Menith Wood Village Trust

 Another glorious sunshiney day in the village saw another dedicated crew of volunteers working on the green. Again in two groups, a section of grass close to the stone and picnic bench was strimmed, raked, scarified, raked, strimmed and then sown with the wildflower mix. We’ve now got 200m2 sown, and with any luck the flowers will be beautiful next year (and beneficial for the animals, birds and bugs that also use the green. Please don’t walk on the wildflower areas, and try to keep your dogs off them. The other willing and tooled-up volunteers have severely pollarded 2 Crack Willows around the pond. We have done this for two main reasons: the tree height being reduced will let more light into the pond and less leaf fall, and as the tree re-sprouts it will create new bird nesting sites and improve biodiversity.  The brash has been used to reinforce the dead hedges that close off access to the pond. This will allow frogs, toads, newts and other amphibians to have more protecti...

 The sun was shining, the birds were singing, a crew of villagers headed out on to the Millennium Green for the first day of the autumn working party.  Part of the crew worked on the community orchard nearest to the main road, clearing around the trees, felling the dead ash tree and making some piles of brash on the hard standing area (ideal over-wintering cover for our family of resident slow worms!). Part of the crew headed over to the Penn Hall Lane end of the Green and set to clearing a patch of ground. Not just for a giggle, but with a real purpose. The plan was to prepare a small area of the Green ready for sowing some specially selected wild flower seeds, to hopefully make the Green an even more beautiful place next year.  After much strimming, raking, scarifying (not Halloween-related!), sowing and more raking we were all done, and the seed has been given a pretty good start.  Same again tomorrow? And which flowers should we look out for next year? According ...