Update - Trust Meeting

17 August 2021

Spring Plant & Bric-A-Brac Sale

The Spring Sale which took
place at the end of May was a
considerable success in more
ways than one.

It was good because it both

gave us an opportunity to raise
much needed funds for the
Green and a chance to make
contact with the community of
Woodhouse.

I think there are a number of reasons why it was a successful fund raiser:
1) The event was better advertised, Park Road gave us a hand with this and put posters in the Notice
Boards that they are responsible for. We also asked Radio Mansfield to give us a plug, but I’m not sure
if this came to anything and a number of volunteers spread the word on Facebook and other social
media platforms.
2) We had no overheads, we paid nothing for permission to use the Library forecourt, and everything we
sold was grown by volunteers or donated.
3) The inclusion of Books and Nearly New in the offer probably created more interest.
4) The end of May is a better time of year to sell plants than late June, which is the usual date of the
Yeoman Hill event.
5) There might also have been an advantage in holding the sale separate from the Summer Fair as it
a. could attract a different clientele.
b. does not have to compete with other good causes.

The positive thing is that most of the above are within our control and therefore can be replicated next year.

Community Orchard
Following the work in February on the orchard’s Apple & Pear trees, early June saw the turn of the Cherry &
Plum trees and other “stone fruit” to be pruned. This only leaves the Mulberry & Medlar trees to be pruned
and then all the trees have been treated. This is the first time this has happened, which is progress.

We have continued to mow only around the trees and along the line of trees leaving the rest to go wild. This
makes sense from both a biodiversity view point and also makes the orchard less prone to casual vandalism.

Working Parties
The Tuesday Working Party continues to be well populated with as many as seven volunteers taking part. This
is where the bulk of the work gets done. The monthly events, have been somewhat disappointing. One month
only had two people turn up. Some of this fall in numbers could be put down to holidays, but I am not
convinced that this is the only reason, or even the main cause.

However, I believe that the monthly Working Party is still worth offering as it could attract different people,
and still has benefits in terms of public relations.
 Tool Store
The only outstanding work inside the
store is the fixing of Ground Anchors
which the builder has offered to do FoC,
hence the long wait!

The Sedum roof has survived its first 10

months and is looking good. We are
monitoring rain fall to ensure that the
plants do not become stressed. We
have watered the roof twice this spring
& summer. Only a small patch has died
back which could be caused by us using
the same spot to access the roof. This is
easily remedied.

It could also be caused by vandalism as

we know we have had some meddling
Tool Store Sedum Roof with the roof as the pebbles in the
drainage channel have been disturbed.
This makes the application of the anti-climb paint more urgent. We have also had both hooks that hold the
doors open ripped off; one hook has been twisted off twice. We have decided not to replace them but to
make a removable alternative hook which does the same job, but is taken in when we close the doors.

The Meadow
Work to encourage more Yellow Rattle seemed
to have worked with many more plants being
found in areas of the meadow that in the past
have been almost totally without this important
plant. Time will tell whether this will prove
enough to re-establish Rattle in the long term.
The problem is that we have no way of knowing
what the weather conditions will be over the
coming winter.

Therefore we are laying the foundations for

another Rattle Plug Plant campaign during this
autumn and winter. Rattle is parasitic plant and
feeds off the roots of grasses so we have started
by sowing the grass seed in the plug cells. This we
hope will give the grass a head start over the next
few months and give the Rattle something to
feed off when it germinates in the spring of 2022.
If all goes to plan we have the potential to
produce approximately 1100 plants.

Yellow Rattle, Meadow early June ‘21

Management Plan
Up to this month the main management work
has been mowing path edges and the recent
spraying off of vegetation encroaching onto
the paths. We employ a contractor to do the
spraying as applying the chemical spray is
subject to a strict licencing.

In the coming months more time will be taken

up by cutting back this years growth and
raking it away.

One job that we have been involved with is

keeping Ragwort under control. This bold
yellow flowered plant can easily take over so
we take most of it out. It is however a good
food source for a number of invertabrates so
we leave some to grow on.

Removing Ragwort

Planning Consent for Tree Work

We have managed to have a face to face meeting with the MDC Tree Officer which gave both parties an
opportunity to share our concerns. One aspect that we may find very useful in the future was information
regarding how we could ensure that we would not have to put in an application for planning permission
everytime we needed to carry out the more routine tasks. This includes tasks such as cutting away branches
that are likely to impede the safe passage of people using the footpaths across the Green. It appears that we
can ask for permission “in perpatuity” for this sort of work.

The Tree Officer agreed to give a steer to what we would need & how we should word such an application
and we are in the process of testing this. A draft of a Schedule of Works & an accompanying Plan have been
forwarded to him for his comments.

Guide Post Renovation

We finally got the four “arms” back from the
sandblaster and are now in the process of painting
them. All four have been undercoated and two coats
of black paint and are now having the gold paint
applied to the lettering and raised edges

Bob Thacker
15/08/2021
Undercoating the Signs