Hedgelaying at Alderley Edge on 21st February 2016

Just two of us out today: Neil and Tim met up in the Wizard car park with five members of the Sale Conservation Volunteers and two lads earning their Duke of Edinburgh awards. Tim Ryan the ranger then led the drive to Mount Farm, a property between Alderley Edge and Hare Hill.

The hedge we had been working on for the past few workdays since 13 December had been completed by another team of volunteers so after a very muddy hike across the farmland adjacent to Hare Hill we reached the new worksite.  We had begun the project of reinstating this hedgerow late last year but had only spent a day removing old barbed wire, metal fencing and generally clearing this ancient hedge line.  Since that first visit other volunteer groups had had a go at laying the sporadically spaced hawthorn bushes and planting new saplings in the gaps that make up this old boundary.  The Sale Volunteers continued to lay the gnarled hawthorn while Neil and Tim planted in the gaps.  Later in the afternoon most of us fell to planting at the far end of the hedge were none of the old hawthorn survived.  At the end of the day we had planted quite a few hundred new plants, staked them out and wound round the protective plastic rabbit guards.

Thanks to Tim Ryan for providing an interesting workday.

Tim