Great weather on May 2nd for Mike and Malcolm to plant out a replacement tree donated by Anne Partridge last year. We planted 4 Violas in the surrounding soil as they should do well here in the dappled shade if we control competition for a while.
Another welcome (but came in naturally) wildflower on Mayfields near the bench beside the main path. Looks very much like Ribwort Plantain on April 20th.
Great to see a local bee enjoying a bugle plant established on Mayfields as much as Malcolm did.
Beautiful warm morning on April 11 for Mike, Malcolm, Tim and Lesley to check on the progress of the bulbs planted last year near the edge of the meadow beside the main path.
In our efforts to provide easily accessible views of wild flowers on Mayfields we spend a lot of time and money trying to maintain clear and weld drained paths to reduce wear and tear on the gassy wildflower verges. Malcolm bought 6 bags of pea gravel on April 5th 2024 but it took 4 of them for him just to fill one particularly deep and muddy puddle. There’s a lot more needed.
You can see why people walk and cycle on the verge here without really thinking about wildflowers.
Hopefully the verge here will soon green up again.
Good to be able to confirm that a lot of the seedlings emerging in the old grass area on the meadow are indeed Yellow Rattle. from seed sown last December.
Great to welcome Kathryn back on March 9, 2024. We spent an hour examining the many wildflowers emerging on the areas where MCT has been planting to improve wild flower cover across the site. Results are very encouraging.
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Lesley, Mike and Malcolm took advantage of leap year’s 29th Feb 2024 to mow and strim alongside the fence on Nelsons Lane. They took great care to mow around the clumps of native daffodils just starting to come into bud there.
They put the new mower and strimmer bought with support from the Dringhouses and Woodthorpe Ward of CYC to good use so many thanks to the Ward Committee.
Mike and Malcolm did more shrubby root removal on February 15th before adding some native daffodils and fritillaries, white campion and ox-eye daisies to the primroses, bluebells and geum already in this area of Mayfields. Nice to see Spring just around the corner.
Clear signs of Spring on Mayfields on January 24 after the storms, but also lots of litter blown onto Mayfields and two smaller dead trees blown down.
In anticipation of heavy rain and strong winds forecast for Sunday 21st of January Malcolm decided to spread another 4 bags of pea gravel over a muddy section of the back path. He hopes this will reduce trampling on the wild flowers growing on the path verges there.
Coldest night in York for some time on January 17 but wildflowers being grown on under shelter for now are doing well, including for examples Native Daffodils, Fritillaria, White Campion and Ox-Eye Daisies.
Paul and Lesley Abbott came out for 2 hours on Friday January 12th to help with reduction of the mostly dead and Ivy smothered Elder tree beside the main gate. Malcolm and Mike had started the slightly tricky job on Thursday morning. Sad to see the tree reach the end of its natural life.
Kathryn and Malcolm had a useful session on Wednesday 10th January and managed to do yet more leaf raking/composting and spread 6 bags of pea gravel along the path. A well defined path is safer and reduces trampling on wildflowers in adjacent verges.
We started off in January raking up and composting leaf and twig accumulation from the festive break. Quite a lot to do still after the wet and windy weather of late. Initially we concentrated on this area at the N.W. corner of the site as we want to enhance the wild flower diversity even more here for our Co-op Community fund supported project.
This shows the need for removal of accumulated leaf-fall here.
Not quite finished after 3.5 hours of work but looking a lot better on January 8th.
Because of the late and protracted Autumn litter fall this year our volunteers are spending a lot of time scraping muddy litter off of the paths and reducing the fallen leaf layer burying grass and wildflower plants. beside the tree line to give the plants more light and air. We also cleaned the algae coating off of one of our information boards.
Nice conditions on Wednesday afternoon on December 13 for planting out some more Foxgloves, Ox-eye Daisies and Self-heal plants. We try to create natural looking drifts.
A bit warmer on December 5 and surface soil finally thawed. Malcolm was able to break up the surface soil in an irregular pattern ready to sow Yellow Rattle seeds. Later on Tuesday afternoon he spread 50 g of fresh seed and tamped it in with a rake head. Increasing Yellow Rattle is one of the aims of our Co-op supported project for Mayfields North.
Part of area ready for seed and patting down.
On 29 and 30th November Malcolm started the preparation of an area on the Meadow where we’re making an effort to establish a good crop of Yellow Rattle next summer from fresh seed sown now. A bit cool working in the snow, but getting there.
Cold but not raining on Friday morning (November 24th). OK for Louise & Malcolm, Lesley, and Alan & Wendy to spend just over an hour planting more Native Bluebells, Snowdrops, Fritillaries bulbs in clumps and some more Ox-Eye daisies and other potted wildflowers. Together we planted nearly 300 more plants. Many thanks to Louise for taking the photographs.
Went back to an excellent bulb supplier we have used before for Mayfields, Abbey Country Gardens. So glad we did because the quality of the 450 native wildflower bulbs that arrived this morning (November 23rd) was absolutely superb. Malcolm and Tim managed to plant the first half within 2 hours of their arrival on the NW corner of the meadow. This batch included 50 Wild Garlic, 100 native Bluebells and 50 Fritillaries. We hope to plant the other 200 bulbs tomorrow. Many thanks to the Co-op Community fund for their support for this project.
On Saturday November 18th we purchased 25 Native daffodils for Mayfields. We planted them to grow on in pots of 5 for planting out in the new year as5 clumps with the hope it woill improve the chance of flowering in their first year.
On Wednesday 15th November Malcolm & Louise and Margaret and Mike made a thank you presentation at the Local Foxwood Co-op store. This was to thank store staff and the Co-op Community fund for their support over the next 12 months for MCT’s work on enhancing the wild flowers on Mayfields, especially on the meadow.
More work for our Co-op Community funded project on Saturday November 11. We planted180 English Bluebells in the morning to replace ones taken by squirrels. This time we tried adding a coated wire mesh barrier buried just below the surface to see if it would give them more protection.
Later we planted out about 30 Foxgloves grown from seed by the Fieldwork co-ordinator.
Too wet for mowing on November 1st but fine for Malcolm to cut up the remains of the fallen willow for composting.
Great weather for planting out well rooted wildflowers we’ve been growing on for our Co-op Community fund-supported project on 3rd November. Using fibre pots minimizes root disturbance during transplanting.
MCT Friends of Mayfields are very grateful to the Co-op Community Fund for generous financial support for our project to enhance wild flower diversity on Mayfields over the next 12 months and to Co-op shoppers who supported us.
More work on the meadow on 8 – 11 October, getting it trimmed in stages while watching out for toads.
Sitting on the MCT bench planning what to do next.
Drier at last on October 6 so good weather for mowing another strip of the Wildflower meadow; this time Mike and Malcolm worked on the southern side.
Very wet recent weather has slowed our progress with cutting back brambles and rambling roses growing through the children’s playground fence from Mayfields. However it has given time to work with the wildflower plants we’re growing on the plant out a bit later on Mayfields, but they have needed protection from the heaviest rain. These are part of our Co-op Community funded project starting in November.
A warm start to September. We sadly had to fell an overgrown birch tree on the bund that was too close to 3 other more desirable tree species. It is being cut up for composting on site. We have also started strimming and raking alongside the Nelsons Lane fence and mowing a strip behind Hobmoor Terrace gardens. This trimming was completed by mid September.
Mayfields Community Trust 