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Meadows
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Udo - a Japanese vegetable
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Here you can post any ramblings about your land. Maybe you've had problems with water or foxes, or perhaps a new regime of cutting or grazing has worked rather well, fruit harvest was late, hornets have been a pain, or the orchids were wonderful. Although you may feel it is trivial, it might be very interesting and helpful for someone round the corner who has been puzzling about the same problem all year.
So, send me your ramblings and I will post them here. Just e-mail:
info@parishgrasslandsproject.org.uk
Every year a few molehills appear in our fields, usually
in clusters, which I'm told are due to single moles
setting up runs and 'worm-traps'. For a year or two
I recorded the distribution of the clusters and found
that they were not concentrated in any particular area,
so either moles move on or die, or else they stop once
they have set up their runs. Our lawn, too, is
mole-ridden and, although the molehills are raked out,
the ground is actually a dense network of mole runs just
below the surface. 
This year the moles have surpassed
themselves, turning most fields to a state that recalls
the worst attacks of childhood chicken-pox. During the
repeated snows on January and February, we were forcibly
reminded of how many there were when we tried
cross-country skiing - which is hard enough anyway, and
doubly so when one hits frozen mole hills repeatedly. We
were also treated to displays of molehill digging as we
skied - fresh mounds appearing above the snow as we
stood there.
The sheer number of hills moved me to
work out how much ground they cover. Using a tape and
random transects, I calculated that molehills occupy 24%
of the ground in the densest clusters. They must depress
grass productivity and they are a menace to haymaking,
and so they will be scarified out shortly, but they help
the flowers by providing fresh germination sites. As
happens so often, the greatest biodiversity is
associated with conditions that are not ideal for
farming.
George Peterken
posted 7/3/2010
Last week I went to Shirenewton to talk to the local history society about meadows and traditional haymaking. It was arranged a year ago, but it turned out to be well timed, for Shirenewton village has just acquired land for a village meadow. The village has two centres, separated by small fields, and it is for these that the community raised a nearly-six-figure sum. I did not see the field itself, but I understand that its a pleasantly flowery meadow with lots of colour but no great rarities, and that it is studded with 25 oaks - a meadow-parkland, in fact. The idea is that this will remain a public open space; that it will be treated as an ordinary meadow with grazing after the hay has been taken; and that it will be used for teaching by the local school. In the not-too-distant future, I hope to be invited to a village haymaking gathering, one of the lost traditions of rural Britain. An example for our own community?
A postscript on Shirenewton's parish meadow.
George Peterken
Posted 4/3/09 - PS added 3/4/09