Newsletter, May 2016

Farewell Ed

Dr Ed Cole has recently retired from holding the role of Secretary to the Friends of Nant Fawr Community Woodlands, a post which he has held for over ten years.

As a token of the Committee's appreciation, he was presented with a framed picture of three scenes from the Nant Fawr area, photographed by Jon Marsh. We send our best wishes to Ed and his family and hope he will continue to stay in touch with the Friends in future. The new secretary is Emyr Wills-Wood.

Workdays

January : The base of the new bench was established; this will allow a rest with a view at the top of the hill. This will be completed at a later date. A few groups cut back the undergrowth and saplings around the edge of the meadow.

The Welsh Bacc boys had a good workout as they dug out an area to sow red bartsia seeds. This will allow us to assess whether the flower (already present in small numbers) can be established in the meadow so that grass growth can be controlled. The soil dug out was used to start a bank to encourage wildlife e.g bumble bees.

Trees from The Conservation Volunteers were also planted nearby.

February : The Bee and Butterfly area was cleared back ready for the planting in March. The entrance in to the Nant Fawr from Rhydypenau Rd to Woods Covert was also cut back.

March: The wire around the Bee and Butterfly Border was replaced and some more seeds scattered. Invasive laurel was cut back in Rhydypenau Woods and a large area cleared behind the bus stop area on Rhydypenau Rd.

April 2016: Bark was laid on the paths and 100 bulbs donated by Buglife were planted at one of the entrances from Rhydypenau Rd.

Next workdays: 8th May, 19^th June, 31^st July, 14^th August

KWT (Keep Wales Tidy) grants

We were fortunate to receive two grants of nearly £500 each from KWT. The money was spent on tools for the High Schools to use in their work in the Nant Fawr area and for plants for two specific projects.

1             1.     The Conservation Orchards

These were planted in two phases:

January 19th – Cardiff High school:

Ian Sturrock and Sons had sent rare old fruit trees from Bangor as we set about our Conservation/ Pollinator project: apple (Channel Beauty, Cox Cymraeg, Pig Aderyn, Morgan Sweet, Bardsey Island, Monmouth Beauty and Afal Nant Gwrtheryn), Abergwyngregyn damson and Penrhyn Castle pear trees - see his Website for more details about their history. Nine Y10 pupils from Cardiff High school were able to plant a tree each and we cleared around the trees for sowing yellow rattle and native wild flower seeds suitable for our clay soil.

January 27^th – Llanishen High School

12 representatives of the Ecocouncil  planted apple (Pig Aderyn, Morgan Sweet, Bardsey Island, and Afal Nant Gwrtheryn, Croen Mochyn, Machen and Trwyn Mochyn), and pear trees (Penrhyn Castle and Brenhines yr Wyddfa)  .

We also sowed yellow rattle and wild flower seed to try to control the grass between the trees so that mowing will be easier.

2.       The Bee and Butterfly Border

March 18^th - The Friends and Ton yr Ywen Junior School:

We planted climbers (jasmine, clematis and honeysuckle), shrubs (buddleia, hebe, lavender and rosemary) and 366  wild flower plugs in an area bordering Rhydypenau Park meadowland (300 of these plugs had been supplied by Buglife). The children also put out some bug hotels and scattered yellow rattle and wild flower seed

Membership renewal

Subscriptions remain at £3 per household.

Please make a cheque payable to :- 
"Friends of Nant Fawr Community Woodlands"

and send it to our new membership secretary  :- 
Chris Lloyd  7, Usk Rd., Llanishen, Cardiff, CF14 0NN.