Plants Needed!! Can you help...?

National Trust estate at Marsden Moor is looking for some help with plants. Not the usual moorland variety but the common or garden type. Every week a group of dedicated volunteers gather in the yard at the estate office in Marsden to tend and grow garden plants. These are then sold at various local events throughout the year. All proceeds from the plant sales go towards the moorland restoration work that the National Trust do on the 2500 hectares of land surrounding Marsden village.

This year the big Plant Fair is taking place on the 16th of May and due to the hard winter they are a bit low on plants to sell. If anyone is changing their garden or clearing out for the spring then donations of plants would be gratefully received.
To donate plants or for further information on volunteering with the Trust, please contact the estate office on 01484 847016 or email marsdenmoor@nationaltrust.org.uk

Helicopters and Heather

You might have spotted the white bags spread out over Buckstones and White Moss as you've been passing. These bags are full of heather brash, which has been cut from the Peak District and is to be spread over the bare patches of peat which will hopefully improve the conditons. The brash will help to prevent the peat from being eroded away by wind and rain, and should also encourage plants to grow.

The bags were sat at the edge of the road for a number of days until the weather conditions were good enough for an airlift to transport the bags out on to the moors. (Unfortunately we didn't get any pictures from the airlifts, so this is one from last time and the weather looks lovely!)

All 500 or so bags have now got to be emptied and spread, and several groups have already started working on this with more groups coming to do some in the coming few weeks. By the end, the moors should look lovely!