A lot of trimming necessary after recent spell of wet and warm weather. On August 15 Lesley, Paul, Malcolm and Mike trimmed the area beside the main gate and the bluebell dell area in the morning. Later Malcolm refitted a new strimmer line and trimmed back the native geraniums starting to encroach too far across the path behind Goodwood Grove gardens before they became a trip risk.
Look carefully and you’ll spot at least 3 wild flower species!
Sunny weather on Mayfields in the afternoon on 1st August, so ideal for selective thinning of the woodland beside the N end of the main path. Malcolm had a useful session with Mike, Florence and Polly.
Great to see more Scabious flowers emerging in the groups grown on from plugs and then planted out beside the main path by Mike and Malcolm a few weeks ago.
It seems appropriate to start July by saying thank you to our Field Work volunteers who have kept Mayfields looking attractive for the past 6 months.
Really satisfying to see White Campion in flower after selective weeding by Lesley, Paul, Tim and Flo near the Oxeye Daisies by the gate. These were from plug-plants grown on to pot size plants before planting out on the site.
Mike was delighted to see the orchids re-emerging for the 4th time beside Nelsons Lane on June 9th and managed to share this lovely photograph.
Lovely sunny day on June 2nd 2024 for our 8 volunteers trimming some excessive growth all round the site. Great to welcome Polly Davis as a new volunteer. Malcolm was really excited to see how well the yellow rattle he seeded late last year was getting established in the meadow.
All flowering well.
Well over a thousand Yellow Rattle plants from seed.
Great job by Lesley and Mike on Thursday with two mowers, making attractive grass paths around the meadow to make it easier to see blossoming wildflowers.
Many thanks to Lesley for great photos too (taken on May 30th 2024)..=
Florence and Malcolm were out on May 25th to replace the leaf i.d. photos on one of our notice boards with a poster displaying wild-flowers on the site. They then trimmed the vegetation surrounding the board.
Perfect conditions and nice moist soil on May 19 for planting out 2 dozen Scabious plants grown on by MCT from plugs. Grass was strimmed heavily first to reduce competition after planting. Thanks to Lesley for the photos.
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.
Having removed the dead Elder tree beside the Nelsons Lane gate we have started digging out the roses and brambles growing right under the fence there out across the paved area. The plan is to increase the native wildflower population here, and added some primroses to the emerging native bluebells there to make a start on February 13th, 2024.
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.
Mayfields Community Trust 