The new year brought welcome news that the Ightham Mote Garden team, four professionals plus volunteers, would be giving us five days of their working time in January.  Dates were arranged, spread throughout the month. On the first of these, volunteers from our regular Nutters joined with the Mote gardeners and volunteers.

Ightham Mote garden team and volunteers

The plan was to take out as many of the birches, willow and ash saplings as possible and to work across the rows, trimming back the nut trees at the same time, just enough to allow the tractor-mower to work across as well as down the rows.

 In this way it is hoped to keep the saplings from sprouting and growing back and to keep the brambles down.   Although spraying has been used in the past for bramble control we are hoping to avoid this if possible on grounds both of cost and environmentalism.

With the additional help work went ahead faster than I would have believed possible.  By the end of the third of the five days all the rows had been cleared, thanks not least to the contribution by our chain-saw expert and some very energetic work by all concerned, using nothing more than pruning saws and loppers.

We enjoyed some good weather and one especially lovely frosty morning.

Lovely frosty morning

Then came the snow and work on that day had to be abandoned.


Catkins are beginning to unfurl in the more sheltered parts of the plat but it is too early still for the red-tassels of the female flowers to appear. One or two daring primroses have also been spotted.

On the last day with the Mote team we worked mainly on taking out the young wands which have grown with much energy since the major cutting back of the previous year.  Clearing the rows of saplings has left large quantities of brushwood to be dragged out and burned.  That and the seemingly interminable job of 'wanding' will keep us busy in the coming weeks.