Raking It In!

With around 15 areas of meadow to manage (not including the large wildflower meadow) the Autumn job list involves a lot of cutting and raking. 

The cuttings need to be removed to prevent the nutrients from going back into the ground as the wildflowers thrive best in poor soil conditions. Raking the hay can be a fun and rewarding task and this year help is on hand from the Northallerton Personalised Learning College in Northallerton. 

Last week, the team worked together in one of the apple orchards and completed the job in no time!

Most areas have now been cut but some still contain flowering plants and will be left for as long as it takes for the flowers to go over and the seeds to set. The Hemp Agrimony is a valuable late source of nectar for many pollinators.

There are still plenty of butterflies on the wing; Red Admirals were observed feeding on rotting apples today. Dragonflies and damselflies are still flitting around the Scrapes and only yesterday a Kingfisher was seen there too.