Careful What You Wish For

So here are some of the Magnificent Seven Trustees for the Devenish Bradshaw Charitable Trust on our Summer field meeting. And, as you would expect, it was a gloriously hot Summer's day.

The trouble is that since my last blog post back in June when I moaned about the heat and asked for plenty of rain in September....it's mostly rained hasn't it!

The main problem is with all this rain we have too much grass on the meadows which means we are really struggling to get the sward into the right condition - 40 % bare ground - for spreading wildflower rich hay seed.

The cows and sheep are doing their best and Tony, John and Ben from the Community Farm have all been out on their tractors cutting haylage, topping the grass and now discing and harrowing the sward. Bits of the meadows are looking a muddy mess while other bits are a veritable forest of lush grass.

Will we get the hay collected and spread before the Dairy Cows graze it off from our secret donor site?! If so will the ground be ready to let the wildflower seeds germinate and flourish? Or will our Meadows be a dull mix of grass, thistles and docks over the next couple of years despite best efforts?

Well let's hope it will be all smiles and wildflowers in bloom on the Trustees' Tractor and Trailer Tour in 2023....