On October 28th we put up a display showing the sort of jobs MCT volunteers do throughout the year on one of our two information boards.  Photo shows the MCT secretary, Louise, topping up the box containing Membership application/renewal forms.

Getting the meadow ready for winter is now more or less complete (on October 21, 2017).  We used scythes this year for the first time and now have 3 for future use.  We’ll be having a volunteer session at 2 p.m. on Sunday 22nd, working down near the gate.  MCT would really welcome any extra help if you can spare an hour and care about Mayfields.

On October 11th we managed to work on the meadow for 3 h between showers.  We’re starting to make sure grass won’t be too short for winter use by dog walkers etc. and will be an attractive green sward.

We trim around patches of vegetation still in flower though.  We’d welcome any help from volunteers for an hour or so from 2 O’Clock on Sunday15th to complete the task if weather is fine as forecast.

As usual in Autumn we’re doing a bit of pruning (avoiding nests), keeping verges mowed, and starting to clear leaves from the path so they don’t turn to mud when trampled in.  Volunteers are particularly welcome at this busy time of year so please contact us or look at our Facebook page.

We plan to do some more trimming on the meadow on August 20th 2017, starting to get it ready for winter use and helping maintain a very diverse wild flower population.

Meanwhile here are a few shots by Adam Ridgeon-Cousins taken at our Thursday volunteer session on August 17th, giving examples of what we work for on Mayfields apart from people. We hold volunteer sessions on Sunday afternoons, starting at 14.00.  Do come and join us for an hour or two if you’d like to help keep Mayfields north of Nelsons Lane beautiful.

Regular site users may have noticed that in July we have started reducing the number of Crack Willow branches that were starting to overshadow the young trees MCT planted beside the path at the Little Hob Moor end.  These were planted over the last 2 – 3 years.  We’ve also been shortening the grass there and taking cuttings off for composting to help reduce soil fertility.  This also makes more water available to the young trees.

On July 13th 2017 there were literally dozens of butterfliles, moths and bees on the wild flower meadow.  Mike Ridealgh caught a few on camera including a six-spot burnet, a ringlet, a gatekeeper and a shaded broad-bar (see below).

Mike also caught on camera a 7-spot ladybird, a common soldier beetle and a froghopper.

We’ve seen lots of butterflies and bees on site this year, especially Yellow Brimstones, Large Whites, Commas, Peacocks, Red Admirals, Orange Tips and Holly Blues and Small Blues.  You can see some photos on our Facebook Page.

We hold volunteer sessions on Sunday afternoons, starting at 14.00.  Do come and join us for an hour or two if you’d like to help keep Mayfields north of Nelsons Lane beautiful.

We checked for the regrowth of Japanese Knotweed for CYC at the end of the first week in May where we have been trying to eradicate it from the site.  It was encouraging that we only found a solitary small plant in the area where growth was greatest last summer, and that has now been given an initial treatment, as photos below show.

Dead Knotweed stumps in treated area (above), and the solitary survivor just prior to treatment (below).

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It’s been a busy 2 months for us, but we had a lot of help from our volunteers from Askham Bryan College, especially Adam, Ellie, Tom and Dale, working alongside the field work co-ordinator and our regulars, Margaret, Lesley Paul, Louise and Pam.  Ruben Fernandez joined us too at the end of April.  You can get a detailed overview on our Facebook page.  We are having volunteer sessions on Thursday and most Sundays (from 14.00).

We always look out for frogs etc. when mowing/strimming

The snowdrops planted in-the-green ,by Ian Tomlinson, with a little help from Malcolm, flowered  well.  We were also pleased with the flowers this spring on the Wild Daffodils MCT planted alongside Nelsons Lane a  couple of years ago.

We managed to plant several Yew Trees, Hollies and Beech Trees (donated by Bettys) around the site.  We kept them watered and they are doing quite well.  Evergreens are helpful in retaining water from winter rain (helps reduce mud on the path!).

Ellie, Adam and Mike planting hollies from Bettys.

