THIRSK COMMUNITY WOODLANDS GROUP NEWSLETTER Autumn 2012 www.thirskwoodlands.btck.co.uk Registered Charity 1122487 Apple Trees For Sowerby Primary School. EELDRUG SORE THWIC HELZA MOMONC HORDIC COYPAN CROVE WADOME ESTEW WOWLLI RHEB DALER DREEL AFTALOXD WHOHARNT WOODLAND JUMBLE The Woodland Group has to find the following trees, shrubs and flowers so they can create a spinney near the wood they have planted, but the words are all jumbled up! Can you help them find the plants they need? (Be careful!! One of the word groups is not a plant!!) Please note the date of the AGM Thursday 18th October 7.30 pm Town Hall Annex During last winter the Garden Team at Sowerby Primary School had asked Mike if he could help to improve some apple trees which had been vandalised. We went to look at the damage and found that the small trees had been planted in a semicircle behind a seating bench. Unfortunately this meant that they were just too easy to reach and break while sitting on the bench. Mike had some larger trees at Helmsley Walled Garden which were surplus to requirements. He decided that the best option was to remove the small damaged trees and take them up to Pearsons Wood to give them a second chance and to replace them with the Helmsley trees. So one Saturday morning in April we all went to school and set to work. We had help from some parents and volunteers and soon all the damaged trees were out. The new trees were planted further back away from the bench and were very well staked. It was a nice sunny morning and all looked fine by lunch time. The trees all settled well and were covered in blossom. We had another visit to check on their progress in June.
The Woodland Group has to find the following trees, shrubs and flowers so they can create a spinney near the wood they have planted, but the words are all jumbled up! Can you help them find the plants they need? (Be careful!! One of the word groups is not a plant!!)
Please note the date of the AGM Thursday 18th October 7.30 pm
Town Hall Annex
During last winter the Garden Team at Sowerby Primary School had asked Mike if he could help to improve some apple trees which had been vandalised. We went to look at the damage and found that the small trees had been planted in a semicircle behind a seating bench. Unfortunately this meant that they were just too easy to reach and break while sitting on the bench. Mike had some larger trees at Helmsley Walled Garden which were surplus to requirements. He decided that the best option was to remove the small damaged trees and take them up to Pearsons Wood to give them a second chance and to replace them with the Helmsley trees. So one Saturday morning in April we all went to school and set to work. We had help from some parents and volunteers and soon all the damaged trees were out. The new trees were planted further back away from the bench and were very well staked. It was a nice sunny morning and all looked fine by lunch time. The trees all settled well and were covered in blossom. We had another visit to check on their progress in June.
What I first loved about this book is that it re-connected me with my very happy childhood memories of growing up on a farm with an orchard just a few moments away from the front door. I would spend hours in the orchard, climbing trees, playing hide and seek or just lying in the grass reading a book or
What I first loved about this book is that it re-connected me with my very happy childhood memories of growing up on a farm with an orchard just a few moments away from the front door. I would spend hours in the orchard, climbing trees, playing hide and seek or just lying in the grass reading a book or daydreaming. I would feast on the sweetest apples and juiciest plums.
My love of orchards is much more than childhood memories. The wondrous site of spring blossom takes my breath away. The arrival of the first pollinators is reassuring and a reminder that they are a fantastic nature reserve and support an immensely varied eco-system. Whatever the season orchards hold a magical appeal for me. Even in the depths of winter look closely and you will see the fat fruit buds bursting with promise for the coming year.
Evidence of pruning hooks found in Kent suggests that orchards were planted during the Roman occupation. They are intricately woven into our culture and folklore. But despite the tragic loss of many orchards since the Second World War, my childhood orchard has survived. The resurgence of interest in planting orchards has enabled Sowerby Community Primary School to be very proud custodians of such an orchard with the hope that it will enable future generations to also have their own cherished memories.
Rebecca Frank Rebecca Frank Rebecca Frank Rebecca Frank
(Parent and Volunteer - Sowerby Community Primary School)
I discovered ‘Each Peach Pear Plum’ by Janet and Allan Ahlberg when my children were very small, a wonderful book which gently leads the reader through an idyllic landscape of rolling hills, patchwork fields and an orchard where trees are laden with with plump, ripe fruits. Well known and loved nursery characters are partially hidden, waiting to be spied.
Bee Update This has been a particularly bad year for bees. The poor start to the year meant that many bees refused to leave their hives. Bees need calm weather with no threat of rain or thunder and a minimum temp of 10C. When the bees did leave the slightly improved weather did not produce sufficient nectar for them. Without nectar the queen will not lay eggs at the rate she should for the summer months. With old bees dying and poor foraging most bee keepers have had to feed their bees. We feed them syrup made up from granulated sugar and water. The other problem occurring this year is that bee keepers are reporting that their queens are disappearing, often leaving contented colonies. I’m sure that by next year we will have some, if not many, explanations why. We have though had the occasional week of fair to good weather. During these times some colonies have chosen to swarm and we were fortunate enough to collect two, one from Westgate that arrived the evening before the Olympic Torch was passing through, the second from the grounds of The Crab and Lobster in Topcliffe. These swarms are now developing into colonies. For our apiary this was the first year we were able to get a small quantity of honey. I would describe it as Forest and Field honey, dark in colour and probably a mixture of the early tree nectar and oil seed rape. For those lucky enough to get a jar, if it sets just sit the jar in some warm tap water. That should loosen it. Current activity is in cleaning up hives that have died out (those where the queen has left), converting old comb into beeswax polish and, I’m sorry to say, getting the colonies that remain ready for winter.
