Rhododendron, the before picture.
We have recently bought 35 acres of woodland, within Lyburn Farm. This is a new venture for us and there is work to be done. There are some Douglas fir that were planted 70 years ago that need to be thinned, Silver Birch that are falling over as they have reached the end of their life, 70 years, that need to be taken out for firewood and the younger ones left for another day. There are literally thousands of Sycamore that are no more than 10 years old, and grow like weeds, that need to be thinned to make room for the best straight trees that will grow into maturity in the next 70 years plus. Then there is the enemy, the all consuming Rhododendron, not native to this country, and left to its own devices will totally consume woodland areas and need to be cleared to let the native species re generate and go forth. Some before and after pictures.
Majestic Oaks rescued for the Rhododendron, the after picture.
The Right Honourable, Emma Reynolds has recently been made Minister for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. Here we go again, another round of politicians playing musical chairs, the sad thing being that no sooner had City Steve managed to get his feet under the table, and start to understand his brief, and he had a lot to learn, the whole circus has to be re shuffled due to the indiscretions of one of their colleagues. We now have a new Minister, who by all accounts, also has a lot to learn, her performance on the radio at 5:45 this week was profoundly depressing. She pronounced that there were to be no movement on the IHT discussions and IHT proposals will be driven through, come what may, a naïve stance, given the huge amount of opposition, and the fact that this legislation will go in the bin in 4 years time. The Labour government is at war with middle England. The Labour party need middle England more than middle England need the Labour party. Middle England, including the country people, are the back bone of England, the Labour party may hate them, but they need them.
With pumpkin sales in full flow, we certainly can’t complain about the weather. It has been wonderful pumpkin harvesting conditions, dry, frost free, and warm allowing the pumpkin to harden their skins and as a result, no losses or rots. The dry summer has restricted the size of our Halloween size pumpkin, so those that have had no irrigation will be smaller, but they will be rot free, and we are sold out of larger pumpkin. We should have enough of the various squash, to fill most of the orders, in particular some lovely Butternut.
We understand that Kier Starmer was very disappointed at the result of the Caerphilly election result. You wait until the countryside in Wales next has a vote, he will be more than disappointed, especially if he presses on with his nasty, vindictive IHT proposals.
