Another post about a plant that has many common names: ragwort.
Continue reading “Stinking Willie and marefart”Stinking Willie and marefart
Fallen goat willow
A combination of waterlogged roots and high winds brought down an old and decaying goat willow (Salix caprea) on the edge of the Arboretum, near the oak with the chestnut paling fence. Last week, the Wednesday work party spent the morning cutting back the branches and using them to build wildlife sanctuaries.
Continue readingWednesday Work Party
by Ian Bushell
As agreed with the Countryside Team, we started coppicing the Hazel in the Arboretum.
Continue reading “Wednesday Work Party”
Recycling cans
by Sarah Marsh
Wednesday morning’s work party began with members of the Friends of Southwick Country Park loading up Patrick’s trailer and his car with sacks of flattened aluminium cans to take to Shanley’s our local scrap dealer. On their way, they paused to collect more sacks from Jim’s house.
Continue reading
Weather report
The weather was so wet and the water level so high on Wednesday that the work party was cancelled. Nobody can remember the last time we had to do that. Go carefully out there.
Header image by Peter White, other images as attributed
Tree felling
by Ian Bushell
After Alan and Sarah had set off to litter-pick their way along the Lambrok, the rest of the Wednesday Work Party made its way to the hard path by the tributary stream where a hanging branch on a dead Ash tree had been reported as a possible danger to visitors.
Continue reading “Tree felling”
Fallen tree
Facebook message from Barb: Thurs 08:48
The way into the Park from School Lane, Southwick, is completely blocked by a fallen tree.
We have fixed the path over the new bridge at Studley Close.
Well done everybody!
Wingnut
There is a Chinese wingnut tree (Pterocarya stenoptera) in the Arboretum.
Continue reading “Wingnut”Work party
There is a problem at the wooden footbridge into Village Green.
Continue reading “Work party”Protecting the stream
Remember all those hazel stakes we cut, back at the beginning of October?
Continue reading “Protecting the stream”Workparty
From white elephants to daffodils.
Some of the £145 we raised on our White Elephant Stall at Southwick Flower Show on August Bank Holiday Monday has been spent on 250 native daffodil bulbs.
Continue reading “Workparty”Cutting stakes
by Ian Bushell
The morning’s task was to cut, prepare and store enough hazel stakes to provide the structure for dead hedges to protect the banks and streams on either side of the footbridges into Studley Close and Village Green.
Continue reading “Cutting stakes”A Big Thank You
A message of thanks from Sarah and Alan, our litter pickers, pictured here at work in yesterday’s unremitting rain.
Continue reading “A Big Thank You”
Wednesday’s work party
This week’s work party began with an official heat warning from the Countryside Team:
Continue reading
Aeshna cyanea
A southern hawker (not the one in these images) visited the Wednesday Work Party in the picnic area at the reserve last week: such a beautiful creature.
Southern hawker (Aeshna cyanea)
Wednesday work party
by Ian Bushell
A really good turn-out today, just about everybody was there, and the weather stayed good right up until we got to the picnic area for coffee.
Continue reading
Tidying up Studley Bridge
The new bridge between Studley Close and the far end of Lambrok Meadow has been renamed, Studley Bridge, and given a thorough tidying by Wednesday’s workparty. Thanks guys!
Pulling ragwort
We call this the orchid patch and last year, when the ragwort was sprayed, we fenced it off to protect the orchids. But the untreated ragwort thrived here, and this year has had to be hand- pulled by yesterday’s Wednesday Work Party. Well done, guys!
Disease resistant elms
Progress report
by Ian Bushell
On April 10th we checked the fifteen Dutch Elm Disease Resistant trees, donated by Peter Shallcross and Frank Crosier, that we had planted in April 2021.
Continue reading
Planting the scrapes
by Ian Bushell
Today’s work party [the 15th] was all out planting in the mud.
Continue reading
Hoar frost
Wednesday’s work party was treated an unusual exhibition of needle-like hoar frost.
Continue reading
SET-ASIDE
Some years ago, an area at the top of Kestrel Field was set aside from the rest of the field and its agricultural calendar. The reserve would be unmanageable without the help of our tenant farmer, but we also recognise that the twice yearly grass-cut does damage the habitat of some of our wildlife species.
Continue readingChainsaw
by Ian Bushell
As promised, a report on the chainsaw course that ran for four days from Tuesday 30th August to Friday 2nd September at Roland Heming, Fox Ridge, Motcombe. Clive Knight, Phil Riddle and myself attended.
Continue reading “Chainsaw”Fixing the dam: part 2
by Ian Bushell
After the Wednesday Work Party had cleared away the vegetation from both sides of the dam, the contractor soon set to work.
Continue reading “Fixing the dam: part 2”
Southwick Country Park Nature Reserve 