Mike I’Anson
Leaf Damage
A species of tiny moth is decimating Horse Chestnut trees. It does not kill trees but stunts them over time and makes them very unsightly as the ‘mining’ caterpillars get to work and suck the leaves dry.
The moth took 30 years to spread across Europe from Greece and was first noticed in SE England in 2002. Since then it has spread and has now reached the north. Its main target is the common Horse Chestnut (Aesculus Hippocastanum). Spring and early summer foliage and the familiar candle-like flowers are not affected but the caterpillar gets to work from June onwards. Small brown spots develop on leaves, soon expanding into long white markings where the internal leaf tissue has been eaten. Eventually the whole leaf turns brown. Infesta-tion seems to start on the lower branches, spreading upwards as second and third genera-tions of the pest affect the whole tree. Leaves on infected trees fall early. The tree survives but is unattractive and the quantity of conkers is reduced by up to 50%! We have all spent time scouring the ground for the best conkers. Now it is said that the annual World Conker Championships held in Northamptonshire are under threat.
The disease is quite separate from the ‘bleeding canker’ so ften seen as a brownish liquid seeping out of wounds. Together the two forms of attack may make majestic specimens of this iconic tree a bit of a rarity in years to come. With no known predators the moth can breed freely. Little can be done but collecting and burning autumn leaves is said to slow down the spread by destroying the end of season generation of pests.
Another bad weather story. I was asked to have a look at the oak tree in the car park outside the pub at Kilburn. It was reported to be oozing a frothy liquid. Some research on the internet and latterly with my technical books brought up "slime flux". The test would be when I visited and smelt the froth. Would it smell of yeast? Sure enough it did. Slime flux or 'wetwood' is a bacterial infection often triggered by wet weather. The infection fer-
ments, building up a pressure within the tree which then blows out of any crack in the bark. It
can on occasions force the bark away from the cambium layer.
Sadly there is no treatment other than washing away the infection.
Proposed Activities for Winter 2012/13 There is a lot work required within Pearsons Wood, so we have only set three days of community tree planting these dates are: Saturday 24th November 2012 Saturday 19th January 2013 Saturday 16th March 2013 The group meets most Saturdays at 9am at Pearsons Wood.
Activities within the wood include: • Taking trees from the nursery and planting out into the gaps to speed up canopy closure. • It will also give us the opportunity to restock the nursery.
Saturday 29th December 2012 is our traditional festive meet which’ if the weather is fair will involve a short woodland or countryside walk to shake off some Christmas excess. We have a new weather test, our “puddleometer.” If the rain bounces in a puddle then the day’s activity is cancelled. Likewise for frozen or snow on ground. NB On those days that are cancelled we will still meet at Thirsk Garden Centre at 12.30pm
come back to Facebook when I can figure out its purpose!
Below is a response from our guys, typed as it was texted to me, to give our readers a chance to interpret ‘youth speak’:
From Andrea
“Thoughts on facebook: by having a precence on facebk, woodland grp makes itself accessible 2 a wider audience and so hopefully allows greater opportunity for the recruitment of new members. 1 of the 1st things i did when trying 2 find out more about the grp was 2 check if there was a facebk page with contact details and info about what the grp does. there is also the opportunity 2 use it as an online photo album and organizer, so any 1 with access can easily share info and find out what events the grp has planned….. that being said u have 2 b careful how much info is put on there n keep a check on privacy settings etc.”
From Tom
“I suppose its value lies in the fact that it is a searchable page of Facebook, if anyone were to read in the paper about the group and thought to search for some more info, Facebook is often people’s first port of call. It has a link to the website, and it would also mean they could email one of us in the group to find out what time we meet etc.”
From Mike
“Luv the txt spk, n thnks to Tom and Andrea u wil fnd the grp on Fbk by searching for Thirsk Community Woodlands Group.”
Membership Subs.
Full: £12 pa Concession: £6 pa Family: £18 pa Life: £100 Corporate: £100
2011 / 2012 Committee
Chair: Mike I’Anson (525954) Vice Chair: Dave Wells (526540)
Committee: Steve Britain, Phil Lawson, Sonia Rose Susan Stephenson, Ellen Storm, Patricia Whitfield
Mike Writes:
I promised our editor that I would do an article on social media and how we could use it to promote the woodlands group.
Well I had some initial instruction and have now had an hour trying it out. But the sun is out, it’s August, and I can still not see the point of it, certainly not while the sun is out! So I’m going to pass over to our younger members and I will return to Facebook when I can get the hang of it. Below is their response.
