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Calderstone Vale
Calderstone Vale
Next to new housing estate, the builders left this land, with much of their debris. A plot of building site waste.
The Council said it would cost £5000 to renovate, so no chance.
I asked the Council representative to plant fruit trees but this is apparently not good 'conservation'.
I am secretary of Whalley Woodland Friends, with our own website
There are great boulders and lumps of brick all over.
Juncus is predominant indicating bad drainage.
So we went for a bit of guerrilla fruit tree planting. This is because fruit trees provide a number of benefits. 1) Good for drainage, and improving the soil generally. 2) Providing fruit! So that in future years, perhaps some children do some scrumping (d you remember that word?). This will be a good learning experience if it results in them eating more of it. 3) As they flower and fruit, all sorts of birds will come in to feed. There will be a build up of insect diversity so this could become a rich habitat in future years.
Each tree came in pot from Incredible Edible Farm Todmorden Lumbutts.They were planted by digging hole 1/3 larger than the pots, then spreading the roots and place in hole. Put back soil so that original grass/vegetation is upside down. This will take small soil animals like springtails that will be living on roots of grass down to keep tree roots clean and healthy. Then around the tree and into the soil goes the 'trunk guard', that we found 'lying around' nearby. This is to protect against deer (Japanese Roe Deer) nibbling the saplings and also rabbits which may want a nibble and can rapidly cause ring-bark.
Finally we added a good 'dollup' of wood chips.
These came from a pile that some lorry had dumped in nearby woodland.
They came complete with white bits all over them. What are these white bits? A clue is when we trace their trail across to left hand side where there is a group of these...
In close up - 'mushrooms'.
These are the fruiting body from the fungus' mycelium -white threads - growing below ground.
I do not think these wood chips will bring many small creatures with them, but will provide the substrate - the fungal threads - on which many can feed..
What is the fungus?
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