Finished Hedge - at last

I have just returned from a very pleasant and relaxing walk with the dogs, after a tiring week, although I am soaked through as it decided to pour down half way round. The verges and banks are aglow with primroses and cowslips still. The blue bells are starting to appear, with wood anemones, wild strawberries, and the foliage of Lords and Ladies (arum lily), orchids, ferns and wild garlic looked lovely especially in the rain.

We have eventually finished the hedge on Friday. The last part was very rotten and in need of urgent attention. We only had one 'volunteer' and the weather was not the best, but we are really pleased with the results and in a couple of years time should have some reasonable hedges. Rosie and I had worked on the hedges most of the week, clearing them out ready for laying, then dragging all the debris to the fire site for burning. We also planted some of the whips (2/3 year old trees) in the gaps and for new hedges. There are two large cherry trees in the hedge which had been badly pruned and so we sorted them out. By raising the crowns (removing the lower branches) and generally thinning them out this will give more light to the hedge improving growth, and also stop the trees becoming too top heavy. But cutting even just a few branches resulted in loads more dragging to the bonfire. The amount of cuttings was amazing - I only cut a couple of branches (honest). None of this was helped by the rain so I think we did really well.

The architects came on Thursday and measured up the buildings. Soil surveyors also came to work out the location of the septic tanks and filter beds. They were all here most of the day and my digger was of help to get the soil survey done. Now we wait for the next stage - hopefully not too long as we want to get going. The French have changed the requirements for architect plans and planning permission which should make it easier. We'll wait and see on that.

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The building that we plan to be the house (eventually) is adjacent to a footpath so we have decided to plant a beech hedge on a bank to give us some screening so I built up the bank and carried out repairs to the exist gateway ready for the trees. Planting this was today's project but unfortunately the nursery forgot to order the trees. What a shame I so enjoyed my relaxing walk and afternoon kip instead.