The next Friends of Rawcliffe Meadows Work Party is on Thursday 10th July 2014 from 19:00 at the New Meadow (near the crossroads of the allotment track and the N65 cycle track – any queries of how to get there, let us know).  Two tasks to do:

• Hand weeding around the patches of tansy plants, and some mint, at the southern end of the meadow to prevent them getting overgrown, or cut down when we take a strimmer to rest of the vegetation in the area. This year’s Tansy Beetles will be due to hibernate shortly so there may not be many about, but you can watch out for the odd one, or even late eggs and larvae. Garden shears may also be handy once the fine weeding has been done. The weeding is done around the tansy plants to protect them, and hopefully their beetle populations, from competing vegetation.
• If we get enough volunteers we can also do some more seed collection (meadow buttercup, clovers, birdsfoot trefoil, ribwort and great burnet) for the Cornfield grassland, this time in the reservoir basin.

Volunteers welcome for all or part of that period. Please look for the A board. Gloves, given the nettles, are probably a good idea! Possibly wellies too, dependent upon the weather!