early April down at the field

March came and went rather quickly.
A few jobs progressed down at the field, but a brief interruption was a break-in to my workshop at home. Items recovered via the Police and 3 people arrested after a spate of burglaries in the area the same night.
Annoyingly, it happened in the early hours of the day I was due back from Shropshire after picking up 150 young trees from Heathwood Nurseries near Whitchurch. They've been left heeled in for now at home...

A noticeable progression into spring between the start of March and start of April.
Before much had come into bud, more of the south hedgerow trimmed down along about one third of it's length to encourage lower denser growth.

From Meadowcopse 2011

More hawthorn whips put into the gaps too and a clump of hazel and some alder put in where the (to be planted) wood will have a lower height profile before opening onto a small orchard.

A local agricultural contractor came and removed the mature ash tree that fell in February from the neighbouring field hedge-row, there was quite a bit of rot that had set in.

From Meadowcopse 2011

From Meadowcopse 2011

Between hedgerow trimmings, river flood vegetation debris and the upper twiggy branches of the fallen tree, five large barrows of wood-ash from burning (will end up in a compost / mulch mix).
Nearly 2 tonnes of horse-muck acquired from a local paddock too, altogether with a large quantity of dead leaves and shreddings, I should end up with a good mulch mix for around some trees.
I've since acquired a land-rake from local small machinery supplier Danelander and gave it a run through part of the grassland behind the tractor the other evening.
This was to give matted vegetation a bit of a lift and comb through from previous years and to lift things ready for an early mow in a couple of weeks time...

A few more birds noticed in the trees and hedgerows and a couple of large birds of prey over higher neighbouring fields. A random pheasant was in one corner the other evening too.
Clearing the south ditch, a random frog was lurking in the hollow of a tree.
The meadowsweet is coming into leaf, there are clusters of wood anemones along the south hedgerow and celandines here and there too. The buttercup leaves are appearing in profusion already as well as dock-leaves coming up too.
Sloes and damsons in the hedges are into blossom too, as well as the north boundary willows coming into leaf.
The grass itself has noticeably increased in height over the last couple of weeks.

From Meadowcopse 2011

Back at home, it's getting a bit late to lift and transfer bare-root nursery tree stock that I have, but quite a few large-cell pots of ash and oak and birch that will probably cope.

A few considerations for the layout of the orchard area and it's aspect and spacing - almost all the fruit trees I have are in large commercial pots, so I probably wont rush this too much, but would like to make significant progress this year.

I've also partly dug out a nursery bed with wooden edgings and will likely lay out a couple more between the orchard tree spacings for now.