Category: Nature

Keep Wales Tidy Awards

 

 

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WWGWe were runners up in the Biodiversity category of the all-Wales Keep Wales Tidy awards. This is the second year we have been shortlisted and we shall enter a different project again next year in the hope that we make it to the top spot. Thank you to everyone who voted for us at Tescos. Again we did not make it to first place but the substantial grant involved will enable us to make significant progress on our wildlife initiatives down at Goldsland Farm. We have had two school visits during December. The first involved Year 11s from Michaelston College who really got stuck in to the Community Orchard, spreading compost, planting a cherry tree and taking cuttings of Guelder Rose. A number of them expressed a wish to return and we shall be delighted to have them. Younger children from Wenvoe Primary School also had a short walk, gathering holly, ivy and other bits for decorations and hopefully learning something along the way.

 

 

 

 

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Window Boxes

 

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pansiesThe window boxes at the Community Centre have been cleared at last of summer bedding and filled with fresh compost ready for planting the usual winter polyanthuspansies and polyanthus. We also collected 6 bags of leaves in that area and still plenty to come down as there are on most of the trees in the village.

 

Our next meeting will be on the 12th December but probably we won’t meet in January.

 

 

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Preparing For Winter

 

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What an autumn it’s been, so mild with some days warmer and sunnier than many summer days. As I write this piece in mid November, the trees have yet to shed half their leaves and throughout the land the autumn colours have been spectacular, notably the maples of which there are several in the village.

I have only just emptied our containers and dug over the garden beds and really the geraniums and bedding begonias were in such good condition, they could have gone on until the end of the month. However the time is right for bringing my wallflowers down from my allotment for planting out in the garden and the winter bedding is ready and waiting in the greenhouse, to fill pots and containers. If you plan to fill your containers with bulbs, shrubs and other permanent plants, make sure water can pass through easily as good drainage is doubly important in winter. Clear any blockages in the pots and water should drain through readily. Ants and worms nesting under container bases can block holes but pots can be raised on broken pieces of tile or even half bricks.

I’ve been spending some time on my allotment in this fine weather, pacing myself with my digging – just a half hour at a time and not going mad as I used to do. I like to dig. I get the same satisfaction from the job as my dad used to do. I’ve got a rotavator but I still like to dig.

I was asked how long leeks, carrots and parsnips could be left in the ground. Leeks are winter-proof and can be left in the ground and lifted as required as can carrots and parsnips but these will begin to deteriorate after January if the tops begin to grow again.

Do you really want a poinsettia in mid- October which is when they’ve appeared in supermarkets this year? It wouldn’t do for us. We’re lucky if this plant lasts through December and rarely into the New Year, so we’ve admitted defeat and we now enjoy them in other folks’ homes.

So to all readers of What’s On I hope you have 

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The Harlequin Ladybird,

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dec-harlequin-nnNovember in the parish saw an invasion although you might not have noticed it. The Harlequin Ladybird, which only arrived in Britain in 2004, is now well-established over most of Britain, even having been spotted as far north as the Shetlands. Less common in Scotland and North and Mid Wales it is very common in South Wales and during November would have found its way into many buildings if a window was left open. Whilst they are generally harmless to humans they are a major threat to our native species. With huge appetites, once they have run out of aphids to eat they move on to the eggs and larvae of other ladybirds as well as moths and butterflies. In the 1980s it was introduced to North America to help to control aphids on crops but quickly became the dominant species. Its introduction here was probably accidental. It took the Grey Squirrel 100 years to colonise Britain, the Harlequin just 10. Whilst they are bigger than our native ladybirds they come in a huge range of colours and patterns, the one featured in the photo being a common form spotted in both the Village Hall and Community Centre last month. You can help by reporting sightings to the Ladybird Survey – http://www.harlequin-survey.org/ – where you will find a lot more information on what they look like and where they have been seen.

 

 

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Green Flag Awards

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With Christmas and New Year imminent, this is an opportunity to reflect on what has been achieved this year. We managed 3 Green Flag awards, the only village in Wales to get three and one of these was the first Green Flag to be achieved on a working farm. We now have 7 sites – one for every day of the week consisting of one meadow, 4 orchards, one woodland and one farm. We managed to obtain funding from BiffaAward, Waitrose, Nationwide and Tescos although we are still awaiting payment from one company who agreed the funding in June.

We have again been short-listed for a Biodiversity award, one of only 3 in Wales. On the negative side the Vale of Glamorgan Council still has no money to cut the Upper Orchid Field so we continue to rely on help from local farmers or landowners to prevent the meadow reverting to scrub. The loss of trees in and around the village is disappointing and we have failed to get mistletoe to grow (but will keep trying!). On the plus side we are starting to see a modest fruit crop with some unusual ones such as Quince fruiting for the first time. Our wildflower planting has been well-received and is why we have been short-listed for a biodiversity award.

 

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pete_plantingWe continue to give talks, lead walks and involve local schools. 2017 is going to be just as busy so if you have any spare time and would like to get involved, please get in touch. Absolutely no experience necessary.

 

 

 

 

A big thank you and

Happy Christmas to all our supporters.

