Wildlife Circus

  Months of preparation for a new community orchard culminated yesterday with  participants - expertly schooled by the Orchard Project - planting trees and fruit bushes. After digging suitable holes, tree roots were dipped into  a mycorrhizal application of beneficial fungi designed to colonise the  roots and create an early mycelial network within the soil,  increasing nutrient and water uptake. The trees were surrounded in protective cages and three fruit bushes - a gooseberry, red currant, white currant or a black currant - were planted around the base. Photo A. Irving Amongst the trees planted were: a cider apple Tremlex bitter - and apples Newton Wonder , Cor Blimey, cherry Merton Glory and Lapins , a  fig, and a medlar var: Nottingham; a self fertile tree, the fruit of which, should be harvested during October. Pomegranate is becoming more popular in our changing climate and ours was covered with a sheet to protect from the frost during the...

  The last time I encountered Tom Bolton was at his talk to the Friends of Belair Park in 2014 see: londons-lost-rivers-talk-by-tom-bolton.html Last night Tom, in collaboration with  'The Museum of Walking' and during the mayor supported 'National Park City week',  prelambulated us along the hidden course of the Neckinger. The starting point was a very parched Bernie Spain gardens, from where we headed towards the grounds of the Imperial War Museum.   The watercourse drained the seasonally wet (and occasionally flooded) ground at St George's Fields, now Geraldine Mary Harmsworth Park. Here, while Tom topped up on his fluids Andrew efishently demonstrated the technique of employing dowsing rods and that - whenever the rods crossed - we could be certain that we were walking above the water course (now flowing through the complex of Thames Water's sewage pipes). Brook Drive near the rear of the IWM is thought to be the source of the Neckinger.   From...