On what turned out to be a hotter day than expected we eventually had 8 volunteers to have a go at scything the wildflower meadow in the grounds of the lovely Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust's HQ at Banovallum House in Horncastle. I was pleased to meet some new volunteers Wendy & David plus Jeff who enjoyed their hard day's labour.
It looked a little daunting to start with, as the wild flower meadow had doubled in size from last year. However, after a run through on how to use the scythe and then with advice from Mark Schofield (from the Trust), who came out every now and again to advise on technique, we found we all improved and were soon eating up the meadow. Mark also pointed out the various species of flowers to us.
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We started with the ditch blades, which is what I have been trained to use, but Mark lent his longer grass blades and after a run through of the setup, we set to the thicker grassed area and noticed the difference - although by the time we got to the far corner at the end of the day we were all quite done in. We had more than the usual 2 breaks, so everyone managed to keep going to the end.
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A special mention should go to Sophie who couldn’t stay for the task but still turned up with the brew kit! Thank you, Sophie.
Mark mentioned that there is an opportunity for volunteers to help at Riseholme College to propagate the rarest of wildflowers so that they can be planted out, helping the species. This is on a Wednesday but may eventually be on a weekend.
Overall it was an enjoyable day’s work on a lovely warm day.
Jeff
Jeff