An Habitation Enforced

[poliphilo]

After six months on the farm I'm beginning to feel twinges of ruralism.  I even look the part;  in the thick wool jacket that used to be my father's and my Yorkshire wool cap,  I walk round my mother's fields and worry about them. The fields miss their sheep. There are corners where  the tussocks are so deep and thick it's like walking on a lumpy mattress. Yesterday I noticed how many self-sown saplings there are popping up around the existing trees. Leave the land ungrazed and unmanaged for another ten years and it'll revert to woodland.

I need to discuss all this with Matthew . 

Comments

[puddleshark.livejournal.com]

Even with grazing, the field I lease is gradually being taken over by the willow and the blackthorn... I foresee bonfires this winter.

If you're fond of bees you could have your own nature reserve - find someone with livestock to graze your field through the early winter, then lay it up and get someone to cut it for hay in the late summer, and within a few years you'll start to see an old-fashioned wild-flower meadow...

But letting it revert to woodland might be the easier option - keeping fencing livestock-proof is a massive expense these days.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

As you say, that sounds like a lot of expense- though I lik the sound of wildflowers and bees.

We used to have a local farmer who grazed her sheep in the fields but she's let us down this year.