Trafford weed-spraying has started early so get your signs out!

Keep Your Tree Pit Blooming Beautiful

Have you planted the tree pits or alley ways near you? Did you know that Trafford Council contractors spray these with weed killer each summer? Read on and find out how to protect your plants!

A sign protecting plants in Old Trafford

Pink and white flowers growing in an Old Trafford tree pit

How to Protect Your Plants

What can you do? Get your Sharpies out and make some signs! We’ve found plant labels from the garden centre will work. (See photo at the top of this post). Try to make your signs prominent – especially if your flowers aren’t in bloom around the time of spraying.

Laminated sign asking contractors not to spray weed killer

You can find out when the One Trafford team will be spraying by following us on Facebook or Twitter.

In good weather, a chalked message might help – and raises awareness of this issue!

Reducing Weed Killer Use on Our Streets

You can help reduce the use of these harsh chemicals on our streets.

If you are able to, clear weeds from the “back line”, which is the gap between the front yard or house wall and the pavement, by hand. If it’s clear of weeds, the contractors might not spray the street as much.

You can also contact your local councillor about weed spraying.

Trafford weed-spraying will start on Monday 12 June 2023 so time to get your signs out!

Keep Your Tree Pit Blooming Beautiful

Have you planted the tree pits near you? Did you know that Trafford Council contractors spray these with weed killer each summer? Read on and find out how to protect your plants!

A sign protecting plants in Old Trafford

Here at Love Old Trafford we know from bitter experience that busy employees with a job to do won’t always notice the difference between weeds and lovingly tended plants. We’ve lost thriving plants along the Ayres Road tree pits when they were mistakenly sprayed in the past. One Trafford put this right for us by planting perennials, and we’ve been in discussion with them ever since about what residents can do to protect tree pits that have been planted up on streets across Old Trafford.

Pink and white flowers growing in an Old Trafford tree pit

How to Protect Your Plants

What can you do? Get your Sharpies out and make some signs! We’ve found plant labels from the garden centre will work. One of our members puts her signs up in the tree pits on her street the weekend before spraying begins, just in case. (See photo at the top of this post). Try to make your signs prominent – especially if your flowers aren’t in bloom around the time of spraying.

Laminated sign asking contractors not to spray weed killer

You can find out when the One Trafford team will be spraying by following us on Facebook or Twitter.

In good weather, a chalked message might help – and raises awareness of this issue!

Reducing Weed Killer Use on Our Streets

You can help reduce the use of these harsh chemicals on our streets.

If you are able to, clear weeds from the “back line”, which is the gap between the front yard or house wall and the pavement, by hand. If it’s clear of weeds, the contractors might not spray the street as much.

Old Trafford Goes Bats!

In September 2022, Love Old Trafford held a Bat Walk. We invited Baptiste Chadeyron from the South Lancashire Bat Group to come to Hullard Park to teach us about these often overlooked nocturnal creatures. The event was part of our OT Goes Wild project, supporting wildlife and pollinators in our area. September is a good time to see bats as they build up their fat stores for winter.

Hullard Park meadow – a great place to find bats!

Our evening began with a talk, as Baptiste introduced us to the UK’s 18 different bat species, focusing on those we might see, like the Common Pipistrelle. We learned how to listen for bat’s echolocating, using a detector to transpose their clicks to frequencies humans can hear. Baptiste taught us about the differences between the sounds of the species of bats we might encounter – and even how to tell that a bat is closing in on its prey!

Bats in flight (stock photo)

Having learned a good deal and familiarised ourselves with bat detectors kindly supplied by the Bat Group, we set off into the dusk of Hullard Park. It didn’t take long to hear the rhythmic sounds of Pipistrelles – and then to see them fluttering over the meadow, central flower bed and around the trees. We heard the funny squelch of bats successfully hunting down insects and were able to identify two different species present.

Hullard Park’s wetland garden provides a habitat.

Our Bat Walk was a sold-out success and we’ve had plenty of requests to run it again. Attendees of all ages enjoyed being out in the park after dark, and discovering the forgotten wildlife right here in our urban green space.

Thanks go to Laura, Caroline and Liz for organising this event. A huge thank you also goes to Baptiste and all at the South Lancashire Bat Group for such an interesting and inspiring talk and walk, and for all they do to support these remarkable creatures.

Do you want to support Old Trafford’s bats? Bats in the UK are in trouble, but you can help.

• Look out for scything events in Hullard Park, and other opportunities to maintain the habitats in our green spaces to increase biodiversity.
• Check out the South Lancashire Bat Group’s website, http://www.slbg.org.uk, for advice and events happening across the region.
• The Natural History Museum has a helpful resource too: https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/how-to-see-uk-bats-and-give-them-a-helping-hand.html

Keep Your Tree Pit Blooming Beautiful

Have you planted the tree pits near you? Did you know that Trafford Council contractors spray these with weed killer each summer? Read on and find out how to protect your plants!

A sign protecting plants in Old Trafford

Here at Love Old Trafford we know from bitter experience that busy employees with a job to do won’t always notice the difference between weeds and lovingly tended plants. We’ve lost thriving plants along the Ayres Road tree pits when they were mistakenly sprayed in the past. One Trafford put this right for us by planting perennials, and we’ve been in discussion with them ever since about what residents can do to protect tree pits that have been planted up on streets across Old Trafford.

Pink and white flowers growing in an Old Trafford tree pit

How to Protect Your Plants

What can you do? Get your Sharpies out and make some signs! We’ve found plant labels from the garden centre will work. One of our members puts her signs up in the tree pits on her street the weekend before spraying begins, just in case. (See photo at the top of this post). Try to make your signs prominent – especially if your flowers aren’t in bloom around the time of spraying.

Laminated sign asking contractors not to spray weed killer

You can find out when the One Trafford team will be spraying by following us on Facebook or Twitter.

In good weather, a chalked message might help – and raises awareness of this issue!

Reducing Weed Killer Use on Our Streets

You can help reduce the use of these harsh chemicals on our streets.

If you are able to, clear weeds from the “back line”, which is the gap between the front yard or house wall and the pavement, by hand. If it’s clear of weeds, the contractors might not spray the street as much.

Are You on the OT Growing Trail?

The LOT’s Growing Trail will help to get everyone together outside on Saturday 2^nd July, to explore and enjoy the beauty, plants, and nature around us 

Love Old Trafford has teamed up with the OT Jumble Trail this year to make the event bigger and better than ever.

If you’ve got a garden, window or tree pit you’d like to show off (or jumble, crafts, homemades you’d like to sell), sign up now and for £3 you can book your pin on the OT Trail Map by contacting 

loveoldtrafford@gmail.com

www.facebook.com/oldtraffordjumbletrail

NB You get to keep all the proceeds from any sales you make or donations you collect on the day

Love Old Trafford Committee Meetings

Here at Love Old Trafford we hold committee meetings every other month. We discuss issues affecting our local environment, like litter and fly-tipping, bin collections, walking and cycling, pavement parking, and reducing the use of single-use plastics and pesticides/ herbicides.

You can read the minutes of some of our meetings here.

May 2021:

love old trafford committee meeting

July 2021:

minutes-13-07-21-copy.docx

September 2022, AGM:

minutes-agm-2022-1.docx

Woodland Trust – tree give away

Woodland Trust Tree giveaway

The Woodland Trust are giving away trees to Community groups and schools to encourage people to plant trees in their local area. The idea is to help wildlife, support the environment and create beautiful spaces for people to enjoy. The application process seems simple enough.

Guidelines and application details are available online.

The Deadline is September 2014