moved from the East Butterfly Bank to the West for more vegetation Brushcutting and copious amounts of subsequent raking.
Todays last pic is of one of the three Kestrels seen circling the site as it took to the cattle paddock fencing to survey the scene, typically it flew off just as the camera neared for a slightly better shot!
Thursday 27th August 2026 - The volunteers were out in force for for a rather muggy day on a return trip to Richmond Green.
With a welcome return of a bit of substantial rain overnight, todays team had a bit more of a struggle on their hands dealing with a large pile of arising left over from last Tuesday (which was now well and truly saturated) for the shifting into the trailer and depositing back at Merton's green waste transfer station.
As the loading got underway the team also had more material to rake with both brushcutters on the go, Bindweed to strip off the stock netting fencing and a couple of bags worth of litter to pick from the river bank.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.