Making Hay while the sun shines

With thunderstorms forecast for tonight, a local farmer has raced against time to get the hay cut and bailed this week. Visiting the field this morning, all was tidy, and the bails were gone.

The 10cm of rain that is expected can now fall. It is very welcome for the saplings that we planted this winter are all looking a little stressed by the hot and dry weather they’ve endured. We have lost about 10% of the hedgerow planting, and perhaps 20% of those planted in the areas that will be woodland. There are some learnings here – we should have ensured we had a way to water from the beginning and there were some of the losses that were down to poor quality control of planting.

I have spent a couple of weekends recently laying pipe around the field with a few standpipe taps so that we can water in future dry periods. And thanks to the neighbouring farmer for helping us to get a water connection. It was so wet when we planted in February that I worried about the saplings drowning, but a very dry spring later and it was quick to swing to being too dry. Once established the trees should be resilient and deep rooted enough to manage but this year we could have done with a few hours of watering. We will replant where we have lost.