Workday leader Peter reports:
Now it is not very often that SSNTV are given a new task, one which they have not been asked to perform before, but this Sunday was a first in our 43 year history I think. Certainly in my 28 years with the Group, planting heather plug plants has never featured.
Not one or two, not one hundred, not one thousand, but two thousand in one day – seemed a daunting task to me!
Fifteen of us gathered at Stanmore Farm on the Dudmaston Estate where we were welcomed by James the NT Sandscapes Project Manager, with assistant Claire; plus ranger Robin moonlighting again from Kinver; and Martyn the tenant farmer – who is at the sharp end of this rewilding project, aimed at taking 250 acres of arable land out of production and creating a lowland heath habitat, similar to that at nearby Kinver Edge. This is the first phase of the project; and is a trial area to see which land management techniques are best and how nature recolonises. There’s more background info in the report of our June summer Dudmaston walk – here. A little later Andy P, National Trust conservation advisor also joined us.
As a first step we were all lead into field one and Martin demonstrated the planting technique:
- Make a hole in the soil – for this battery drills were on hand with long stemmed spade drill bits to make a hole 50mm deep and 20mm diameter.
- Push out the small plug from the trays, keeping plant, roots and planting medium intact
- Insert the plug plant in the hole, ensuring that there is no air gap at the bottom in particular.
- Firm in.
- JOB DONE!
James now presented us with a drawing of the surrounding fields where we were to work and explained this left us seven fields at approximately two hundred plug plants per field.
There were two types of field, the first ones had already had an area treated by Martin to kill off the previous vegetation and each prepared patch could clearly be seen.
In the second group, each field had been sown with three heathland base grass mixes consisting of Common Bent, Sheeps Festcue and Wavy Hair-grass which would combine with the heather. In these fields Martin had put poles to indicate rectangular patches into which to plant, but at a distance these proved more difficult to spot.
Then came the maths:
- Fields with treated, burned areas – usually seven patches – needed thirty plugs per square patch
- Fields marked with poles – five – would receive forty plugs in each marked area.
In all cases plus plants were to be randomly spaced and set well apart.
We split into three teams and took a field each, finding different ways to cover each patch with tiny plugs – was it even, time will tell! We teased the thumb-sized plug plants from the propagation trays, with the help of a well-thought out chunky bolt.
However soon it was cake o’clock – with thanks to Mags for the huge box of shortbread and Peter for the very tasty ginger cake, as well as Robin for the chocolate biscuits. Already the super-fast planters team (will the heather take and survive?) had completed two fields, as the rest of us were lagging behind.
With that it was back to planting and time sped by as techniques were honed.
By 13:11hrs Lucy was putting the last plug in the ground and a late lunch was called.
So then, what to do with the rest of the day? However we did not need to worry as a stage two plan was in hand, as the group was given its favourite tasks of cut and burn. The NT team explained there were additional natural and geological features across the wider farm to explore. Hence we were lead to the edge of the former arable fields to clear a field boundary to encourage the wild liquorice plant to grow, instead of being smothered. We also made a detour to check out access to a sandstone sheer rock face feature and started to clear unwanted plants on the pathways towards it. With dry weather and despite there being much green brash, a fire quickly got going to consume a least part of the cleared unwanted undergrowth.
A good, if not slightly less strenuous than usual day was had by all. James wants us back in the New Year too, for more planting and may be exposing that vertical rock face – abseiling anyone??!!
Want to know more about the bigger scale project? Read more here