You may remember that this time last year I wrote about making a wildflower meadow. I had thought we ought to mow the area in the early autumn, but our "green team" is nothing if not democratic, and I was over-ruled! Big Tim, our wild flower expert, wanted to do a plant survey there. That was OK, but it turned out that there was nothing really exciting there in the end!
Last month, Tim opted out of the heather work to do another survey, again with much the same result, except that somebody also checked the grasses. They included very ordinary meadow fescue and Yorkshire fog. Gentle names for a gentle occupation But at least grasses were on the menu, so I might actually see us getting the mowing done later this summer.
Now, not far from the "meadow" there are two large beech trees. About three months ago one of the organisations which specialise in trees, visited us to study one of the beeches, which are several hundred years old. According to the experts this one could be the sixth-biggest (by girth) in Sussex.
But as usual, Murphy's Law got into the works. It may not be a proper tree! It consists of many stems which have grown together after being coppiced. Or, it may have been that a 16th century woodman heeled a bunch of twiggy setts into the ground and forgot to plant them out.
I think the last explanation really excites my imagination.
John Hall © 2008