There's a reason for the wire!

There's a few previous posts on this blog about the problems of sheep invading our orchard from the adjoining fields. One of the problem areas is the field gate between our orchard site and the adjoining farmer's field. The iron gate is a four bar gate which is good for preventing the escape of cattle, horses and adult sheep. However the gate does not stop lambs wriggling through the gaps between the gate bars and invading our land. Once on the land they can and do cause damage to our fruit trees. So with the prior agreement from our neighbouring farmer  we have added a layer of wiring to close off the gaps in the gate, thus protecting our trees from the sheep.

However we have found that people using the public footpath have been damaging and loosening the gate wiring and consequently allowing the lambs to gain access to the orchard field. At the moment we have to visit the orchard a couple of times each day to round up any intruding lambs and to check the security of the gate. The people loosening the wiring are doing this to provide access for their dogs which are accompanying them on the walk along the public footpath. Having moved the wires, the walkers do not restore them to the secure position. They are in effect causing damage to our property and if, as a consequence of their actions, the sheep damage our trees those walkers are responsible for the damages.

As land owners we have a responsibility to maintain stiles for the footpath. We are not allowed to block the footpath to people using the path.  Our wiring of the field gate does not obstruct the stile. We are under no obligation to ensure the stile is dog friendly. Dogs have no rights on the footpath, although they can be a Natural Accompaniment to someone using the path. The law is summed up here. and our responsibilities are described here.

Over the past couple of years we've put a lot of work and our own money into making sure the public footpath is easily accessible, not overgrown after years of neglect and improving safety for children/pets beside the river. We're also investing in new gates by the roadside which will improve access for walkers, their dogs and wheeled equipment such as wheelchairs and pushchairs. However when you have people causing damage it does make us think twice about being friendly to the public.

On today's visit to the site we found on the footpath recently dropped litter, dog faeces and further damage to the wiring on the gate. Ironically the purpose of our visit was to check the dimensions of a new dog gate we are building to ensure it would fit in place!

Investigating the river

We spent Sunday morning at the orchard site. I'd been intending for some time to get my wellington boots on and go along the river during the low summer water levels. As long as I avoided the obvious deeper areas I was okay and didn't get boots full of water. The banks are about 2.5 metres above the riverbed and quite steep, I pre-fixed a knotted rope to a tree so I'd be able to climb out again. 

One side of the orchard is a road embankment which leads to a railway bridge from the river. The road was built across the floodplain when the railway was first built, so quite a substantial amount of landfill was used to create the "hill" leading to the bridge. The bottom section of our field which forms the river bank has also had some build up of fill to allow access to the  road. It looks like the fill material was quarry chippings. Over the past 150 years this has been overgrown and no longer looks artificial. However when the river runs in full spate in the winter rains it fills almost to the top of our river banks. The river is a very different beast from the gentle brook of the summer months. The flooding causes erosion of the material dumped to form the ramp up to the road. 

Wash-out of the river bank

The washed out materiel is then dumped on the river bed. You can see the results of this in the above picture. The rubble is limestone chippings and appears to have built up above the normal level of the river bed. The picture below shows the roots of elm trees which have been exposed by the erosion of the bank during periods of river spate/flood.

Eroded tree roots on the river bank

We'll be removing these compromised trees in the autumn and as mentioned in an earlier blog replacing them with  live willow spiling to control the erosion of the river bank. During this inspection process I was assisted by two young apprentices. They  seemed to be intent on making much splashing in the river.

Apprentice river bank surveyors

We also managed some weed clearance, particularly the Himalayan Balsam  which is an unwanted invasive species. This is going to be an on-going battle because the weed is is rampant upstream and down stream of our site. We can at least prevent the seeds being formed on our land. There are some legal responsibilities in dealing with this weed.

Himalayan Balsam on the river bank

Planting trees

We had a busy day in the orchard site yesterday planting most of the fruit trees. We'd planted the maiden bare root apple/cherry trees a couple of days ago. The first thing was to transport the trees in their pots from where they'd been overwintering in our garden. The buds were beginning to sprout so we had to transport them carefully two at a time in the back of our estate car from Belper. It took a total of five return trips. 

Next we visited Lester Lowe for a bundle of 50 hedging stakes which we'll use to provide to provide protective enclosures for the trees. They are about 20 mm square and 150 cm tall with tanelised sawn wood. They should last for the first few years of the tree's lives after which the trees should be tall enough and tough enough to resist the predations of any marauding sheep who sneak into the orchard. Hopefully by then our newly laid hedges will be providing some protection too.

We had a good three hours hard work, assisted by our German Shepherd Dog, digging holes and driving fencing stakes to provide the new home for the trees. The heavy post knocker we purchased last year has proved to be a great investment. The bottom of each pit was lined with a mix of coarse sand and manure compost to give the trees  a bit of a head start. We planted all but three of the fruit trees. We'll complete the tree planting today, then during the next week we'll build the protective enclosures for the trees. It is interesting to hear the comments of people walking by on the Ashbourne Road, clearly there is some interest in the progress of the  project from our neighbours.

Elka the GSD puppy discovered a mud wallow

We had a bonus in the shape of a walnut tree given to us by our neighbours in Belper. The tree is about four years old and about 2 metres tall. This also has been planted in the orchard. It took a rather large hole to accommodate the root ball! Our dog Rocky has been left to guard this tree.

It looks like all of the hundred willow wands we planted are sprouting new leaves in the grove we planted earlier this year. We should be able to harvest some of these for the spilling work on the river bank next  Autumn.

In many places we found clay and builders rubble which had been dumped on the land during previous ownership. Odd garden flowers such as crocus are appearing on the land. This is a clear sign of dumping which has effectively ruined the land for agricultural purposes. However the original alluvial soil is good and should be good for the trees of the orchard. I'm sure we'll build quite a large rubble heap over the years as we extract bricks from the soil.