Lime Aid - Rubies and Gold Cups

It's just past Valentine's Day, which means it's time to give Lime Tree Avenue a bit of love. I've have been doing volunteer work to help keep the wonderful old Lime Trees in this Historic Avenue for a number of years.  I missed last Saturday's session, which was reported by Uckfield FM, in which approximately 10 people worked their way up most of the avenue. This week, there was just the two of us - but we still managed to clear "epicormic growths" (suckers) from the feet of 5 of the most vigorous trees. If all goes to plan, there will be another session on March the 4th from about 9am.

A Lime Trees epicormic growths.

The first tree I tackled had an enormous number of large suckers galloping across the gap towards its neighbours. In the year since we last cleared them, some had grown to about 3 foot tall and as thick as my index finger.  Mercifully most were smaller. 

Wild Arum leaves.

While I was working my through the suckers, I noticed a carpet of delicate Cow Parsley leaves and a few clumps of Wild Arum - but no sign of any flowers yet.

Three Lime Trees - after this year's trim.

Once I had completed my first tree, it was satisfying to look back and see what we had achieved. Then onto the next tree.

Silvery lichen with tiny golden cups.

I couldn't resist collecting some treasure to take home. The suckers have ruby red buds, so a handful of the clippings went into my bag. These were followed by a twig with some Lichen. This is  a silvery, leafy structure made up from a partnership between an algae and a fungus.  If you look carefully at the photo, you can see tiny golden cups, which are the fruiting bodies of this strange cooperative organism. 

Crocuses at the North end

As I was heading home, a stray clump of crocuses were fully open as if to tell me that Spring is nearly here. I am looking forward to seeing the Lime Trees' bright green leaves burst from those ruby buds.

Lime Aid - Spring's at our feet

Once again it is time to trim the "epicormic growths" (suckers) from the feet of the trees in Lime Tree Avenue, which led to long-gone Uckfield House.  The year since I last did this seems to have rushed by. About half-a-dozen of us spent the morning working our way through nearly half the trees.  The group will be at work again next Saturday morning (Feb 27th - 9am until 1pm - more volunteers are always welcome).

The first of my 7 trees - before and after.

The day job has been pretty heavy since December and it was great to spend time working in the presence of trees that have lived so long and seen so much. While we were there it became more-and-more obvious that Spring was drawing life from the soil at our feet.

A cheeky robin found morsels where we had been working.

White-lipped snails and worms hiding amongst the growths at the base of a tree.

The wild plants round the trees are growing fast. I saw violets, primroses and alexanders already in flower as well as clumps of handsome wild arum leaves.

Wild arum leaves.

While I was working on the last of my trees, my every move was scrutinised by a curious goat, one of a pair kept by the school.

The school goat.

In case we were in the slightest doubt about the approach of spring - a frog appeared near one of the trees and was placed gently by the fence so it could find its way to the pond.

Frog and primroses.

After a few hours, I began to run out of steam and went home, scooping up some well-deserved fish and chips on the way.

Lime Aid - A Great Stressbuster

You might think that, after a hard week at the keyboard, I wouldn't be rushing out to do more work on a Saturday morning. You would be wrong. It is a great stress buster and very satisfying.

Today is the first of a sequence of work mornings run by Lime Aid.  If you are interested in coming along we are doing another two on the 8th of February and the 8th of March.  This time about eight of us turned up and managed to trim away the growth from the bases of loads of trees.

My first tree - before and after.

After the relentless rain of the last couple of weeks the morning's sun was a delight. It was noticeable how advanced the leaves of all the wild flowers were. I wasn't really looking very hard but saw foliage of Cow parsley, angelica, wild arum and primroses. 

My third tree - before and after.

It was also lovely to hear the birds chattering and twittering. I saw a few blue tits perched on the hedge between the avenue and the school.  I believe the ones I heard were blackbirds and robins but I didn't see any this time.

Last year I found a geocache. This year there was nothing so exciting but plenty of litter including, would you believe, discarded nappies.

Stealing ideas from nature

It's true confession time. When gardening, I steal most of my best ideas from nature. When walking through Views (William) Wood near my Manor Park home I see many pretty sights.  One of my favourites is the mossy old stumps and coppice stools surrounded by dainty wild flowers and ferns.

Wood anemones around the foot of a coppice stool, photographed 14 April 2013

I wanted to make something similar in my garden. Wood anemones, bluebells and wild arum grow naturally there. Maybe the woodland once extended as far as the location of our 1960s home.  

Here's one I made earlier, photographed 14 April 2013

We asked a professional gardener to remove some laurels, giving us a clear space in the shade of our tall birches.  Next, I bought a couple of old coppice stools from Wilderness Wood. My family are always amused by my habit of buying manky old bits of wood but I find they make good garden ornaments without the worry that some light-fingered so-and-so will take a fancy to them.  I got most of the plants by taking pieces of what we already had in the garden. I transplanted seedling wild arums and sprinkled seed from bluebells, cuckoo flower and foxgloves. I supplemented these with ferns, hardy geraniums and a red campion-like plant that I bought from local nurseries and open gardens. I don't stick rigidly to native plants. Sometimes I choose garden species that are similar to local wild flowers. I find that these cope just as well with local conditions, including greedy deer, and extend the options available to me.

The final step was to wait. It will be a year or two before the bluebells are flowering properly but the other flowers and leaves are giving plenty of interest. So that is how I designed my little woodland garden.

Spring Equinox - green shoots?

Well Spring's arrived - allegedly.

It's less than 2 weeks ago I was crowing about "spring becoming an unstoppable force". Since then we've had heavy, drifting snow and rain and unrelentingly cold miserable weather. The frog spawn is looking a bit sorry for itself and the daffodils are decidedly confused but ...

Wild arum, bluebell and fritillaria leaves under oak.

... green shoots are breaking through all over. Just a few weeks ago the area below our oak was barren looking mud. Now leaves of wild arum, bluebell and fritillaria are growing rapidly. Maybe, just maybe spring is arriving.

Lime Aid and a Geocache

I spent most of today in the company of 100 magnificent limes.  These wonderful trees form Lime Tree Avenue in Uckfield and I was one of a group of volunteers who were giving them some TLC. We trimmed back epicormic growth, or suckers, from the bottom of each tree. Trimming the unwanted growth not only keeps the trees tidy but prevents energy that is needed to keep the whole trunk healthy from being diverted into unwanted growth. 

Lime tree, before and after epicormic growth (suckers) removed.

It is rather wonderful to get up close and personal with trees that are so old and so big. It allows me to appreciate the craggy old bark, the smooth, olive coloured twigs and buds that look as if they could start bursting any day.

Fresh green leaves of cow parsley, wild arum (cuckoo pint) and ivy seem to swirl round these old giants. The cuckoo pint flowers will be first to appear, then the white froth of cow parsley and finally ivy flowers provide a late summer nectar bar.

All day birds flitted and chattered round us while we worked. Male blackbirds seemed to be chasing each other from perch to perch while a blue tit gave us shrill abuse for daring to step into its territory. A robin paused on a nearby fence post and inspected work in progress. 

As we wound down, there was one last surprise. I found a plastic box. At first I thought it was some litter, or maybe a child's lunchbox hidden by a less than friendly school mate. When I opened it I found a charming little collection of gifts and a notebook. It seems that someone had left a geocache. I wrote my name in the book and put it back.

Geocache, which I found hidden at the foot of a lime tree.

The Lime Aid group, led by Martyn Stenning, does this twice a year, in October and February. So if you fancy having a go, look out for notices in the local press, social media and in Lime Tree Avenue itself.