News
Recent updates and reflections from Rollins Wood.
Cider and a meeting
We’ve had amazing weather for the May bank holiday week and the wildflower meadow is full of buttercups, with purple vetch and ragged robin. We will be getting the scythes out in a month or so! Read more…
Encouraging wild flowers
We have chosen a patch of wood below the orchard to weed out invasive plants and encourage the little celandines, violets and lilies growing there, in the hope they will do better. Read more…
Hazel sticks still available!
We have cut up all the hazel sticks from this year’s coppicing and they are up for grabs. They are up to 7 feet long and ideal for beanpoles or garden structures. Free to members or £2 each; please come and have a look, they are just behi... Read more…
We’re all chipper!
This week’s volunteers, seen here using the last of our woodchip delivery to fill the muddiest section of the main path. The rest of the lovely load of chip went on the paths between the vegetable beds, seen behind. Our woodchip is donated... Read more…
Allotment beds and paths
Saturday saw a group of us enjoying the sunshine as we created new paths using woodchip, donated by Manchester Tree Station. Read more…
First flowers of spring
This week has seen the blackthorn blossoming! It’s a lovely sign of spring. The blackthorn has flowers before leaves, unlike the hawthorn which has leaves, then flowers much later – look for it in April nowadays (not in May, its othe... Read more…
Hazel coppicing
Most years, we cut a section of our 200 hazel trees on rotation, so that they produce a cluster of new growth. The shoots grow upwards to the light, making long, straight sticks. Traditionally, these had many uses such as hurdles and thatching s... Read more…
Tree felling – ash dieback
We have had to fell some ash trees which were suffering from ash dieback disease. This is a spreading affliction which may not kill a tree, but weakens it. Signs of ash dieback include loss of leaves from the tips of branches; over half of our a... Read more…
Willow animal sculptures
This year we used some of our colourful willow to make sculptures. Douglas the roe deer was commissioned for a conference on “Wilding gardens” at Manchester University. After featuring on stage at the conference, he has taken up re... Read more…
University of Manchester volunteers support woodland management
The “Tree Musketeers”, a volunteer group of environmental management students from The University of Manchester come regularly to help out with woodland tasks, bringing energy and enthusiasm. Read more…
Winter wreath-making
What a wonderful afternoon of creativity. Read more…
Apple juice bottling gets underway
Our fresh and fruity, cloudy organic apple juice is officially going into bottles — 120 of them. Read more…