What could be more romantic than spending a long morning planting 1500 various hedging plants? Well I can think of several more but nevertheless over 30 hardy souls turned out on a cold but dry St Valentine’s morning to help.
The trees and hedging plants were purchased from Simpsons of Fordham. Glenn Conway had generously offered to look after them until planting day and he duly arrived with trees and plants bright and early on Sunday morning. The plants were laid out on the grass in their bundles with tree guards and bamboo stakes. Written instructions on how to plant and what to plant were along side.
Hawthorn, Blackthorn, Maple, Hazel, Dog Rose and Crab Apple were the chosen species, all intended to encourage birds and wildlife to take up residence.
Tea and coffee were served by Carol Breeze and Julie Parr and later homemade soup was on offer.
With so much help we just about finished all the planting in one session – much more than I had hoped for.
I would like to thank in particular Mike Smith and Chris Prescott for all their hard work in helping to get this project underway, Carol Breeze for soup making par excellence and everyone who came and helped.
Thank you all.
As for the future - new replacement fencing to the A 1421 side of the site will be added in March along with improved access with a disabled parking area. We have installed one Kestral box and a Barn Owl box and other bird boxes will be in place soon.
In the not too distant future we hope to have picnic tables, BBQ pit and wildflower area.
If anyone has any other ideas that you would like us to consider then please do not hesitate to contact me.
Julie Parr
01353 741380

Picture by Jez Reeve

Picture by Julie Parr