Elder Stakesmen

A gorgeous sunny day saw almost 30 people join us today for our tasks to Manor Woods Valley and Golden Hill community garden.

Liam kindly offered to take the Golden Hill group with Richard acting as backmarker and Clo and Charlie as photographers. There they were greeted with an amazing assortment of tasks - ranging from book stall sorting to sandwich making (pear chutney, hummus and nasturtium!) and laying out mint on the children's sensory trail!

The remaining folks joined me in our run along the Malago Greenway to meet Martin and a few other members of the Manor Valley Conservation Group (MVCG) at the secret orchard (which thanks to MVCGs hard work is not so secret any more).

We took shears to bramble risings and donned hard hats to cut down any elder trees that might be obstructing the fruit trees before doing a little harvesting of our own (picking from the trees rather than the floor to try and avoid sharing any half eaten specimens with badgers!). The elder was then cut down to size and used to build wildlife friendly deadwood hedges.

(Apologies for the gender bias of the title which was chosen purely in the interests of run title punnery)