Meadow update

I thought I would take a picture of the meadow prior to having the main patches of nettle, dock and thistle topped.

It looks great although the issues of nettles, docks and thistles need to be addressed before they take over. Hopefully by cutting the main clumps the grass seeds will colonise the ground covered by problem weeds for next season.

The meadow is also having a good wildlife effect and there are starting to be significant number of butterflies. There are more ringlets than I normally see and countless meadow browns and tortoiseshells.

Removing fences

I have reintegrated the smaller paddock into the front garden by removing the post and rail fence that has been there for decades. It transforms the look of the place, particularly improving the setting for the dovecote which no longer has a fence running into it on each side. We don't know how old the dovecote is but is mentioned as being there in 1577. The top has been replaced by brick presumably in Victorian times when other brick parts were added to the house

Heritage Orchard

I have just had an email confirming my last two apple varieties are due for delivery this autumn. They are Queen Caroline (from Measham in 1820) and St Ailred (Coalville 1942) and both had to be specially grafted which gives an eighteen month lead time. The other three trees were available "off the shelf" and were planted last December. They are Barnack Orange (Belvoir Castle 1904), Dumelow's Seedling (Shackerstone 1800) and Bramley's Seedling (Southwell 1809). The only one that originates outside Leicestershire is the Bramley's Seedling and Southwell is only 40 miles away.

I originally wrapped up the Heritage Orchard project with the idea of a water management project a main element of which would be rebuilding the moat banks in one place. However this is not as straightforward as it appeared at first so I have proceeded with the orchard element for the moment. Meanwhile no longer having horses on the property leads me to the idea of not only cleaning up the larger field (see previous entry) but also removing the fences around the smaller field and reintegrating the area, including the orchard, into the 'front garden'.

Reclaiming the field

The field is just over two acres and for the five and a half years we have been here we have let horses use it. The arrangement which was originally for rescue horses was no longer working for us so we have taken the field back. The first task was to clear the field of the rubbish on it , a major part of which was a burnt out lorry chassis. This was cut up and will be taken to the scrap yard. The next task was removal of paving slabs, bricks, plastic rope and other general rubbish that
had accumulated over the years. Then the field was chain-harrowed. Apart from flattening out the dried-in hoof marks from the heavy shire horses this will also hopefully help any wild flower seeds germinate. I have noted many flowers blooming in the field but this year without the horses I can construct a comprehensive record.