The Ash man Cometh...

Unfortunately we had a visit from the the Food and Environment Research Agency today. A representative came to discuss the Ash dieback disease Chalara fraxinea recently covered in national news media. 550 Ash trees were planted on our site back in February this year and sadly it looks like this disease is a serious threat to them. The fungal disease has been found in a number of countries throughout Europe with Common ash being the most affected species. Counties in the south east of England seem to be suffering the worst and FERA are currently trying to stem rapid infection of the wider countryside by visiting sites like ours that have inadvertently bought trees from nurseries where the disease has been found.

Aside from the movement of infected plants the disease is spread locally by spores which are released during late summer. As it's November FERA have time to inspect our trees, analyse any that appear to be contaminated and if tested positive remove all 550 trees from site.

Adding to the complication of the inspection is that we have over 1,500 other trees of various species all planted with identical guards to the Ash. It will be a good deal of work to locate and inspect all 550 trees. I'm hoping they can perform a little bit of weeding while they are at it. The sad thing is that there doesn't appear to be a solution to the problem and it is likely that the disease will eventually reach us regardless. There are a lot of questions that we need to consider regarding shipments of plants from other countries and the impact on our countryside. We save a few pounds here and there through economies of scale but catastrophic damage can be caused in the process.

Find the Ash Tree

On a brighter note, we now have doors on the polytunnel, well front doors anyway. The fold up back doors are next to be fitted but they require two people to fit and unfortunately with Jake around it takes us a little time to get the two person jobs done.

Sally very happy with her new doors.

This is how Jake rolls. A proud Dad with his doors

Shonky... Wonky

Stock fencing now surrounds the growing area and woodland. Although the photos don't really reflect it, the addition of fencing makes quite a big change to the feel of the land. We just need to get the grass cut and then sheep can return to the field.

We've also had to ring fence the Royal Oak as this sits on its own in the main part of the field. We used only the finest old fence posts and stock fencing 'Wombled' from the hedgerow, old bits and pieces that had been discarded by the guardians of the land before us. I'm sure HRH would be very pleased with our resourcefulness, although she might be a bit upset that the neither the Oak or the posts are straight.

Wonky Royal Oak

Fencing looking across the top of the field back towards Parlour Barn

Fencing looking down the field

The sweep across to the bottom gate

Looking back up the field to the growing area