At last, a glorious Spring day and on the official first day of Spring. Less than 48 hours ago the acre had been carpeted in a couple of inches of snow, but today it was spread before us with lots of growing wildflower and budding plants and trees.
There were two main tasks that needed tackling today so Brendan led the willow hedging team whilst Nick led us in creating our vegetable strip borders.
For those who hadn't tried willow fencing last week, this proved a great task and they were obviously enjoying themselves enormously. There is more hedging to do along the stream but the stretch in front of the cabin is now complete so thanks to Brendan's team of Isobel, Kate and Clare.
Nick had been busy organising and sourcing wood and stakes to border our vegetable strips. We staked out the corners, squared and levelled the planks before securely screwing them together. It was tough but very rewarding work and the results extremely satisfying. We have two beds to complete next week and then they can be handed over to our expert vegetable growers to do their stuff. A big pat on the back to Nick, Lucy, Scarlet and Brendan for such a sterling effort.
With each week we are making good progress and I have been asked if I can make another day available to spend on the acre, which is great because it shows that the project is working and people are enthusiastic about spending their time here. With the weather improving there will be more to do so I'll certainly look into opportunities for us to spend more time enjoying the acre. This weekend Lucy's partner and his friend will be doing the tree surgery in the secluded corner so that space will need a concentrated effort to get it up and ready in time for summer. The vegetables and fruit bushes will need planting, wild flower and grass need sowing, six/seven flower beds need planting, a pond needs to be completed.....we're glad of the good weather to allow us the time to do this.
