Saturday 11th May
Report written by Sevan
We were back helping HANGOT this morning at their Elthorne Triangle orchard, an area we know well as it's right next to the tool container that we use in Elthorne Park. Kash, Anuj and Sevan ran to the site in shorts and t-shirt as it was another warm, sunny day. They soon saw that the other volunteers were all wearing trousers as today's task was to clear hemlock, burdock and lots of nettles from around the trees.
The GoodGym trio took what they thought was the simplest task, to clear everything from around a heritage fruit tree that HANGOT had adopted and was believed to be over 100 years old! There was no need to decided what to cut, everything had to be cleared in a big ring around the tree.
When the got closer, they saw that there was a huge patch of nettles growing around the tree. Not great if you're in running shorts. The team bravely got stuck in to the task, helped by one of the HANGOT volunteers who cleared the way with a wickedly sharp scythe. They then raked and bagged the waste, adding it to a huge pile of cuttings to decompose.
With such a large group of volunteers, the session finished up early, allowing some to leave and enjoy today's Hanwell Hootie.
We'll have another session with HANGOT scheduled for one of their June events.
Hanwell and Norwood Green Orchard Trail is a local community project to plant and care for a trail of publicly accessible community orchards in the Grand Union Canal corridor in Hanwell and surroundings. Publicly accessible community orchards benefit humans, flora and fauna alike, and fruit is free to pick and enjoy. We planted over 150 fruit trees, hazels and rowans since January 2015 in over 12 locations between the Brentford and Southall borders, building nature and wildlife habitat improvements as well as a strong community of local volunteers with a shared sense of responsibility. We also planted hundreds of fruiting hedge plants. We work in close cooperation with Ealing Council park rangers, the Canal & River Trust, local schools and other community groups.
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Instead of going to landfill, your old running shoes will be recycled