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.

Great to have Kathryn back from Uni for a bit to work on Mayfields, She came out with Malcolm and Louise on Saturday August 12 to help clearing a small area of nettles, ivy and docks and replace them with Mullein, Foxgloves, Ox-eye daisies and Self heal, all raised by Friends of Mayfields members.

A bit of a wet start to August but Mike and Malcolm got out on Thursday 3rd to do some more clearing up of vegetation growing through from Mayfields to adjacent Goodwood Grove gardens.

The soil was nicely moist on Mayfields on Monday July 24th so ideal for planting out a couple of dozen more of the wild-flower plug plants MCT has been raising over the past few months. They had very well developed root systems that could be gently teased out at depth before planting using a bulb planter to loosen the soil below the roots. This is part of our on-going work to be supported by the Co-op Community Fund.

Good to see Gatekeeper butterflies back on July 13th alongside small whites, Speckled woods, Commas and Meadow Browns. Thanks to Mike for some great photos.

Leaving a large patch of Lady’s Bedstraw for July but trimming a bit around the edges on the 5th.

.July started with Lesley, Louise and Malcolm cutting up the last of the branches from a willow felled at the end of June because it was far too close to the foundations of a garage in an adjacent property.

Malcolm pleased with the willow that had been successfully cut down by Mike and Malcolm (left) and (right) Lesley completing cutting up of leafy branches for safe composting disposal.

Lots of Ringlets out and about on June 29th. Mike Ridealgh caugth at least 2 on camera!

Our plug wild-flower plants for our Co-op project are coming along quite nicely on June 22nd. Out on the site we have been doing a lot of trimming beside the path behind Goodwood Grove houses to keep it safe and replacing some excessively large trees posing a threat to houses with wild flowers and more appropriate smaller trees and shrubs.

Nice to be able to post what Fiends of Mayfields are really all about, native flaura and fauna. Mike took these two shots yesterday of a pair of Speckled Woods and a newly appeared orchid.

CYC workers finally cut down the last sections of the problem goat willow for us on June 5th. To save us having to do a lot of cutting up they kindly put the waste through a heavy duty shredder. Friends of Mayfields will dispose of the large pile they left on Little Hob Moor by spreading as a thin mulch layer in woodland parts of the site or by composting on site.

After removal of first 27 trugs of chipped material on June 6th.

Great to have Mike Ridealgh back volunteering on Mayfields on June 1st. Mike and Malcolm had an excellent 4-hour session cutting back overgrown vegetation beside the main gate and around the noticeboard.. Offcuts were composted elsewhere on site.

Malcolm had another 2-hour session on June 2nd starting to catch up with strimming and mowing behind Hobmoor Terrace garden fences.

After a 2-hour effort.

Another useful volunteer session on May 24 with Lesley, Paul, Paul and Malcolm. It involved extensive mowing of verges, removal of excess nettles and docks at the north end of the main path, and removing an illegal padlock fixing the Nelsons Lane gate open.

A 4-hour blitz with both mower and strimmer on the grass alongside Nelsons Lane on Saturday May 20th, between the Playground and Hobmoor Terrace. We left some substantial strips of wildflowers for habitat diversity and took grass off for composting elsewhere on the site.

Back to other routine tasks on Monday morning, May 15th, strimming carefully around daisies near the gate getting ready to treat this section of the fence there, and pricking out Ox-eye Daisy seedlings in the afternoon to produce plug plants to enhance the wild flower distribution on the meadow as part of our Co-op Community fund supported programme starting in the Autumn.

Using long plugs to hopefully improve drought tolerance after planting out the plugs.

Took another 25-feet branch down on May 12th. A bit tricky because of proximity of trees we want to maintain so had to come down in several sections using a pole saw.

If you look at picture below you can mentally reassemble the tall branch and will see why it was a job that took care and planning. A lot to cut up for disposal before taking down the next large branch!

CYC workers on May 6th took the final stump sections of the first 2 problem goat willows (with roots thought to possibly be damaging an adjacent house) down to ground level and treated them with herbicide. Job was made easier for them by all the careful preparation by Malcolm, Lesley, Paul , Alan and Tim over the previous week which had disposed ofthe upper 25 feet of the canopy. Meanwhile, on May 7th, Malcolm started removing some large lateral branches from the other major problem goat willow.

