Orchards and Hedges

Thursday, January 23rd 2020

Finally, the six hundred trees kindly donated by Bettys Tearooms are all planted. This has been a huge job made easy by many volunteers. The mid-week volunteers finished planting the fruit trees on Tuesday. Gaps in the existing orchards were filled with the new apple trees.

Organic matter was added to the holes in order to prepare them.

Once in the ground, the trees were staked with a sturdy pole at a 45 degree angle to support them whilst they start to grow.

There was also a spot of careful yet necessary pruning to encourage new growth.

In some cases, where the water table was high, the holes filled with water and a technique known as mound planting was used. This is when a hole is made but the tree is planted in the pile of soil from the hole so that it is raised above ground level. This method was implemented ten years ago when the orchards were first created and proved to be a success.

By the last tree, Gerry refused to dig anymore!

This morning, the remaining 170 shrubs were planted as a hedge on the edge of the reserve. This time a team from Help for Heroes carried out the work and although the whole day was allocated to this job, it was completed by late morning! They then painted benches, pruned Hawthorn and helped manage the Willow Carr. 

The newly planted hedge will act as a vital wildlife corridor between the reserve and the adjacent MoD training area.

Thank you to everyone who has assisted with the tree planting, and of course to Bettys Tearooms who made it all possible.

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