MCT Secretary Louise watering newly planted young trees

We’ve spent a lot of time looking after the mature trees on the site, making sure they have enough space, light and water to grow, but are a bit concerned about possible occurrence of Ash dieback on a couple of trees.

MCT Chair, Margaret Silcock, was back mowing verges just a few weeks after breaking her risk in a fall.

Easter Sunday was our biggest disappointment as most of the primroses, cowslips, English bluebells and Foxgloves we had planted over the past 2 years at the N.W. corner of the site were severely damaged by trampling during an over-enthusiastic but unsupervised Easter egg hunt someone arranged on the site without consulting us.

Pam & Louise often extend their litter-picking to the children’s playground.

We had a good session with  Adam, Ellie Tom and Lauren (our Askam Bryan Volunteers) on 9th Jan.  We managed to improve tree architecture for some birch trees while coppicing hazels and trimming roses to give the birches more space and light to grow.  We also spread 6 bags of 20-mm pea gravel at the south end of the rear path, which had become very muddy and slippery after recent heavy rainfall.  You can see their efforts and the progress of our Snowdrops on our Facebook page.

On 27th Jan we decided to move access to the composting area so that it was no longer via a slippery slope.  As the photo shows Lauren, Tom, Ellie and Adam extended the dead hedge to define the route, which is now much safer.

As well as spotting the first snow drops flowering on Feb 2, we noted that our recently installed leaf-mould container seemed to be functioning well.

It was nice and warm for our Askham Bryan volunteers on Thursday19th.  They worked with Mike and Malcolm  removing some dead wood and excessively competitive growth from the north end of the west bund and collected up more fallen leaves for the leaf-mould container.  That enabled them to add pea gravel to that end of the rear path where it had been getting muddy and a bit slippery.

On Jan 12th our Askham Bryan volunteers were back, and helped Mike & Malcolm erect a more permanent storage area (posts and green PVC-coated mesh) for preparation of useful leaf mould. It allows free air entry and has a loose cover to stop it getting too wet at times.  Ellie and Mike spotted another fascinating centipede lurking under the old storage bags.

Adam, Ellie, Tom and Lauren were back on Mayfields on 5th Jan, working with Mike and Malcolm trimming over-grown roses (some with much dead wood!), hazels and guelder rose beside the path.  As you can see we were distracted by 4 hungry/optimistic robins, so Mike’s heading off to catch one for a photo (you can see the other 3 on our Facebook page).

You can also see shots of some interesting soil fauna on our Facebook page.

A big thank you to all our volunteers for all their hard work over 2016 and especially to our helpers from Askham Bryan who have made such a difference to the site over recent months.

It was great to have Dave Moore back at our Sunday volunteer session on Mayfields on December 4. Dave was able to advise MCT on the safest way to use a new Brushcutter on loan from a Trustee (upper photo).  Dave and Tom compared its performance with that of a Grass Trimmer (lower photo). We were impressed by the Brushcutter’s efficiency when used in the strimmer mode behind Goodwood Grove houses.

On December 1st our volunteers from Askham Bryan did an excellent job, mowing the meadow at 6 cm ready for winter use, and clearing brambles etc. and strimming the grass behind the houses along the southern half of Hobmoor Terrace.

Top photo shows Ellie, Tom, Lauren and Adam after clearing brambles growing through a local resident’s fence and the lower one the cut grass at the Nelsons Lane end.

A few more photos (thanks Adam!) of our Askham Bryan Volunteers (Ellie, Adam, Lauren and Tom) working on improving Foxglove Corner at the N.W. corner of the site we manage.  One shot though shows a fascinating root growth pattern on one of the brambles at the site.

We had a good full-day sessions on November 3rd and 10th, helped by out students from Askham Bryan as well as Malcolm and Mike. We hope to have a session on Sunday 13th November too and volunteers would be welcome to come and help finish getting the meadow ready for winter use if they turn up at about 2 O’clock (weather permitting!). Photos below show the current state of play after Thursday’s session, and some of the soil fauna we try to protect. We always take care to save frogs on the site.

