Mulching the top hedge
It’s been a while since I’ve been out with Stroud Valleys Project, and so missed the entire planting of this new hedge by the side of the road, in the field above the Fromebridge Reserve.
Today was the task of applying mulch to the new plants. We had a big pile supplied by the garden centre next door, and just had to shovel it into a huge trailer to drive onto the field. Unfortunately, the day didn’t start well with heavy rain and the truck and trailer got stuck in the field which took a while to dig out.
Once we got into a cadence however, we managed to shift quite a bit from the pile and deeply mulch about 150m of hedge.
We were applying a generous 10-15cm deep layer to protect the plants from daisies and other wildflowers that will grown in between. It will also hold a lot of water should there be a period of extended drought later this year.
Suzie had made easter carrot cup cakes, which were delicious with the morning tea break (and maybe one with lunch). We finished around 1pm because Pete had to get off on some water vole work.
However, by then, the sun had come out so we had a very pleasant and leisurely lunch next to the river. We were joined by the planting team who were on an extended mission to put the left over trees at the far end of the reserve by the scrapes.
