Love being in the great outdoors :)
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Sat 13th Apr at 10:00am
Sun 24th Mar at 10:00am
Newcastle Report written by Krishti
It was urbangreen's 100th task and we all showed up to Hodgkin park pretty excited and prepared with some surprises. Mike was there on a purely volunteer role but he shared lovely stories about the park as usual. Today's job was to take down the Ivy that had covered a massive section of the wall. It looked pretty satisfying at first. Taking down entire sections of Ivy. But we had to drag it uphill, so it was out of the way and we were all sweaty and out of breath in no time! Our tea/coffee break was extra special as Mike had brought in a chocolate cake and Lucy's mum baked us some lovely cupcakes to celebrate the occasion. We managed to clear off quite a lot of Ivy. All in all a very exciting task and I thoroughly enjoyed it!
Sat 23rd Mar at 10:00am
Newcastle Report written by Damu
On a very windy and rather chilly, but very pleasantly sunny morning, two goodgymers helped two urban greeners in Kenton Park.
The first task was to cut down some self seeded saplings, that wouldn't be able to compete with the parent trees, and could potentially create areas that encourage anti-social behaviour.
Set them free at the break of dawn 'til one by one, they were gone
It was very satisfying to see the area clear away. And we had the added entertainment of watching a group of people bounce around as they played bubble football.
Before we started the next task, we needed to change tools, from loppers and saws, to spades and shovels. And of course a quick Urban Green biscuit break. Unfortunately the kettle wasn't feeling the best, so no dunking could be done, but still gobbled down enthusiastically.
And all that energy was needed as we extended the width of a section of pathway. Isaac at Urban Green was very excited when we discovered a wooden border that we could work with. Once we had finished digging, all that was left to do was tidy up the mud, moss and grass, so it didn't slide back down onto the path.
Sadly, as it was Damu's first time leading a mission in a while, he completely forgot to take any pictures!
As Ninety nine urban green tasks go by Ninety nine urban green tasks go by
And we have another mission with Urban Green tomorrow, which is our 100th time helping each other. Would be great to see you there :-)
Thu 21st Mar at 1:30pm
Newcastle Report written by Newcastle runner
Tree, er sorry that should be three, is the magic number, as three Newcastle GoodGymers made their way to Gateshead for a tree-mendous tree planting task. It could hardly have been a more appropriate day for this task - International Day of Forests!
It was our second time helping Earthwatch Europe with their Tiny Forests tree-planting project. Tiny Forests brings the benefits of woodland right into the heart of our cities and urban spaces: connecting people with nature, helping to mitigate the impacts of climate change, as well as providing nature-rich habitat to support urban wildlife. Today's forest was in Gateshead in the appropriately named Windmill Hill area - there was a definite breeze accompanying us today.
We started with an introduction and tree-planting demo from Claire and Sam. Claire explained that they use an unusual method named after Japanese botanist Miyawaki. The trees are planted only 30cm apart. This has particular benefits on the tree canopy, the rate of growth and the light inside the forest, thus helping to attract birds, butterflies, bees and beetles! Some of the trees also have tags attached to facilitate the research component of Earthwatch in order to track the development of all the forests. It was important to make sure that the tags remained above ground!
Earthwatch Europe teamed up with local partners Living Woods. They're based in the North East but planning to expand. They're dedicated to the creation and sustainable management of woodland by supporting and empowering local people to create and care for woodland in and around their communities. Their team members Lorna and Mark are always looking for volunteers. They seemed very interested in recruiting GoodGym to help at some point. In the mean time, if you'd like to help, find them here Living Woods
The team had already had a session this morning, accompanied by local school children so there were already some trees planted in the 200m squared site. Our task was to finish the job, making it 600 trees planted in the day. With some other volunteers we finished the job in not much more than an hour! Amazing!
As well as International Day of Forests, it's also World Poetry Day today, so I'll finish with a poem to tell you the names of some of the trees we planted!
It’s poetry day, I’ll end with a poem Our first species of tree, that one’s a rowan
My rhyming’s not good, you could call it prose The next tree you’ll find is the pretty dog rose
Did we get stuck in, we did by golly Christmas festooning - how about some holly?
As always GoodGym sent out a great team Look out for catkins from the tall hornbeam
Over the years we can watch them all grow Maybe your favourite will be the goat willow
Dig in the soil and give it a poke Make way for the super strong sessile oak
Volunteers alike had a really fine time As we planted some sweet yellow green small leaved lime!
Sun 24th Mar at 10:00am
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