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Spade and Path
Tuesday saw us park our minibus in the mossy carpark of Redhall Walled Garden, situated in the east of the city beside the quietly flowing Water of Leith. Apparently most of the land used to be owned by an industrialist who used the power of the Water of Leith to operate several mills in the vicinity, including one which actually printed money!! Our task was to construct a bark chip path just outside the walled area and to harvest some Russian Comfrey which can be made into a pretty powerful liquid fertiliser high in potash and full of all sorts of tasty nutrients that plants like. As I found myself without the relevant digging tools I spent an hour stuffing great green bundles of comfrey into the bulk bags provided and hauling them around to the compost heap inside the garden. The rest of our willing workers wielded their weapons well, and tore into the turf, which looked as if it had previously been some kind of path until the grass had reclaimed it. Derek and Rob led the way with Fiona marshalling and entertaining the crew as I worked with the comfrey, and the path soon took shape as the surrounding undergrowth filled up with chunks of turf. After being entertained by John’s freestyle rapping at lunchtime the group was further entertained by a short tour of the garden and spent most of the afternoon barrowing bark chip onto the path. Kate once again showed why she should be a VO and not me by providing some first class instruction on couch grass and willow identification.(thanks)
Derek Digging
Wednesday 14th September
The forested slopes of Corstorphine Hill saw us approaching on Wednesday, and saw an experienced and enthusiastic team start on the arduous task of unblocking drainage ditches and scraping the caked mud off the paths of the hill. Team One was led by the dynamic Philip and Keith with Willie Stenhouse keeping us entertained with film related trivia. Team Two worked further down the slope and was captained by the redoubtable Alan Smith with the twin engine power of Willie Hedspeath and Tommy Hutton sending them firing down the path in front of us. 
Kirsty’s tin of deluxe Cadbury’s biscuits fortified us at lunchtime and having intended to overtake Team Two after lunch Team One spent more time than expected digging out a drainage ditch right down to the clay subsoil and scraping yet more soggy mud off the path above where we had been working previously. A last fifteen minutes was spent working together beside large cluster s of the invasive Salmonberry, which seems to have set up home on Corstorphine Hill and I m sure will be tackled by BTCV at some appropriate time in the future.
Thursday 15th September
Thursday was spent out at Butterdean woods working on the bridge previously fabricated by the team with Chris’ help……….
The Bridge Masters