Scything inside the fruit pen

Scorching days seem to be a feature of the summer now, but there are still lots of jobs to do at the Fromebridge Reserve with Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust. The species rich grassland contains a couple of fenced of pens with various heritage fruit trees. This means they cannot be grazed and so today’s task was to scythe and remove the nutrient. There’s not any particularly important species in the pen, so the arisings could be disposed of in the adjoining hedgerow rather than spread as green hay. I forgot to bring my own scythe so borrowed one of the stainless steel ones from the project. Unfortunately, it was too small, unadjustable and shaped in a way that made my arms ache. So I handed it over to Claire and did grass collection instead. There were six scythers across both pens so a continuous stream of material to dispose of. Fruit tree pen after scything We also took the opportunity to fill large drums from the canal to water the fruit trees. One whole drum dedicated to each…