Although fewer volunteers attended this work morning they included a number of young people, who are always very welcome.
The first task was a bracken pull across the heather bed and the large barrow behind it. The aim was to pull up the bracken or, at least, damage the growing tip of the bracken to weaken its growth by breaking it off or crushing.
The bracken on the heather bed was still very sparse and very short. This could have been because of the dry weather or because we did two bracken pulls across the heather bed last year. The youngsters were sent off to pull bracken from the large barrow and they found quite a lot of bracken that was already quite tall so it looks like bracken pulling is an effective way to control bracken.
After about half an hour we turned our attention to the edge of the heather bed adjacent to the path near the Heather Lane entrance
The task was to clear the saplings and brambles that were encroaching onto the heather, stopping only for a refreshment break. We were again spoilt with home-made cakes including Dutch Butter Cake (BoterKoek) and apple and cinnamon cake, which were delicious.
We filled three builders bags with the material we removed. The bags were loaded onto the trailer to be taken back to the NT site at Georges’ Barn