Somehow it's already been nearly a year since our last CSR visit to 'The Paddock' - an 8-acre greenspace in Tottenham Hale, boasting a diverse mix of habitats including woodland, scrub, meadow, ponds and rivers.
The Paddock supports an important range of local mammals, birds, insects, and plants. The site is cared for and managed by 'The Conservation Volunteers', as part of a 21 year long management project agreed with Haringey Council.
We had a fantastic time visiting The Paddock last year, and so members of our London team were delighted to head back up to Tottenham and help out once again.
Just like our visit last year, the EcoSend team were welcomed by the delightful management team at The Paddock; a mix of staff and other volunteers - headed up by the lovely Izzy.
Thankfully, unlike last year, the team were blessed with much better weather, and a surprisingly sunny April's day.
Izzy quickly put us to work, starting with the heavy lifting first - weed clearing!
As you can from the before and after, we certainly put our effort in!
Next up, with the weeds cleared, the team set about to re-planting hedgerows.
Hedgerows are vital to the local ecosystem; providing shelter and nutrition for local insects and mammals.
As always, there were wheelbarrows involved! And a lot of too-ing and fro-ing across the various areas of the site.
After that, the team got busy putting up tree supports for young saplings, to stabilise their growth into maturity. James in particular, seemed to enjoy channelling his stress through mallet-hammering the stakes into the ground!
For a team whose daily weight-lifting normally involves tapping on keyboards, this was quite a change of pace! But it was a delightful way to spend a morning.
What could be better than encouraging the growth of London's local eco-systems, and enjoying a fresh, sunny Spring day?
Every day, London seems to be getting bigger and more crowded. More buildings, more skyscrapers, more concrete, more grey.
This is why local spaces like The Paddock are so important, not just for offering local wildlife shelter, and also for giving the local community and opportunity to enjoy some green and blue space, and all the health benefits that come with that.
It was an exhausting yet exhilarating day-out; and the team were super-proud of the culmination of their efforts; a brand-new hedgerow!
A big thank you as always to TCV for welcoming us to their site, and for being so accommodating. We hope to be back very soon for another CSR day - hopefully the weather will be just as good!
