Hedgerow planting

   Today I started to clear a boundary fence and replace it with "wild" blackthorn. Our major field has a shared boundary and a while back our farmer neighbour cleared his side of the hedge by cutting down the trees and putting up barbed wire.  He left six foot high tree stumps that he attached his wire to. These stumps are already starting to sprout. These would appear to be a normal method of harvesting wood in La Creuse. The stumps will produce more wood over time and if this is continued the tree can survive for fifty years. That left our side with a broken down sheep fence topped with rusty barbed wire and a mass of self sown black thorn bushes. These vary in size from one foot to six foot in height. We had decided that it would be nice to have a hedge and as the blackthorn was already there that was what we decided to use. So, today I made a start. Blackthorn has big needles! I have been clearing out the sheep fence, the barbed wire, brambles, ivy and wild roses. Not to mention the tuffs of grass. The gaps have been filled with blackthorn plants gathered from the field. I must have done about twenty feet! Plenty to go!
  Sowed Early Onward peas into loo roll holders filled with compost and placed in the poly tunnel. This is an attempt to get peas to germinate as last years sowings never appeared. Well, three did! I think wild critters ate them.