Meldreth Matters, September 2021

Melwood Autumn Preparations for Spring Even as we wait for summer to properly arrive, 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 once grew. These need to be cut and cleared to make room for new shoots that will bring forth next year’s show. One area that will have to wait for its cut is at the back of the wood, where, despite the smothering effect of dense stands of Hedge Parsley, Nettleleaved Bellflowers are flowering Nettle-leaved bellflower in their best numbers to date.

Photograph by Jim Reid This area will wait until the Bellflowers have dropped their seed before it is cut. It has been an objective of the Conservation Group to try to increase the number of flowering species in the summer, to follow on from the spring show and it that respect, the Bellflowers seem to be a success.

Cleavers is a smothering weed that has rough leaves and stalks that enable it to climb over any plants and bushes in its way. Earlier in the year a small group of workers spent a morning pulling it up from the centre of the wood where it was covering bushes and sapling trees planted in previous years. In other areas it spread over ground vegetation and still lies there, now dead but continuing to smother the vegetation beneath, e,g. over the main areas of spring snowdrops.

These areas need to be cleared before December, to ensure the snowdrops have clear headroom as soon as they start to emerge.

One hundred English Bluebells were planted last year but only late in the winter, when some growth had already started. This year the 32