 

 

 

 

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Plan for Autumn

autumn01Autumn is well and truly here with trees and shrubs showing full autumn colour. What a good year it’s been for garden bedding plants of all varieties, but especially geraniums, and the various kinds of begonias. I grow both bedding varieties and the big showy ones and the latter have been huge this year, so much so that the weight of the flowers have often caused the patio pats to keel over in a bit of wind.

If you have a greenhouse now is the time to pot up plants you want to overwinter. They will survive quite low temperatures providing the compost is kept fairly dry.

Clear out greenhouses of tomatoes etc and wash down glass and glazing bars with ordinary household disinfectant.

Pot up spring bulbs to provide early flowers for next year.

On the allotment, take down bean sticks to store away for next year. Rough dig over bare ground and bury weeds, but remove perennial weeds such as docks, thistles and bindweed.

Sow autumn varieties of broad beans at least 3-4ins deep and protect rows to keep pigeons away. Thin out branches on blackcurrant bushes, taking out the dead wood. Remove blackberry canes that have fruited and tie in the long new shoots which will bear next year’s crop. Gooseberry bushes need very little pruning. Just remove some of the old wood.

Finally autumn is here and the leaves are falling. Don’t waste them! Leaf mould made from decomposed leaves is a great potting compost, soil improver and mulch Collect and store them in bin bags and leave to rot down. Chop them down and water first to speed things up.

 

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Window boxes etc.

Hooksandlattice.com White Supreme Fiberglass Window BoxNot a lot happening at this time of year but the team have done some work on the rose beds on the village green. At the time of writing, the window boxes at the Community Centre are still in full bloom but a spell of bad weather will soon put paid to that. Then they will be cleaned out and replanted with polyanthus and pansies to provide a bit of colour during the winter.

Next meeting 14th Nov. 9.30 on the Village Green

 

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Wildlife Group News

In October's issue we mentioned that we had been fortunate to have been selected as one of the three charities that you can vote for at Tescos with all three receiving grants. After the print deadline for Whats On we heard that Tescos had postponed the start of the scheme until the last week in October so you should find that by the time you read this newsletter the scheme should have commenced. So look out for the voting boxes in Tescos. It runs to around the 12th November and it should not be too long after that before we hear the results.

For our conservation work we have been planting Bluebells (native of course) and Primroses in the Elizabethan Orchard along the 'primrose path of dalliance'. On the Upper Orchid Field we have liberated theOLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA wooden bench that disappeared into the undergrowth, given it a lick of timber preservative, and opened up other paths which had become blocked. You can see the 'spruced and scoured' bench in the photo. The two wild pear trees are growing steadily, the taller of the two now around 4 metres tall and, hopefully, we should be seeing some of its fruit before long. A few years back we planted an Elm as part of a UK-wide scheme to monitor how they were coping with Dutch Elm disease. Ours did little at first but this year it has taken off and gained about a metre in height. For those interested in trees ours was Ulmus minor.

Our bat walk in Grange Park indicated that a shower of rain does not stop the bats feeding. We saw (or heard) mainly Pipistrelles with one individual putting pipistrelle01on a virtuoso performance up and down Pound Lane, often flying to within a few feet of us. We are gradually replacing fruit trees that have died; this year four out of the 88 we have planted. We are also beginning to see our first, albeit modest, crops. Outstanding this year has been Bardsey, originally discovered on the island of Bardsey, which is producing very tasty and very large apples. One cannot help noticing that at the time of writing it is difficult to find any British fruit in the shops. Apples from South Africa and New Zealand, pears from Italy and strawberries from the Netherlands.

If you are interested in taking part in our wildlife projects we would love to hear from you. Or if you just want to follow what we are doing take a look at Facebook – search for Wenvoe Wildlife Group.

 

 

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Tree Planting

 

Tree Planting in Wales

treescolo02We have been going on about trees in recent issues, firstly how good they are for our physical and mental well-being, but equally, how many are being cut down and how few planted. A few years ago a UK Government think tank set a reasonable target of planting 21,600 hectares across the UK each year. So, how well are they (or we?) doing. In 2013/14 they achieved 59% of their target – not too bad a start. But in 2014/15 only 48% of the target was managed and last year (2015/16) the figure had dropped to 25%. UK tree planting is now at its loweswellingtonia01-1-of-1-2t level for 45 years.

And how are we faring in Wales? With over 8% of the UK's land mass Wales managed 900 hectares in the first year, around 7% of what was planted. By the second year Wales had dropped to 100 hectares, less than 1% of the total and last year it remained at 100 hectares which was actually 1.8% of the total because everywhere else was well down. Put another way Wales's total of 100 hectares last year compares with Scotland's 4,600 hectares of tree planting. Scotland is just under 4 times bigger than Wales but managed 50 times more tree planting. Northern Ireland is two thirds the size of Wales but managed the same level of planting. It can come as little consolation that England proportionately was even worse than Wales and was described as 'appalling' by the conservation director of the Woodland Trust.

Of course virtually anyone can do something about it. You can lobby your elected people-planting-trees-clipart-1representatives, join the Woodland Trust or even go and plant a tree. If you have children or grand-children get them involved in the planting. You do not need acres of garden (which you would for the Wellingtonia in the photo) – there are plenty of small trees that will help both mankind and wildlife.

 

 

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