Friday 10 October 2014

Keeping Countryside Skills Alive!

Although the world has moved on in many ways, our countryside is often managed by using techniques handed down over many generations - the 'traditional craft skills' if you like.

Keeping this tradition alive, subsidiary diploma students have been practising their hedgelaying techniques on the farm with tutor Paul. Using the traditional method of repeated cutting with a billhook to stimulate regrowth in the layered pleacher, they aim to make sure that the hedges are great for wildlife yet also keep the livestock in! 

Extended diploma students have also been using strimmers this week to help manage vegetation which helps keep the grass at different levels, ideal for our resident small mammal population who then provide a wild larder for resident kestrels and barn owls. 

Nice work!







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