A load of balls and blisters!

November 2024.

Hey, what do you think they're up to? 

Shh! Just keep still, I don't think they've spotted us.

All in good Time.

I've previously mentioned how clearing some of the overgrown planted beds is backbreaking work (Blooming lovely). They can be covered with brambles, nettles and goosegrass (cleavers).

What I haven't mentioned are the associated perils when doing this 😀. 

Oh no, here we go again!

For example, I prefer to pull up the nettles to remove their roots. I usually chop them first if they're several feet tall. Unfortunately, you can't do this effectively without being stung lots of times - even through clothing. If I'm wearing short sleeves, my forearms get covered in little blisters (it's amazing what you get used to 😅). 

Then there are brambles; these become entwined across the bed making it difficult to extract. We lop them into sections, as they can grow up to 20 feet long. You still need to pull on them quite a bit whilst being careful not to damage the shrubs. I have cuts and scratches from the thorns to prove it! 

Goosegrass is just as bad; also known as 'sticky willy', it clings to the shrubs and so has to be removed a bit at a time leaving you covered in loads of seed balls.

If you're lucky, like me, you'll get the odd insect bite too. Antihistamine is always handy to have nearby.

Bramble roots are quite deep. We use a rabbiting spade to dig them out, but it's not always possible to remove the roots completely.

Nevertheless, it's another satisfying clearance.

We believe this to be Strict Coral fungus which was spotted whilst clearing the bed.

With regard to the curious ponies, we were back at the deer park to plant some more oak whips (young trees without soil around their roots - approx 1ft tall). 

As in March this year, we first needed to erect a safe and sturdy enclosure. We used an auger to drill out the post holes (which needed to be sunk over 3ft deep), dropped in the posts and then attached the rails. We were then able to plant sixteen oaks before finishing off with the wire netting.

 

Should be able to keep the Muntjacs and ponies from snacking!

Work then started on the next enclosure until time was against us. Oh we'll, perhaps another day.

It was back to clearing brambles and nettles the following week. My previous visit to this site, along the edge of the east woods, was in December 2022. At that time, we were cutting and removing sycamore trees (a similarly cold day).

Most of the planted shrubs were clearly visible, so a lot of the initial clearing was quickly achieved with shears.

Spindle was harder to spot, especially surrounded by tall nettles.

The long lengths of bramble we once again cut into smaller sections using loppers, and disentangled from the shrubs. Unfortunately, the roots were not easily accessible and had to be cut at ground level. 

The stumps of the sycamore trees were covered with new shoots, some of them as high as 10ft or so! These were coppiced and removed with the bramble etc, to be incinerated at some point.

I believe the cold weather had taken the sting out of the nettles, and my extra layer of clothing protected me more from the bramble thorns. That made a nice change 😃.

Look out for my next post, hopefully before the Christmas break. Hope you enjoyed.