ENTERTAINMENT ON THE FARM


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LIFE ON THE FARM CREAT ING DIVERS I T Y


Each month Richard Thomas will join us to talk about life on his family farm in North Herefordshire, where they farm beef, sheep, arable and apples. Their ethos is to try to farm in a more regenerative style for the benefit of future generations.


The late spring we had this year seems like a world away now. Almost as if nature was waiting for the warmer weather, everything burst into life in late May and June and now, in mid-summer it feels like we are back to normal. The hawthorn is hanging on to the last of its blossom and the latest of our apple trees has almost finished too. The elder is also in flower and perhaps despite the late spring we will have a good harvest of cultivated and wild fruits.


We did a field walk last week in one of our hay meadows. A field we are trying to improve the diversity of species in. We counted quite a few, red and white clover, bird’s foot trefoil, lesser trefoil, sticky mouse ear, speedwell, sorrel (and some I’ve probably forgotten), not to mention the various grasses and the occasional dock. We plan to take some seed from another species rich hay meadow and spread it across our field to try an increase the number of plants present in our meadow. We will have to create a proportion of ground disturbance to allow the


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