We have had more very helpful volunteer sessions on Thursdays and Sundays, with 3 Askham Bryan students on work placements with MCT (Ellie Umpleby, Lauren Dodd and Thomas Goodridge) and Adam Cousins and Mike Ridealgh. They did a first class job planting out dozens of Foxglove and Red Campion plants that they had potted on earlier in the year and in pruning willows overhanging the path.  You can see a lot more on our Facebook page.  At this time of year we also move lost of leaves from the path and trim the meadow ready for winter.

The Mayfields Community Trust AGM was held at 7 pm at the Marriott Hotel on the Tadcaster Road on Wednesday 12.10.2016. It ends with a half-hour video diary film showing our volunteers’ work over the past 12 months that was well received by the audience.

We had an excellent volunteer session on Thursday, with 3 Askham Bryan students on work placements with MCT (Ellie Umpleby, Lauren Dodd and Thomas Goodridge) and Adam Cousins. They did a first class job a.m. pricking out and potting on Foxglove and Red Campion seedlings, and in the afternoon thinning an overgrown Willow, Hazels and Field Maples near the gate.  Our Sunday session on Oct. 2nd moved to the afternoon when it’s a bit warmer and grass is drier.  Pam as ever caught Margret, Lesley and Malcolm trimming another section of the meadow.

Afternoon of 22nd September was exciting, with delivery of the MCT tool store from Asgard.  Thanks for the photo Pam.  We should soon have pictures of it up on the site too.  Meanwhile you can see it in a mini-video on our Facebook page.  Here’s another Pam photo, this time of rose hips. We manage our pruning to leave as many as possible as a source of food (not just because they are lovely to look at).

We were delighted to welcome Ellie and Lauren, 2 new Askham Bryan volunteers, to our Thursday session on 22nd.  We’re always on the look out for new volunteers, but also, when working on site, for easily hurt wildlife  – sometimes we have to move little frogs for their own safety.  Adam caught this one on camera.

Mike, Adam and Malcolm improved conditions for a couple of the best Scots Pines on the site adjacent to the Oaks below on Thursday by trimming more hazels and a couple of very leggy birches.  Mike took the opportunity to photograph some of the Fauna in the vicinity – you can see more on the Mayfields Community Trust Facebook page.

A Green Shield Bug on Mayfields North, 08/09/2016.

There was a short MCT volunteer session on Sunday morning, 4th September, while the rain was minimal.  Four MCT volunteers worked behind west bund (between the path and Goodwood Grove gardens) to reduce Hazel and Guelder Rose competition for 2 oaks we wish to maintain as attractive trees over the longer term.

Later we incinerated treated and dried Japanese Knotweed that we have been eradicating from the area adjacent to the MCT-managed site for CYC.

We also incinerated the Himalayan balsam also removed from the site.

Our Volunteers were very busy in the gate area over the last two weeks of August, removing another 2 potential problem trees, another Field Maple and an Alder.  As you can see from the photo the alder had a  single stem taller than the adjacent house and had started to lean.  The lanky unsightly growth pattern was a consequence of excessive competition and neglect in earlier years.  Removal has now improved growth conditions for adjacent oaks… We’re lucky that Dave Moore (below), an MCT Trustee and volunteer, is an experienced arborist excellent at this type of work.

Under the terms of our license this type of work has to be done from the ground using pole saws to reduce the canopy weight prior to felling.

Our volunteers incinerated more treated and dried Japanese Knotweed on the 17th and felled one of the excessive number of large Field Maples that was a potential danger to an adjacent house by the gate on 18th August.

MCT is committed to community involvement and community activities.  Therefore the Chair, Margaret Silcock, loaned the MCT Gazebo (funded by the Dringhouses & Woodthorpe Ward Committee) to the neighbouring Woodthorpe Community Group for their Fun Day of August 13th.  She purchased 2  super teddy bears to run a “Name a Teddy” competition and sold tickets on the MCT display end of the stand on the day.  Money raised went to the St Leonard’s Hospice.