Look carefully and you can see where 2 of 3 major limbs were removed.

Good to get back to our more regular activities like strimming under the Nelsons Lane fence and mowing verges now the main part of a problem willow is disposed of. Lesley and Malcolm managed an hour of grass trimming on May 2nd.

Another very tall limb down on April 29, cut to fall due south this time instead of north. Just two more to get down. Lesley Abbott did a great job of disposing of the off cuts. Malcolm also cut down some interlocking high branches and rambler rose branches from the top of the tree to facilitate cutting down the last two sections tomorrow. Thanks to Louise for taking the photo.

After a very successful and enjoyable AGM on April 24th, Malcolm, Louise, Lesley and Paul were back out on Mayfields on April 25th felling another 3 limbs of the problem willows.

We have started to reduce some large goat willows too close to a couple of Goodwood Grove houses at the south end of the site. They may start to cause problems if roots grow into adjacent gardens. It’s best to do this before the trees grow too large. Meanwhile it was good to see the wild primroses we’ve established on the adjacent bund starting to grow well.

Fine morning on April 11 after a lot of rainfall overnight. Fine for Kathryn and Malcolm to do a useful hour’s mowing east of the main path around the young trees.

April has started with a series of routine jobs. The mowing/strimming season has finally started with strimming between the Nelsons Lane gate and the play park along with trimming back rose overhang on April 2nd by Malcolm. Meanwhile Alan Marsden has been working hard to keep the composting area safe and tidy at the other end of Mayfields.

We keep the grass short around the fence posts to help with their long-term survival (to allow wood preservative treatment at the post bases).

We do our best to maintain the composting area in a safe and tidy condition. Alan did a great job here at the end of March.

We had no internet for the past 11 days from TalkTalk but back on at last now. We’ve been doing a lot of path improvements to the main path and the informal path behind Goodwood Grove houses, including some removal of a couple of trees in the wrong place as well as adding more pea gravel. Delighted to see how well the Cowslips were doing on March 27th in our study of the benefits of adding P and K to subsoil when they were planted out last Autumn. The results were a bit surprising as these 2 are typical of those which had no P or K added!

Lesley, Paul, Louise and Malcolm took advantage of the rain over Mayfields on Saturday night to identify the significant depressions in the main path that needed to be filled with pea gravel on Sunday 12th March. They used 11 bags over an hour’s work. This helps to reduce trampling on the grass verges.

Good dry weather on Mayfields on March 4th, ideal for careful selective trimming of growing grass, docks, nettles and velcro plants, while taking care to trim around English bluebells, primroses and pulmonarias in the bluebell area. We also gathered up a lot of twiggy material and some larger fallen branches there.

Good to see Adam Cresser back on Mayfields during a visit on February 25th. He was admiring the sequence of wildflowers on a quick tour, from Snowdrops to native Daffodils and Primroses to Cowslips. He particularly enjoyed the Blackthorn blossom on trees planted by MCT a few years ago though.

Quite cool on February 22 on Mayfields but fine for doing a bit more clearing of vegetation that was starting to invade the path behind Goodwood Grove houses. We plan to replant this area with attractive native shrubs that will be more manageable over the next few years.

Before (left) and after (right) shots of the section cleared on Wednesday 22nd February, 2023. Still a bit more to do before replanting..

The overnight rain went quite early on Thursday morning, leaving pleasantly mild conditions for Lesley & Paul, Alan, and Louise & Malcolm to do more work behind the Goodwood Grove houses. We managed to cut back a willow growing through the fence panels at one point as well as disposing off-cut material at the composting area. Thanks to Louise for her excellent photographs.

.We started to reduce the brambles growing towards (and sometimes through!) the fences of Goodwood Grove gardens on February 15th. There’s more to do and we’re also reducing the leaf cover there to give more light to the buried wildflowers.

Malcolm, Louise, Lesley and Paul took advantage of the sustained dry weather on February 3rd to clean and apply wood preservative to the small gate and fence beside it now these were accessible.

Louise and Lesley after a job well done. Paul also managed to reinforce the slats on the adjacent fence on either side of the playground.

With help from the Council on February 1st we managed to dispose of the two locks that had been added (by someone without permission) to hold the Nelsons Lane gate permanently open. The gate opens easily both ways and closes automatically. It was installed for safety reasons to reduce the risk of children and/or dogs running straight out into the road.