Keeping back the bramble

We’ve been maintaining the orchard with the Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust for the last couple of years. There was a giant area of bramble right in the middle which we brush cut and removed in early 2022. It was now knee high so a good opportunity to get it low again and allow the grass to come through.

There were quite a few people today and the other tasks were pruning. I took the brush cutter and started to work through the main areas in the central section. There are still some major scrub to work on at the bottom of the orchard, so that will have to be another time.

I came across some young teasel plants between the bramble so I left them in place.

I took note of an area further down which was covered in huge bramble last year which we removed. That was quite a good mixture of plants, and only very low bramble shoots. So probably it will be a good time this time next year to give that a second cut.

The cattle are controlled under a conservation grazing regime, so Anna will let them in again as soon as the ground is not quite so boggy. They’ll then be off again in the summer and we can see what herbs come up this year.