We’ve been busy in the first half of August, strimming/mowing beside Nelsons Lane and the main path, thinning oversized vegetation near the gate area, crushing over-sized pebbles/gravel on the path edge to improve the size distribution and laying a concrete base for the Tool store on the site funded by the Dringhouses & Woodthorpe ward Committee.  Our volunteers finished the base on 15th August having used 39 bags of concrete in total, so the storage shed has now been ordered.

We have also been helping CYC eradicate the Japanese Knotweed patches on the adjacent woodland going towards Little Hob Moor.  More than 160 membership application leaflets have been picked up from the box on the noticeboard by the gate, but so far this has only resulted in 3 new MCT members.  Still never mind – every £5 is put to good use in helping maintain and improve the Mayfields Public Open Space.

The impact of the prolonged dry period on the grasses on the site has meant that we had to start trimming some areas earlier than usual in the year.  We try to skirt around residual patches of deeper-rooted wild flowers still in bloom.

Towards the end of July we received a grant from the Dringhouses & Woodthorpe Ward committee of CYC towards installation of a tool store behind the west bund.  In hopeful anticipation we removed a patch of overgrown Pyracantha a few months ago before the nesting season.  Adam and Malcolm dug out the roots on 28th July and levelled a marked out area for  installation of a concrete base sometime over the next 2 weeks.  The store will be smallish at 7 ft by 3.5 ft, but more than adequate and  should be unobtrusive once finished.

Seven turned out for the MCT Friday evening volunteer session at 7 on July 22nd, so we got a lot done, both near the gate and at the bluebell dell end of the site.  It was a very pleasant sunny evening as Pam’s photo of 2 of our volunteers shows.

Adam and Malcolm trimmed overgrown shrubs and hazel near the gate and in the woodland beside the playground on 21st July.  Partly this was for safety reasons and partly to improve conditions for trees such as some Alders that were being overcrowded.  We always check for nests first though at this time of year.

A quick reminder that our summer volunteer sessions start at 7 in the evening on Fridays.  The next will be on July 22nd. Quite a bit of mowing of path verges needed between showers at this time of year; we also reduce grass competition around newly planted trees and shrubs for the first year or two.

On Friday June 15th, 2016, Louise, Lesley, Harriet, Paul and Malcolm reduced an overgrown Hazel and Guelder Rose that were at risk of Damaging Scots Pine and Oak trees that were growing too close by.  The long hazel poles were woven into the dead hedge the following Sunday morning.  You can see a wee video of their efforts on the Mayfields Community Trust Facebook page.

We have succeeded in eradicating Japanese Knot weed from the area that MCT manages officially.  MCT volunteers are now attempting to do the same on the woodland area between our site and Little Hob Moor for the City of York Council.  Behind the north end of Goodwood Grove there are some quite substantial patches, with smaller patches elsewhere.  They will be sprayed 3 to 4 times at intervals and dead material will be incinerated.  We will continue monitoring for at least 3 years.

Knot weed before treatment…….

and the day after first treatment in dry weather.

It was a pleasure on 4th July 2016 to see the Ox-eye daisies that MCT raised from seeds to produce plug plants to enhance the meadow starting to flower.  These were planted by Margaret Silcock, the MCT Chair, and Lesley Abbott at an earlier volunteering session.  They should soon spread if we keep reducing the dominant grasses.

Now we have longer summer evenings in June & July we thought we’d try evening volunteer sessions from 7.00 on Fridays.  The next session will be on July 8th.  Do come and join us for an hour if you’d like to help keep Mayfields North beautiful and in tip-top condition.

We had useful volunteer sessions on Thursday 16th and Friday 17th June this week. Dave, Adam and Malcolm thinned several overgrown willows on Thursday and Pam, Louise, Margaret, Lesley and Malcolm helped by composting residual off-cuts on Friday, in spite of the light drizzle.  As Pam’s photo shows it  didn’t dampen their enthusiasm.

