I forgot to take any photos so you’ll have to trust me when I say that there were nine of us at the ‘phew, what a scorcher’ Easter Sunday task on Lincoln’s South Common, plus Al, Volunteer Coordinator for the city council.

Our mission for the day – to remove self-seeded and sucker Turkey oaks that are gradually colonising an area of the common below the Bomber Command memorial. Many years ago – 1946 to be precise – a number of Turkey oaks were planted on the common, in the shape of a cross. They commemorated Lincolnshire’s contribution to the Red Cross Agriculture Fund during the Second World War. Of course, we didn’t know then that the Turkey oak is host to a gall wasp that damages our native oaks, and it hybridises with our oaks too. So even though its catkins are a source of pollen, on balance they are not welcome now, and the council does not want any more of them on the common.

It was a hot, hot day, but we cut down quite a lot of the small trees and one or two enthusiastic (or fit) people managed to dig out some of the small ones too. Where the stump is big enough, it will be treated with root killer plugs. We ‘roughed up’ the smaller stumps or cut into them so that when it rains the water will gather in the rough surface and speed up the rotting process.

​One advantage of the mature Turkey oaks that are on the common is that they cast welcome shade for our tea and lunch breaks. 

When we took the tools back to our toolshed we found that about a hundred ladybirds that had been hibernating in the wooden shed had woken up in the heat and were scooting around on the windows, trying to get out. We managed to free most of them. Aaaahhh.

Just two downsides to the day. One was that we finished early and the second was that because of the very dry conditions and because there were a lot of horses around, as those from the West Common had come to visit their South Common friends (and we had to gently fight off one of them as he tried to eat my hat, a brew kit backpack, tools...) we didn’t have a bonfire. A shame, because what would have been nicer at the end of the day where temperatures only reached 22 degrees than gathering round the glowing embers of a fire?!

Jude
PS In an act of selfless dedication to the group, I went back to the site a few days later and took some photos.