Those of you who follow us on Instagram will know that we Heath Hands-ers have been busy the last couple of weeks – but to bring everyone else up to date.
Last week we were up in Highgate Woods waging war on the holly trees which had taken advantage of the restricted work that could be done during lockdown to colonise a whole area up towards Muswell Hill.
They were, however, being put to good use as you can see here – dragged out and piled along beside the paths to make very effective and prickly natural barriers. Meanwhile, the rangers were up on this splendid cherry picker bringing some of the higher branches under control.
Then on Thursday – another glorious sunny day – we were in the Hill Garden pruning the cornus (dogwoods). For those of you who don’t know them, cornus produce wonderful coloured stems each year and, once their leaves have fallen, they can really light up a winter garden. But to do so effectively they needed to be planted in swathes of at least 20 plants. And because it is only the young stems that glow scarlet and gold in winter, they need to be pruned almost down to their base each spring. Which, when you have at least 100 plants, as they do in the Hill Garden, is a lot of pruning!
Here we are saving the golden and red branches for a local school who will use them in their art classes.
Cornus were also sort of on the menu today in Golders Hill Park down in the Water Garden.
These ones had already been pruned as you can see but today’s job was to remove the arum lillies which had self seeded between them. Since the arums are quite large and evergreen they were distinctly dimming the cornus’ glow this winter so were being removed to a more useful place. While most of the team were on arum removal duty Rainer (on the left) and I were sent off to reduce an extremely overgrown laurel to order. Very satisfying! Especially when followed by reducing a similarly overgrown viburnum to a reasonable shape. Nothing like a good bit of pruning on a Tuesday morning – especially when rewarded with a steaming cup of tea and handful of Bourbon biscuits.
Magnolias
To get to my various heath assignments I often walk along the broadwalk in front of Kenwood House so I am able to monitor the magnificent Kenwood magnolia as it develops. Here it is on March 8th with the buds just showing.
And here it is 10 days later, just bursting into flower.
And now today, just five days later, it is already falling. It seems a shame that we get so little time to enjoy them – but knowing that we will have so short a time to admire them possibly focuses our attention.
The white magnolia on the lawn below the broadwalk is the most exposed and the first to bloom. Equally magnificent pink trees on the side lawn (and in Golders Hill Park) are in slightly less sunny positions so are still flaunting those amazing velvety cup shaped blossoms. I was told today about a magnolia grove at Kew which apparently houses various different shades but I cannot go until Monday – will they still be in flower?….
The shire horses
Coming very soon will be a post about the shire horses, William and Joey, from Operation Centaur who came to repair the damage caused to the heath by the cross country runners at the beginning of the month. It just requires me to find the time to edit the dozens of mini videos I took of them.
Random update…..