Can you spare one hour, without any commitment, on Saturday (25.5.24) meeting at 10.00 hours, in Rowlands Dell (adjacent to the Hare & Hounds Pub). This beautiful haven for wildlife has been treated as an open tip for decades, where every inch is revealing a variety of pollutants harmful to wildlife. We hope to remove all the debris this summer and commence a huge programme of planting and rewilding in Autumn, that will be healthy for wildlife and humans, whilst ultimately preventing building on yet another perceived neglected green space.

 Main Tasks.

• Focusing on raking out the huge amounts of harmful to wildlife debris that has accumulated from over 30 years of sad neglect (eg vegetation, rubble and litter), down the north slope.

Equipment. All you will need are:

Sturdy boots, garden gloves (essentials)

• Ground ivy and debris removal: please bring litter picker, garden fork, rigid rake (essential) not a lawn rake, to remove some of the embedded litter.
• If you are interested in helping to remove the ground Ivy to enable us to access the debris beneath, please bring a brush cutter/strimmer, protective glasses.

Weekly Achievements & Thanks.

• North Slope: Started raking and removing debris from a few metres of the descending north slope, resulting in more bin bags of rubbish and a new mountain of rubble debris and vegetation, with several journeys to the recycling centre (18.5.24).
• West section has the worst neglected area for close to the surface debris, collecting more binbags of litter. Unbelievably, every inch reveals even more historic litter/debris e.g. plastic, bottles, cans, mattresses, carpets, rubble, historic bin bags of rubbish etc.

Pine Tree Donation. A huge thank you to George (local resident) for the donation of a very sentimental and cherished 10 year old pot grown pine tree, that was kindly transported by Ken and planted with an irrigation pipe.

Wall and Pavement Weed Sprayed. Tree overgrowth blocking the pavement has been cut back. The wall that has had the Ivy previously removed was sprayed, due to the damaging effect resulting in a previous collapse of the wall. Whilst Ken (Mayor and stonemason) identified that it urgently needs pointing to prevent further collapse and has kindly agreed to provide support.

Topsoil and Rockery Donations: a massive thank you to the following: Jake (Formby) and his father Paul for the 14 beautiful rocks. Sarah and her two sons (Saxon – Local Tree Surgeons) for kindly transporting the seven heaviest for free (16.5.24), Harry (Harry and Paul Richards local tree surgeons) for generously supplying and transporting one ton of grade 1 topsoil (16.5.24) for free on his day off. Thank you also to the ever supportive Paul (NHS Horticultural Manager) for the Facebook tipoff about the rocks and shrubs. Tony (landscaper and installer of the noticeboard _ Lemon Landscapes) recommended building up the area behind the board, so a beautiful rockery at the entrance of the Dell seemed like a perfect idea.

• South Slope: continuing spread donated woodchip on the debris cleared top south slope, to re-establish the tree hydrating humus layer, and temporarily suppress dominant weeds, prior to a large woodland planting programme at the end of the year.

Shrub Donation. Thank you to Joanne (D) (local resident) who kindly popped down with a couple of shrubs that we have placed in a holding area until autumn.

Water Butt Donation. A huge thank you to Anne (neighbour) for allowing us to use her garage water drainage and supplying a brand-new unwanted water butt, which we installed on (19.5.24), and will be ideal for future plant donations.

Please check our website’s ‘event’ page at www.fomd.co.uk for more information and any last-minute changes. This is a one-hour event, without any commitment.

Overall, our one-hour sessions over the last 30 consecutive weeks have resulted in collecting 212 bin bags of litter, a huge and shameful array of polluting debris and tons of tree and wall damaging Ivy, with multiple trips to the recycling centre.

We have received some wonderful feedback and are clearly seeing the difference every time we are there. Notably from the community police Dan and Molly, Colin (who offered support from a disability perspective), and  Cllr Roy Greason (Green Party).

This preparation is for Stage Two involving future green landscaping and a large planting programme which has been delayed from April to commence in August.

A huge thank you once again for your generous support of our group, you really are amazing and making such a massive difference to our community at so many levels.

Pictured, our amazing community volunteers: John (B) (who also amazingly helps MiB, the Maghull Station Volunteers, and St Andrews church grounds!) Joanne (local Facebook moderator), John (L) (2023 winner of the MTC Good Neighbour Award) (pictured), Colin, Christine, Frank (not pictured). Not forgetting Jill, who has done some amazing litter and debris removal on Thursday and Sunday.

We hope you make it, as many of our volunteers are not available at the moment.

Looking forward to seeing you.

Friends of Maghull & District (FOMD)

Together Making Maghull a better place to live.

More information about this and other projects at: www.fomd.co.uk

(website created by www.abbeytech.net/)

Contact: admin@fomd.co.uk

#fomdcic #Maghull #Environment

 

Richards Tree Services Contact.

07455115790

07846455697

https://richardstreeservicesnorthwest.co.uk

 

Saxon Tree Services Contact.

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61555652425418

https://www.saxontrees.co.uk/