Now that some of the grass has been cut and the rest has died back a bit we have done a bit more fencing. Still got another 100m or so to do but I think we've broken the back of it now. We are trying to make the central area of the field, where there are no trees, stock proof then our next door farmer can let his sheep in to graze over winter. Then we'll let it grow through spring and summer again.
Rache asked advice from Colin Newlands of Natural England last week for how to deal with grasses and rushes in the former donkey field. He was quite taken with the site and has left her an assortment of wild flower seeds as well as some plug plants kindly donated by a research student from Manchester university.
The trees have done well through the summer with most of them having taken And just a handful of duds. Some are now over 6ft from little more than twigs last December. We have been trying to manage them as best we can, applying roundup around the bases in spring then recently cutting back the grass around them as much as possible.
Still got a bit more strimming to do.....well, maybe quite a lot; some patches will be left this season. If anyone fancies a bit of nettle-pulling, hand-shearing around rocks, or strimming/scything, get in touch!
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