At 10 am today two Friends joined David Preston, Leeds City Council ranger, in carrying out further work to improve the orchid meadow (aka “the cricket meadow”).
FOAW had spent a couple of mornings mowing the meadow already (see our blog posts for the 16th August and the 18th August) but had only managed to mow about a third of it. Mowing is important because it encourages bio-diversity and in particular a range of wildflowers.
While David set to with the brush cutter, yours truly got to work with a scythe, and our second plucky volunteer, Sharon, got to work pulling up Himalayan balsam around the northern edge of the meadow.
Although it was a lovely day, heavy rain the day before made the mowing heavy going as the grass lay flat along the ground and so, after about an hour, David ceased mowing and he and Sharon raked up the mowings and turned to other tasks.
Part of the meadow had largely turned to a dense crop of grass and so, having mown it this morning, David and Sharon scarified the area and then scattered yellow rattle seeds.
Yellow-rattle is an annual that thrives in grasslands, living a semi-parasitic life by feeding off the nutrients in the roots of nearby grasses. For this reason, it is now often used to turn grassland back to meadow – by feeding off the vigorous grasses, it eventually allows more delicate wildflowers to grow. It is called Yellow-rattle because it has yellow flowers and when they turn to seed the seed pods give a distinctive rattle. If you would like to know more, click this link
Having scattered the yellow-rattle seeds, they scarified another area of the meadow and scattered some woodland edge wild flower seeds.
In the meantime, yours truly was still scything away.
We finished work at about 12.30.
JOIN FRIENDS OF ADEL WOODS
Friends of Adel Woods were formed in 2009 to help maintain Adel Woods and encourage people to enjoy them. We meet one weekend morning a month to carry out various jobs or ”work parties”, and we also put on educational events. We are a very friendly group and welcome new members who want to help preserve our special woods, enjoy fresh air and exercise in the woods and make new friends. If you would like to take part in our activities, just come along to one of our work parties or get in touch by leaving a comment on this website – you should be able to see a comment button at the bottom of this page.
Our next events
Our next work party is on Saturday the 21st September when we will be litterpicking and path clearing.
Our next educational event will be on Sunday the 29th September 2024 from 2 pm to 4 pm when local naturalist Steve Joul will be leading a fungal foray. Please note, this is not an event for collecting mushrooms to eat, but an opportunity to learn about the many species of fungi to be found in Adel Woods.
For further information, please have a look at our home page.
Friends of Adel Woods 