Spiraling out
A hedge maintenance task today with Stroud Valleys Project along the canal. A hedge was planted along the towpath about three years ago, and it’s time to remove the plastic spirals which were protecting the plants from rabbits.
Sometimes if spirals are left too long, they get brittle and splinter into pieces which leaves plastic pollution in the hedgerow. But luckily this was not the case here, and the spirals could be safely removed all in one piece.
Not a straightforward task though. The base of the young trees were covered in grass, nettles and brambles which made access tricky.
There were five of us in the field side doing the unspiraling, and the students from the star college collected them and assembled into easy to transport tubes.
It was a great team effort, and by tea break we had completed about half the hedge line. Mike supplied the cake, including a rather good chocolate explosion cake which his grandson made.
There were very few failed trees. They were a good height and look like they’ll survive any drought difficulty we might have. The species were excellent – hawthorn, spindle, dogwood, field maple and hazel.
The grassland at the far end of the hedge was amazingly species rich. I remember brush cutting there a while back when it was covered in bramble, but the grass has recovered well. There was Lady’s bedstraw, yarrow, field scabious, bird’s foot trefoil and many others. It really will be a great habitat alongside the hedgerow.
After lunch we were in the final straight and only had about another 40 minutes to complete. Mission accomplished for this phase of the tree establishment. We just need to return in another 5-6 years to lay it.