After  nearly 3 years of T.L.C. from MCT volunteers we’re pleased to report that the Yellow Rattle (originally only 3 wee plants!) is now starting to spread east of the main path.  This should eventually help to reduce the amount of grass trimming required.

The great thing about June is that more and more wild flowers start to appear on Mayfields North.  Our current favourites are the Foxgloves beside the path at the Little Hob Moor end of the west bund.  MCT raised these from seed and Ben helped us plant them out as plug plants towards the end of last year.  The down side of June is that we have to trim a lot of grass.

On 26th May Adam and Malcolm tested the new MCT Gazebo (in an adjacent garden) to see how easily it could be put up by 2 people.  It’s large but manageable (once you know what you’re doing).  Thanks to Louise for catching our efforts on camera and to the Dringhouses & Woodthorpe Ward Committee of CYC for financial support..

Mowing is challenging just now.  The grass is growing very fast but we try to mow round wild-flowers as best we can.  On May 15th, Margaret mowed verges while Pam and Louise watered plug plants.  Malcolm selectively removed some of the nettles and ground elder from the English bluebell patch.  In the photo taken  at the end of the session Pam, Margaret and Louise take a short well-earned rest on one of the seats MCT installed while Angus tried to work out how to get a drink of water (supplied in his special bowl later!).  In the last 2 weeks of May we had several more mowing sessions on the main verges and along Nelsons Lane.

MCT is very grateful to Dave Meigh and his team from CYC for re-contouring the tarmac by the gate to minimize the risk of deep puddle formation.  They did an excellent job and, while there, fixed the gate latch which had been jamming recently on occasions.  Many thanks.

Lots of wild-flowers are starting to blossom on Mayfields now, including the first vetches, cowslips, still lots of primroses and bluebells, daisies and the first buttercup, as well as ragged robin.  However one of our favourite blossoms appears on the Midland hawthorn (below).  If you look up a bit the cherry blossom is lovely too.

May day had reasonable weather (at least early on).  Our volunteers went out picking up litter and (sadly!) abandoned excrement from dogs on the grass verges.  That was greatly appreciated by the field work co-ordinator who was then able to put MCT’s new battery mower to good use.  We remove clippings to the compost heap as it helps lower soil fertility to the benefit of wild flowers.

One of the joys of May is we can start to see the  benefits of our having planted more than 1000 English bluebells over the past 2 years.  Pam Brown’s photos below were from the north end of the west bund (left) and from near the gate (right).

In the land adjacent to the area MCT manages there are still several clumps of alien Spanish bluebells.  If you read our Bluebell Wars page it explains the difference.  We still plan to remove these.

We had cool but pleasant weather on 24th April for our Volunteer session so  were able to do some mowing along path verges and start planting out some of the plug plants MCT has raised to improve the wild-flower meadow (you can see a video on our Facebook page).  With help from Margaret, Lesley, Louise, Paul, Richard and Malcolm we made  good progress.  The plants had to be watered in as the soil is finally starting to dry out a bit.

It finally stopped raining on 14th April, giving us a chance to use the new Mountfield battery power on some of the path verges.  We’re grateful to the CYC Dringhouses & Woodthorpe Ward Committee for funding for the mower.

A very useful photo from the MCT Chair, Margaret Silcock, that shows very clearly why MCT has been putting a lot of effort recently into getting the path pack to its former width.  We’d welcome inputs from any one who’d like to volunteer to help with this activity.

Our plug plants are doing well and are being hardened off.  We hope to plant them out at the next volunteer session on Sunday 24th April (from 10.30).  Photo below shows Ragged Robin, which we are hoping to establish on a wetter part of the site.  We also have many more Ox-eye Daisies to plant out.

We did more path restoration at our Sunday Morning Volunteer session on 10th April. Lesley and Malcolm used 10 more bags of Cotswold chips to widen and improve the section of path with the last remaining substantial puddle.  Meanwhile Paul, Pam, and Louise cut up and composted yet more willow waste material.

