Larch Hill Reclamation Project

Larch Hill Reclamation

Swinford Tidy Towns began the Larch Hill reclamation project in the spring of 2015. As you can see from the photos before we started, it looked like quite a daunting task. And believe you me, it was! It wasn’t until we got up close to all the overgrowth we realised that there was a fair job ahead of us with the Larch Hill reclamation project.

The briar’s and all the overgrowth was over six foot high, and that’s just on the flat. It was the same all the way up the hill. There was a lot of sweat lost and thankfully not too much blood lost, (those briar’s are pesky buggers!). Once we made an opening though, it did become a little easier.

After a lot of long evenings clearing, and huge thanks to all out tidy towners & lots of blood sweat and tears lost, we finally started making headway on the project. It took a lot of digging to get all the roots of all the briar’s and weeds out. To help keep them at bay, we put down a membrane “Plantex”. Its a little expensive but one of the best products on the market for the job.

When we had all the briar’s cleared it was looking pretty bare. We had a few box’s of daffodils planted (some of which we hadn’t got round to planting so potted them up!), we decided to put them in, pots n’ all, to give some immediate colour. Great thinking Kevin!

Larch Hill Reclamation
Larch Hill Reclamation

We covered all the plantex with stone, both to keep it from blowing away and to keep it in position. Thanks to Mary and Gerry for giving us all the stone needed for the project. It took a few hours and a lot of “man power” as each stone had to be lifted 3 times to put in position, all by hand.

With all the stone in place we then began to plant the hill with shrubs and flowers. We also planted a load of daffodil bulbs as well as other bulbs along the wall at the front. When all the planting was done we filled all the bare areas with wood mulch. Thanks to Kevin for supplying us. It may take a few seasons but hopefully there should be a good splash of colour every year.

Michael
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