Town Trail working party; April 26th

At the end of April, at Ledbury Town Council's request, we did some more work along the stretch of the Trail that goes by the Recreation Ground. The 'chipper' team from Balfour Beatty joined us so that the brash could be chipped rather than us creating 'dead hedges'.

Sadly we found quite a lot of rubble. This kind of fly tipping slows down our work but we were very thankful that the Balfour Beatty team could both deal with the brash and remove the rubble.

Clearing away some of the ivy lets a lot more light into the area. We hope this helps you enjoy the area through the summer.

After Monday 9th May we will have a 3 week break before the next session on 23rd May. It was hard to schedule fortnightly sessions around bank holidays and everyone's other commitments!

As always, if you'd like to join us, do contact us via email on sustainableledbury@gmail.com for more details. You can also find us on our website sustainableledbury.co.uk

Waste Reduction project update

Sustainable Ledbury is delighted to have taken on the responsibility to manage this project. A group of our supporters signed up for the training which took place in early 2022. From now on they will be  attending local events to raise awareness and give advice on how to reduce our waste. This will include information on reducing food waste (and saving money!), recycling, and composting.  

Some of our supporters had been involved in the waste reduction Master Composters and Love Food Hate Waste campaigns, run jointly by Herefordshire Council, Worcestershire Council and Garden Organic. Sadly, Herefordshire pulled out of this some years ago. It was therefore a natural step to consult with Garden Organic to see if we could set up something on a smaller scale for Ledbury.

Ledbury Town Council supported this idea and commissioned Garden Organic to train some volunteers in a range of things that can be done to reduce waste.

We now have a group of trained, enthusiastic volunteer Waste Reduction advisors, who will be out and about at various local events in 2022. 

Our first stall will be at the Ledbury Community Day on the 4th June 2022.

If you have an interest in reducing, reusing, recycling and composting, and enjoy sharing your knowledge with others, we would love more volunteers, and the online training is still available.

If you would like to know more about volunteering for this campaign, please contact Sarah Blenkinsop by email at sustainableledbury@gmail.com or, alternatively, you can send your details in a sealed envelope addressed to Sustainable Ledbury to the Ledbury Town Council office on Church Street.

Cherry Blossom and Alkanet on the Town Trail

Taken a while to get round to doing this post, but on 4th April we started working at the station end of the Town Trail. The cherry blossom was looking great and some Green alkanet was in flower (blue flowers in one of the photos). The roots of this plant supplied the red dye which Egyptian women used on their hair and nails. It's not certain when it was introduced to Britain or why.

We've taken a bit of a break for Easter but will be back next Monday - 25th - doing some work along the stretch through the Recreation Ground. The 'chipper team' from Balfour Beatty will be with us to chip all the brash so that we can leave the area looking good for the music fest for the Jubilee.

As always, if you'd like to join us, do get in touch via our email sustainableledbury@gmail.com

Town Trail - Raspberries and Roman salads

Our latest session on the Town Trail was on Mon 21st March. We finally got down as far as the Woodleigh Road bridge - just! We now need to change location as we're into the nesting season and there's a lot of wild life in this section. It felt like a real achievement to get this far and our work has let so much light into the area. We're looking forward to seeing what plants grow through now they've got some light.

The plant finds this time included raspberries! We cleared the ground around them so who knows if they'll bear fruit later in the year. We also spotted ground elder. Did you know that the Romans brought this plant over to use as a salad vegetable? They probably didn't realise how invasive it would be if you get it in your garden!

Our next session is on Monday 4th April. We'll be up where the Trail starts, near the station, where we'll be clearing ivy off some of the ground - to encourage more wildflowers.

The group is growing and new members are always welcome. If you're interested, contact us on sustainableledbury@gmail.com for more information.

Town Trail - Woodleigh Road, wild flowers.

We were back working last Monday (7.3.22) down near Woodleigh Road. The robins joined us again but were definitely camera shy this time and I didn't manage to get their photo.

We're starting to see more wild flowers coming through though. There were Celandine, Lords and Ladies (sometimes known as Cuckoo Pint) and even some Cyclamen. Did you know that the roots of Lords and Ladies were gathered for their high starch content. In Elizabethan times this was used for stiffening the high, pleated, linen ruffs that were fashionable at the time.

We'll be back for one more session in this area of the Trail on Monday 21st March. Then we'll be into the nesting season and will move to the top end of the Trail, near the station. We can clear ivy off the ground along that stretch without disturbing the nesting process.

If you would like to come and help, do get in touch.

sustainableledbury@gmail.com