In today’s working party Rita & Nolice cleared some of the willowherb which has finished flowering, and added the woody stalks to the dead hedges. Clearing this area gave the lovely curves of the dead hedge a bit of space, and it was nice to be able to add material that helped define the curves again after they’ve spent the summer hidden by comfrey, rhubarb and bindweed.

Meanwhile Dez dug a bit deeper in parts of (mostly dry) pond until he hit the – currently very low – water table. Hopefully having places this deep will help the pond retain water better if next year’s summer is as dry as this year.

The other job completed today was plumbing the 4 IBC water tanks together and finishing the route for rainwater from the roof into the tanks. This kept Janet busy all morning, but she got it to work. The four tanks will now all fill together from the bottom as rainwater is collected from the roof of the shelter. The raised tap will only work while the water level is higher than it is, so this may need adjusting at some point, but it’s good that we now won’t need to keep altering the guttering and drainpipes each time a tank gets filled.

Now this plumbing is done, we can also begin to build a shade screen round the tanks to prevent algae growing in the water.

Thanks to Rita, Nolice, Dez and Janet for today.