This time last year, between 24th February and the 5th March, the Beast from the East brought wide spread snow and sub-zero temperatures and yet on Monday this week, 25th February the UK experienced its warmest February day on record.
Today, the last day of February and also the last Thursday of this (wintry?) month the weather was neither of these two extremes, which was fortunate for the WTG who were out landscaping again, this time in Avon and Orwell Walk.
Three trees were selected for the Spa Road side of Orwell Walk, being Gleditsia Triacanthos ‘Sunburst’ (nearest to underpass), Acer Planatoides ‘Cleveland’ (middle) and Catalpa Bignonioides ‘Aurea’. A further two trees were selected for the Highfields Road side being Acer Ginnala (just over the hump) and Acer Campestre ‘Elsrijk’ (nearest to Highfields Road).
On the Spa Road side the soil was good and easy to excavate but rather dry. On the Highfields Road side the soil was very stony and required more effort to dig out and this too was also dry. We therefore decided to prioritise a bowser run for next week and to water all the trees we had planted over the last few weeks to give them a better chance against the hot dry weather of late.
We had headed out with the trailer full of trees at 9.30am and no sooner had Allan marked out the holes, we had managed to plant all five trees by 11.30 – then headed straight to Barry’s car for well earned coffee and biscuits.
Next week we have two trees to plant in Eden Close followed by the bowser run. Let’s hope the good weather continues and a bit of rain too!
Jane Noble
February 2019
