Parkside Road BD5
.preview.JPG)
We had a variety of tasks to do today, but the main one was to work on the hedge and cut some of the longer grass, which included grubbing out blackthorn suckers. We only laid the hedge a couple of years ago so it isn’t at the stage it needs doing again yet. However the hedge needs to be kept at a reasonable height to allow light into the garden and to keep the adjacent footpath open and visible. We tackled this with a mixture of coppicing some stems to the ground to allow the regrowth to add to the density of the hedge, winding some of the thinner stems of hazel and dog rose in and amongst the hedge, and laying some of the branches (even though they were only a few cm in diameter).
At the top end we started to grub out some dense blackthorn that was making the hedge too wide. This was also done throughout the wildflower meadow.
In order to protect the fruit trees when the grass is mown we made a timber surround for one of the trees. The rest will be done at a later date. We took a moment to admire the shape of the apple tree – it was a good example of how to prune to open up the middle of the tree and create the desired goblet shaped tree.
We dug a late crop of potatoes from one of the beds, and shared out some Ashmead’s Kernal from the orchard. We enjoyed the winter sunshine.