Last orchard guard

Went over to Fromebridge for the monthly orchard work party with the Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust. While walking over, we stopped to look at the pond, where we were putting vegetation in April. It was looking excellent, despite the recent drought and the low water levels of the pond.

We also stopped to make a temporary repair to some fencing near the canal which the cattle had breached and accessed the towpath vegetation.

There were quite a few tasks to look after the tree bases and remove some encroaching thistle from the grassland. But I chose to put up the last tree guard, ready for planting later on in the year.

I worked with Mike to put the posts in according to the spec we’ve been using on the others.

However, the ground was extremely hard with all the dry weather, and after about a foot of post ramming, we hit a brick wall, and they just weren’t sinking any lower.

It’s not a critical task since we won’t be planting until much later in the year, so we decided to abandon it until the ground is much softer.

The orchard is actively grazed, so there is a risk that the cows could collapse the posts which aren’t deep enough in the ground. Rather than take them out, we decided to put some temporary bracing supports at the top of the posts.

This will hopefully allow the cows to pass through and graze without feeling the need to push the posts.