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My battle for the field

26/5/2020

This year I declared war on the brambles (and nettles) in the field. It's not their fault. We love letting nature take its course without interfering too much and for 15 years I have let them grow unchecked and they have taken advantage of my generosity becoming the dominant plant in at least half of the field. So this year, prompted by my good fortune in February of the railway contractors who cleared the 5 metres of scrub and brambles along the northern fence, I decided to make a concerted effort. First in February and March I cut the grass and brambles short and chopped down all the saplings. Then in April I cleared the southern boundary along the fence as I repaired it.

The truly remarkable and scary thing about brambles is they grow upto 3cm a day so by May the brambles I had cut in March had grown back in the field so I have been working out how to reclaim it for the grasses and wild flowers. I did some experiments. First I spent two days digging up a 3mx5m patch and attempted to extract all the roots. It was very hard work and I knew I couldn't repliecate it for the whole area infested by brambles. Next I did some burning which seemed to be effective for areas where I had a fire for several hours but not for areas of superficial burning. Then I tried a trio of herbicides and eventually found that vitax SBK worked best. So I painstakingly criss-crossed the field many times with my 1 litre spray bottle administering every plant I could find. After 3 weeks I can see that I have had some success and I am perhaps half way to acjieving my goal. I made a short film to explain my project.

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The last day in the short life of a gosling

6/5/2020

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May fifth is always a difficult day for me – it’s the anniversary of the death of my first wife. I miss her presence as I have done for the last twenty one years but this special day is always sad, in spite of the love and support of my wife and family. The day was bright and sunny, as it usually is on this anniversary, but as I looked out of the kitchen window I saw something unusual. The Canada geese were sitting in a tight group as they usually do but several metres away was one small gosling. Canada geese are the most diligent parents and the chicks are well disciplined so this was extremely unusual. So I went out to investigate. Neither the chick or his family moved, which was also unusual, and I got to within a dew metres of the chick. It was clear that this was the smallest of the chicks and it looked ill and in a state of shock breathing fast. Later in the day the chick managed to find its way back to the group but it was always a little way removed. The last time I saw him he was walking with his siblings to the shade of the willow tree. This morning he was not with the group and so he must have died in the night. I hope his last day was not too much of a struggle and he wasn't in pain and that he enjoyed playing with the daisy's. I had to make this movie as a tribute to him and his short life. I am sad for him and sad for the fact that his family won’t miss him. Missing someone is sad but having no one to miss you is even sadder.

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PATHWAYS DIARY
In March 2023 I began an experiential inquiry called Pathways to a Sustainable Future and many of my posts between March-September were written for this project.
Diary Starts Here

Garden Notes
My garden is much more than a garden. Its playground, a studio for my artistic efforts, a natural laboratory for experiments and learning and a place for contemplation. It keeps me busy and gives me the exercise I need to keep fit, although it does damage me from time to time. But more than anything else it gives me pleasure, happiness and a sense of belonging and of doing something useful and worthwhile when I am immersed in it. It enables me to express myself creatively and draws my attention to the beauty and ecology of life. In this blog I am telling the story of my garden and my involvement and experiences in it through my writing and the photos, movies, music, paintings and other artefacts - it inspires me to create. I have become more conscious of the UNs Sustainable Development Goals and our important role in enabling their achievement my experiments and projects in the natural world show how I respect and try to understand nature and try to enable life to flourish. I know that one day I will not be the custodian of this beautiful landscape we call our home. I must make the most of it now and preserve its presence in my memory knowing that it will carry on long after I am gone and that someone else will care for it and call it their home.
In March 2022 I joined a group of environmental activists in my village and so I have decided to expand my blog to take in the natural world around me.

Useful Links
RE Betchworth
Wildlife Garden Forum
Surrey Wildlife Trust
Habitat Network
Plant Identification UK
GAIA
GOOGLE EARTH

My battle for the field

The last day in the short life of a gosling

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