It has been very busy in the field in the last four weeks.
Hedge laying and coppicing
Local farmer, Bob James, made a wonderful job of laying two lengths of field hedgerow which he did in aid of the Redlake Valley Community Benefit Society , or RVCBS, a local group who look after several quillets (strips of woodland) in Brineddin Wood in nearby Chapel Lawn.
Bob also started off a rotational coppice of some roadside Hazels, cutting one third of them down to ground level. These will sprout vigorously in the Spring and regenerate fast. The ground behind and in front is now full of light and air. Along the laneside, we have planted native bulbs and sown specialist wild flower seeds suited to hedgerow - Betony, Foxglove, Agrimony, Red Campion, etc. We look forward to seeing the new Hazel shoots in the Spring. The idea is that next year, Bob will do the next third and so on until the entire length is coppiced.
Not only did he do the coppicing, but he built us a beautiful Chestnut pale fence with the first harvest from his own coppice about a mile away. This will be extended year by year as the coppicing work is done.
So much Mulching!
After falling foul of Covid in the spring and running out of tree mulching materials, we have managed to get hold of plenty of unwanted cardboard and jute sacking (and some sheep fleece) locally and wood chip is supplied free of charge by our local tree surgeon. Hopefully, by the end of the winter, all 900+ trees will have a biodegradable mulch mat around the base, which should also mean the ground dries out less fast around them should we have another very dry spring/summer - and they will be protected a little more from competitive grasses and other vegetation.
The main downside of the mulch mats is that they can provide good (well insulated) havens for field voles - of which we have many - and they can then nibble on your tree roots and potentially kill the trees! So it's a balancing act. We will see what happens.
One word of warning! Some of the sacks we are using are old cocoa sacks, one or two of which we have since found have old cocoa beans in them. These can be very toxic to dogs if eaten! After being seen nibbling on some beans at the weekend (thanks to an eagle-eyed volunteer), our lurcher Sookie had to go to the vets and be made sick. Luckily she is fine. But a cautionary tale for anyone using cocoa bark or cocoa sacks in their gardens/fields if dogs have access!
The new wet woodland is planted ...
In mid December, the wetland strip at the bottom of the field was planted up with 125 native species of wet or moisture loving trees - Alder, Grey Willow, Downy Birch and Alder Buckthorn - as part of the AONB Shropshire Hills project funded by the Environment Agency and Woodland Trust. The trees were grown at Heathwood Nursery in Shropshire.
The planting was done most enthusiastically by volunteers from the Severn Tree Trust. It's not the easiest of sites to plant up with much standing water, very deep ditches and mud! But everyone seemed to enjoy themselves in some much-needed winter sunshine. A huge thank you to them (and John Tuer in particular as chief organiser and lead) and to Alison Jones of the Shropshire Hills AONB Partnership for getting the project funded and off the ground in the first place.
The planting plan was beautifully drawn up by local wildlife gardener, Michelle Brinkhurst, showing a naturalistic approach - no straight lines, no set distances between trees, several little 'copses' breaking up the fence lines etc. We were very keen to leave some good sized areas open and unshaded, particularly where there are pools and pool margins where wildflowers have been sown. Hopefully we have got the balance right. If shading does occur there is always an option to coppice Willow and Alder if we want to in future to keep heights down.
We hope that this part of the field will really come alive with birds and life once the trees are established. Due to the nature of this part of the site, we will not be able to mulch most of these trees but hopefully they will 'take' fast and grow quickly.
We have also been planting some gifted Dog Rose and Malus Sylvestris (Native Crab Apple) saplings around the field (thanks Mellie!).
The 'Pit' Pond
A year ago with the help of a local farmer, we dug five small test pits and scrapes around the field to see which might hold water throughout the year. Four of these dried up in the spring and summer (which is OK - ephemeral ponds can still make interesting habitat and some insects are even designed to live in them) - and just one, the 'pit' pond kept hydrated, mainly because it's dug quite deep and sits on/above the water table at the field bottom.
We are excited that this very modest little pond is to be part of the Shropshire Wildlife Trust's Shropshire Pond Creation scheme
Pete Lambert, the Trust's Rivers Officer, came down on site on a sunny, frosty morning in early December with the contractor to look at how to enhance the pond for wildlife - and ideally make it attractive to any nearby Great Crested Newts.
It will be made several times larger, and curved around a stand of Soft Rush. One or more hibernacula will be built nearby for winter refuges, perhaps dug into the field bank or created from logs and stones.
The on-site meeting was momentarily bedazzled by a visiting Kingfisher who emerged on cue from (we think) the large field drain pipe and flew down the new watercourse shedding blue light as he went. Far too fast for my camera skills, but since I have drawn a Kingfisher recently, here is a more static one in pen and ink and coloured pencil.
The pond is right next to the new wet woodland site, a seasonal scrape, my deadwood hedge and field edge Blackthorn and Willow trees, so has the potential to create good habitat connectivity across the bottom of the field.
Work should be done by the end of February so more on this in future!
Wishing everyone a Happy Christmas and a Peaceful and Positive New Year. The field has been such a fantastic distraction and positive focal point for the whole of 2020 with all its difficult Covid restrictions and problems. Thank you to everyone who has commented, advised and helped us with field matters so far.
Next year we look forward to pond creation/enhancement, barn restoration (hopefully?) and perhaps even the installation of a barn owl box.
We are very lucky indeed.
