A small but enthusiastic group of volunteers gathered on ‘The Green’ on a very sunny Saturday morning.
We started by working across the barrow in the north-west corner of ‘The Green’, removing saplings by pulling or, if they were too well rooted, by cutting.
We also worked on cutting back the clumps of brambles on the edge of ‘The Green’. On future Saturday mornings we will continue with this work with the aim of making ‘The Green’ more inviting for people to sit on and enjoy.
As the Met Office forecasted it was a sunny morning with bright blue sky and so clear that the air almost looked sparkly.
There was a good turnout of volunteers – about 20 people including children.
John Dugnolle had two tasks for us that morning.
The first job was to clear away the branches and rhododendron that we had cut on previous field days and to continue with cutting back, in the woodland area. This, of course, meant a bonfire. 
We have bonfires to clear away excessive cut material on the behest of Horsham Parks and Countryside. While some branches and brash enhances the natural environment, excessive amounts cause a health and safety issue (trips etc), suppress the growth of plants underneath the piles and can be an eyesore.
When John plans to have a bonfire he contacts the local fire service in advance so that they are aware.
The second job was to continue the painstaking (and painful – those brambles can really hurt) task of removing invasive plants from the heather bank opposite the bench on the main path. The invasive plants are mainly brambles but include tree saplings and rhododendron.
Over the past months we have been gradually restoring this heather bank, moving from the east end to the west, Sandgate Lane, end. I am told that this bank was last restored about 5 years ago but the restoration work had not extended as far as the area we worked on yesterday.
While it cannot be said that all of the weed plants have been removed the state of the 
heather bank is now much improved. The proof will be later in the spring when the foxgloves flower and in the summer when the heather blooms.
While we worked we came across a ladybird and a black beetle about 1.5cm long, and saw brimstone and peacock butterflies.
At 11am we stopped for a well-earned break and a chat, before resuming work for another half an hour or so until we finished at around noon.
We had a good turn-out of around 20 people, including several young children and some new faces, on this fine Saturday morning.
For our first job of the day, Will led us to the wet heath area of the Warren to clear away cut branches from the heath so that they could be picked up by the tractor and disposed of off site.
The next job was to set to on the dry heath area scraping off the moss to remove the habitat for the destructive heather beetles and expose heather seeds to allow germination.
This job involved scraping away the moss, by hand or by rake, and bagging it up so it could be removed from the site. As far as possible we separated the moss from any woody material, mainly heather killed by the heather beetle, into separate bags.
The mossy material was taken by the NT back to their depot for composting with a view to returning any heather seedlings that germinated in the compost back to the Warren.
This group reported finding two slow worms in the heather which they left alone, marking the spot to avoid disturbing the slow worms as they worked.
This area is a good habitat for reptiles and as well as slow worms lizards and adders can be found here. It is best to avoid walking across the heath areas and stick instead to the many established paths so that the wild life is not disturbed and to avoid you or, more likely, your dog startling the adders and risking a bite. If your dog does get bitten by an adder take it quickly to the nearest vet (e.g. Crossways on School Hill, opposite the fire station, or Arun Vets on Mill Lane, next door to Gatleys opposite the Waitrose car park) who hold supplies of the venom antidote.
It is not all hard work. As usual, Jacinta provided us with refreshments, including home-made cake. As the photo above shows, Andy was clearly quite eager for his tea that morning.
The youngsters are also catered for with soft drinks if they want them. We are very happy to see young people at these work mornings but, unless agreed in advance, persons under 18 years old must be accompanied by a responsible adult.
There is now access to the land north of the Millford Grange Housing Development via a gate on Hampers Lane (opposite Badgers Holt).
As well as a circular path with numerous benches, the path connects with a newly constructed path across the National Trust field to the east of the site, providing a motor vehicle free walking route between Hampers Lane and Georges Lane.
The path exits onto Georges Lane near the NT Warren Hill car park and so provides a link to the public footpath across Washington Common to the A24 underpass.
See here for more information of Sandgate Country Park
There was an excellent turn-out for the field day at Sandgate Park on Saturday despite the threat of rain which, thankfully, did not materialise. We had at least 25 volunteers, of all ages, including some welcome new faces.
Having such a large group allowed us to split the team to cover two tasks. The main group headed into the woods to tackle the invasive rhododendron, while a splinter group returned to the dry heather bank to continue clearing it of brambles and pines. We have high hopes that the dry heather bank will look wonderful in the Summer.
Due to the dampness attempts to start a bonfire to clear the cut material were unsuccessful but this will be done once it has become dry enough to burn.
There will be an additional, extended, field day on Thursday 9th March at Sandgate Park organised by Horsham District Council to tackle the overgrown trees and shrubs in the wet heathland area. Much needed help will be provided by the Horsham Green Gym volunteers. See the Programme for further information.
If you are in Sandgate Park in the next few weeks don’t forget to look out for the daffodils near Badgers’ Pond. These are just now coming into flower.
The day was cold and there was a light dusting of snow on the ground. Although it initially looked like the cold was going to put our volunteers off, they slowly arrived in ones and twos so that by 10am we had a very respectable turn-out which included some new faces and young people.
There were two main tasks for us to get on with. The first was to remove the moss from an area of the heather bed which had been mown by the NT contractor. The reason for doing this is to allow the light and warmth to reach the heather seeds in the soil so that they germinate. The heather bed has been badly affected by heather beetle and it needs to be regenerated.
The raked moss was bagge
d up to be taken off site and composted, and then later used to grow more heather seedlings.
The area cleared can be seen in this picture as outlined. Please don’t trample it so that the heather seedlings are able to grow.
The group of volunteers was large enough to split into two teams. While one team worked on the heather bed the other team got on with the other task which was to tackled the gorse, brambles and rhododendrons encroaching on the barrow to the south-west of the Green. This was probably the last opportunity we had to carry out shrub cutting before the start of the nesting season.
A good morning’s work and good cake was had by all.