Work day out - gardening
Oct. 8th, 2023 08:56 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
anefMy department occasionally organises a community day out, so this year I went along. It turned out to be in a community garden in Hanwell https://cultivatelondon.org/ ; I did not wear my actual gardening clothes, as I didn't want to be taken up for vagrancy, but some sturdy walking kit, which was fine. We all had to wear yellow T-shirts with our our employer's logo on the front and a meaningless slogan on the back.
There were various jobs on offer, and I chose hazel coppicing. It turned out to be very like policing the buddleias, so I was happy. Tools required: secateurs, pruning saw, loppers. I took my own secateurs as I was not sure what would be on offer, and I was happy that I did so as they did not have any ratchet secateurs, which make it a lot easier to cut thicker stems.
There were two big hazel trees, with long branches springing from a central root. About 10 people could work on a tree at once, some cutting, some holding the branches while they were cut, others working on the cut branches. You had to cut the branches a few cm above the root, at an angle to allow the rain to run off. Once cut, you stripped away twigs and side shoots and left the branches in piles according to size. They would later be woven into fences.
I spent half an hour happily lopping and sawing, and then as my arm and shoulder muscles were tired I moved on to stripping, and then raking up the discarded leaves and twigs.
The discarded twigs and leaves are piled up in doughnuts around the bottom of fruit trees. You leave a few inches' gap round the trunk so the rain runs into the soil away from the trunk, and then the doughnut helps retain water and stop the roots drying out.
I enjoyed it and felt that I had learned a few things - how to use a pruning saw a bit better, so I now have thoughts about how to cut back our bay tree (which is huge and hard to keep under control). Some of the branches are too thick for the loppers at the height that I want to cut them, but now I feel a bit more confident about using the saw. Coincidentally hazel grows in the bottom few feet of our garden, so now I can try coppicing it. Not that I have any particular use for woven fences, but I will try the doughnut thing on the rosebushes, and maybe on some of the other shrubs. I do not feel that the buddleias need any additional help.
After the obligatory photos we took the Elizabeth line back into town, and had drinks and food at a pub in Farringdon.
There were various jobs on offer, and I chose hazel coppicing. It turned out to be very like policing the buddleias, so I was happy. Tools required: secateurs, pruning saw, loppers. I took my own secateurs as I was not sure what would be on offer, and I was happy that I did so as they did not have any ratchet secateurs, which make it a lot easier to cut thicker stems.
There were two big hazel trees, with long branches springing from a central root. About 10 people could work on a tree at once, some cutting, some holding the branches while they were cut, others working on the cut branches. You had to cut the branches a few cm above the root, at an angle to allow the rain to run off. Once cut, you stripped away twigs and side shoots and left the branches in piles according to size. They would later be woven into fences.
I spent half an hour happily lopping and sawing, and then as my arm and shoulder muscles were tired I moved on to stripping, and then raking up the discarded leaves and twigs.
The discarded twigs and leaves are piled up in doughnuts around the bottom of fruit trees. You leave a few inches' gap round the trunk so the rain runs into the soil away from the trunk, and then the doughnut helps retain water and stop the roots drying out.
I enjoyed it and felt that I had learned a few things - how to use a pruning saw a bit better, so I now have thoughts about how to cut back our bay tree (which is huge and hard to keep under control). Some of the branches are too thick for the loppers at the height that I want to cut them, but now I feel a bit more confident about using the saw. Coincidentally hazel grows in the bottom few feet of our garden, so now I can try coppicing it. Not that I have any particular use for woven fences, but I will try the doughnut thing on the rosebushes, and maybe on some of the other shrubs. I do not feel that the buddleias need any additional help.
After the obligatory photos we took the Elizabeth line back into town, and had drinks and food at a pub in Farringdon.
