Sheila and Anne-Laure joined 5 other volunteers for another session at Ray Mill Island, building dry hedges. We started by cutting down all the dead stems and Buddleia branches from the area inside the dry hedge which we had built last year. All the cuttings were then used to rejuvenate the hedge and held in place with some newly-coppiced hazels. Once completed, we moved to our hedge still under construction and did some branch trimming ready for next week. Anne-Laure has now added the technique of pinning down the branches within the hedge to her skill set

Sol, Mick and Sheila joined 3 other volunteers at Ray Mill Island to continue building our dry hedge. We were grateful that the weather was dry this week, and we made great progress! Everyone knew what they were doing, and we hammered in stakes (given nice pointy ends with Mick's newly-sharpened axe), packed the area with brush wood and bound it all together with flexible branch lengths. We were all pleased with our progress and look forward to the wildlife moving in

The rain didn't put off 3 intrepid GoodGymmers keen to progress the building of a dry hedge at Ray Mill Island. Sheila and Rachel were in charge of selecting and cutting branches so they were suitable for packing into the body of the hedge. Mick cut the branches suitable for use as the vertical stakes , fashioning pointed ends with a slightly blunt axe. He hammered them into position, giving the hedge a very pleasing curve. The hedge was packed with branches and secured with long flexible binding branches. We were pleased with our work and made our way home to dry out and have a well-earned cup of tea

Four GoodGymmers joined other volunteers at Ray Mill Island for a spot of dry hedge building. Mick was chief engineer and stake-driver, Christine cut branches to size, whilst Anne-Laure and Sheila sorted the area around the compost bins that had become a bit of a dumping ground. Once the supporting stakes were in, the area in between could be packed with branches to the agreed height, with the aid of our boots, and hey presto, a dry hedge was born. It was much-admired by passers-by, and it has to be said, by ourselves too. Not bad for an afternoon's work

Jen and Didem were weeding wizards clearing up two area of invasive heliotrope in the rockery.

Weeding in the sunshine, by the tinkling of the water fountain and having a good chin wag was the perfect therapy for a Friday morning.

Jen, Louis and Roberta met with Shoshan our task leader for a briefing. We were joined by her two beautiful dogs, Lily and the younger, more boisterous Simba.

Our task today was a quick tour of the two new developing Fernery areas before bundling up previously collected twigs, sticks and branches into broomstick type arrangements.

We were soon joined by Sheila which meant that we could demonstrate that many hands do make light work.

A last job before we finished was watering the planters and bedding plants, so with the hosepipe ban still in place it was buckets to the rescue.

We had an impressive pile of broomsticks by the end.