Quaker wood update

A big thank you for the continuing support from volunteers to weed round the hedging plants in May and June in Quaker Wood. This was quite a laborious and back-breaking job, so many thanks for the persistent efforts of many people. Earlier in July, we intended to weed inside the tree guards but realised that the drought is affecting some of the trees. We have therefore decided to water the trees in a similar way to which we did last year. At our first session on 18 July, 16 volunteers came, and we made great progress in the watering (see photo). We are planning more sessions in 5 the coming weeks. Please send your email to the secretary if you can spare an hour or two to help with this and are not on our volunteer mailing list. (This list is separate from our supporters list to whom this newsletter is sent). After the first session, we realised that over 20 trees had died already, but many others are peeping out above the tree guards, which is encouraging. We have arranged for the village length-man to mow the paths this year, but not between the trees, and you may have seen that quite a lot of teasels and burdocks are growing. We will be tackling these with our new brush cutter, ’Billy Goat’, donated by Thames Water. The banks to the Mill Brook have been cleared in one or two places to give more light to the aquatic life but also so that you can enjoy the beauty of the stream when you visit.