Read about the life and work of the Attingham Wardens

Attingham Park is a National Trust property comprising of an 18th Century mansion set in a Repton landscape; the Park and wider Estate includes a deer park, walled garden, several miles of the rivers Severn and Tern, extensive farmland and woodlands.



Sunday 1 April 2012

New plantations

We are planting the last of our trees now and this has included a few new plantations on Uckington Farm - small, previously unused bits of ground that, once planted up, will provide new habitats for birds, bats and all kinds of insects. The largest piece of ground was mown, then last week a team of volunteers helped Colin and I to clear the remaining brambles along the fences, clear the litter that had been thrown into the vegetation from the road (a major bugbear of mine - I love to shove it back through their letter boxes!) and plant up new hedges and trees. We planted a good mix - home-grown oaks, maple, hawthorn, ash, guelder rose, norway spruce and scots pine. We gave each tree a good watering to help it settle in - it was a scorching hot day for March! Soon we will put a good layer of mulch around each plant too. Everyone worked extremely hard that day, digging in very stony soils, so thank you to everyone involved!
Arriving on site armed with brashing hooks, spades and a lot of trees...
Several hundred trees later!
Back in the Park, thousands of seeds from the cedars of lebanon have been blown across the lawn leading down to the river - we will wait and see if we get any seedlings and transplant them to the nursery to grow on as replacement trees. Our cedars are unfortunately past their prime and many of them have rot inside, which is why they are fenced off with railings to prevent anyone from walking beneath.
The future cedars of Attingham Park?
And finally, an elusive Attingham heron update! I've seen it many times over the last year but never with my camera to hand; this time I had just put the camera away when he flapped up across the the river from where I was standing. Typical! I frantically scrambled for the on-switch while he circled over me, and just managed to capture him swooping off into the distance. One day I will get that close up picture...

5 comments:

  1. We were driving to Shrewsbury yesterday and witnessed two workmen mowing the grass verge just up from Atcham.

    One of the picked up a piece of cardboard and threw it over the wall into the estate.

    We assumed it was because there were helpers the other side of the wall collecting it.

    Maybe we were mistaken ?

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  2. I'm 99.9% sure that there wasn't anyone the other side, the verges are mown by the council and they don't usually enter the park - thank you for flagging this up! I will investigate...

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  3. I have reblogged your bit on the Cedars of Lebanon. I hope you don't mind.

    http://www.cheriesplace.me.uk/blog/index.php/2012/04/04/rebirth-of-the-cedars-of-lebanon/

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  4. No problem CherryPie. Lovely picture of Powis in your latest entry!

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  5. I am glad you like the photo, thank You :-)

    ReplyDelete