Fortunately it was dry in the morning on April 7th for Malcolm, Dave and Adam to use a tonne of Cotswold chips for path restoration.  They’ll soon weather to the more normal path colour.  Thanks to Pam Brown for the photo.

They also filled a wooden extension to the information board near Nelsons Lane.  This will later be fitted with a leaflet dispenser.

Dave Moore photographed a couple of interesting fungi on the site at the end of March. One we think is Armillaria mellea (Honey fungus), but we’d welcome information from anyone who can identify the other.

Lesley, Paul, Louise, Pam and Margaret enjoyed a sunny period on Sunday April 3rd to do several more metres of path restoration close to the Little Hob Moor end, prior to adding more Cotswold chips (due the following Thursday).  They scraped away grass and mud overlapping the path that had been churned up by cyclists, and replaced some of the gravel after sieving.  Pam and Louise also cut up willow offcuts from the previous Thursday volunteers session.

CYC  had to cut down a large (but sadly seriously diseased) willow in the 3rd week in March as it was a threat to an adjacent house.  Margaret Silcock (the MCT Chair) thought some of the offcuts would make useful and attractive seats near the information board.  Once treated with preservative and pegged in place so they couldn’t easily be tipped over they provided a comfortable place to sit with a view through the trees towards the meadow.

An MCT volunteer managed to finish breaking up and sieving the soil/gravel mix  near the path junction on Friday March 25th (photo below showed an earlier stage). He  returned the gravel and added 3 more bags of gravel.  This should improve both drainage and appearance at that corner of the site.

It was a lovely morning on 20th March for restoring a section of path back to its original route. Pam, Lesley, Louise and Malcolm relocated the boundary logs by the info. board back to the original path boundary and then scraped away the soil and grass that had encroached about a meter over the path. Stones were recovered from this material by sieving and returned and 3 more bags of gravel added. A bit more may be needed but we hope you’ll find it more attractive and safer already. Edging logs can now be pegged in place much more securely.

Problems experienced when pegging down the log edging made us suspect that the path near the information board by Little Hob Moor probably had migrated westwards by about 2 feet. Tests (with a garden fork!) an March 17th showed this was indeed the case.

As the above photo shows we scraped away the mud and grass that had encroached on the west side of the path.  We also dug over compacted soil on the east side, where we then planted 10 young hazels to create a low hedge to delineate and restore the original path boundary. We’ll shortly be adding more gravel to resurface the exposed part of the original path after first sifting out more of the fine soil particles at our next Sunday volunteer session.

At an extra session on Monday 14th March Adam and Malcolm spent a few hours improving the access area to the rear path by adding gravel, pegging down log edges to stabilize them and planting an extra holly.  It’s nice to see the grass starting to recover from the damage done over winter by bike wheels.

Dave, Adam and Malcolm cut up a spare recycled plastic pallet to convert it to 2 reinforcing strips on 10th March.  These were added to an earlier pair on a particularly boggy section of the rear path, and packed with clay and a layer of gravel.  It’s now much safer and easier to cross.

They also planted a few extra native primrose plants at the north west corner of the site in dappled shade.  The ones planted there last year have been flowering constantly since early November last year.

On March 6th we decided to do a litter-pick on Mayfields and the adjacent part of little Hob Moor as part of the City of York Council’s clean up for the Queen’s 90th birthday.  Louise, Malcolm and Jean collected 6 bags of litter for proper disposal.

Spring this year was heralded by the first snow on Mayfields after the very wet but Mild winter!  The soils are still very wet and often slippery, which has prompted MCT to do more work on trying to create safer paths with mini-dead-hedge boundaries.  These protect areas where we are trying to improve grass and wild-flower growth to benefit both pollinators and the landscape by encouraging cyclists and walkers to stick to paths when it’s very wet.  Pam as ever was out early enough to catch the early March snow on camera.

Make, Dave and Adam after extending the mini-dead hedge on March 3rd, 2016