Nature

JKL Tackle

Fishing tackle for all types of fishing

Wide variety of baits

from maggots to boilies and pike bait

Open 6 days a week

Agents for Eternit AC Season and Day tickets

Unit 7, Whitecroft Road, Meldreth, SG8 6ND 07966 268486 / 07773488585 Find us on Facebook @JKLTackle

JJG Angling Angling Tution Please call James for a quote on 07773488585

Melwood: Autumn preparations for Spring

As we move into autumn, thoughts turn to the work that will be needed to ensure the show of spring flowers that are a big feature of Melwood. The taller of the wild flowers of late spring and early summer have long since finished blooming and dry stalks now stand or lie where they had once grown. These are being cut and cleared to make room for new shoots that will bring forth next year’s show.

Nettle-leaved Bellflowers, summer flowering at the back of the wood, produced their best show to date this year, so the strategy of allowing them to seed to provide a good display each year is succeeding.

Also, the died-down Cleavers stalks have been cleared to ensure the Snowdrops have clear headroom as soon as they start to emerge. Cleavers is a smothering weed that has rough leaves and stalks that enable it to climb over any plants and bushes in its way. We therefore need to keep its presence in the wood to a minimum and a lot was pulled out earlier in the year. 100 English Bluebells were planted last year, but only late in the winter, when some growth had already started. This year the process has been carried out earlier with dormant bulbs already planted so we hope they will be well established by the spring. We will then observe their performance before any further expansion of the program.

Most of our recent tree and bush plantings have gone well but an oak sapling, which put on over two feet of new growth in 2020, has suddenly and inexplicably died. It broke leaves in spring in the usual way but died very suddenly after that. A smaller, weaker sapling oak only a few feet away remains healthy, so a postmortem will be needed to see if we can determine what happened to cut short what seemed to be a promising establishment.

Other work over the winter will include some coppicing of old Hawthorns and Hazels, to try to regenerate them and to provide improved light on areas to be planted or seeded with wild flowers (of local origin). Elders will also be trimmed and sycamore and maple seedlings removed.

Nest boxes were not cleaned in 2020, and so will need some attention this year.

We hope you will continue to enjoy the site as the leaves turn colour then fall in preparation for the spring regeneration.