After a very long spring period on the estate we are coming to the end of the bulbs and are now happily removing all the bulb tops from the lawns.

We are half way through the hedge cutting process, which this year was held up by the very cold spell that we had with the beast from the east. After which we had the very hot and wet period. This has resulted in the major growing season running over by almost a month.

We have started to renovate some of the shrub beds with our first upgrade to the rose bed in the area of house numbers in the 50’s in Bedster Gardens. In addition to this we have continued with our programme to replace some of the trees that have died or been removed in the past few years. Last year we planted Sorbus Aria, with striking silver leaves and white flowers enhance the roads but without being too big. This year’s replacements are Prunus “Pink Cherries” not noted for any fruit but have stunning flowers and ornamental apples, Malus “John Downie” a very pretty “Crab Apple” tree. having white flowers with a pink hew. This tree does fruit and although they can be bitter to eat make very good Crab Apple Jelly.

We have this year started to convert our fleet of petrol powered machines to battery power. The aim is to reduce noise levels and fuel consumption. This conversion will make it much cleaner and far less noisy than previous years for both staff and residents.

The carbon implication is greatly reduced as is the overall fuel usage. For the month of hedge cutting this shows a reduction in fuel of some 275 litres. The annual reduction on the estate will be in the region of 750 litres.

The investment will hopefully start to pay dividends immediately and financially we should see benefits over the 3 year life expectancy of the kit once the cost of the batteries and new machines have been covered.