Thicket

The shrubbery in the Moorhaven burial ground contained a few hydrangeas, two dogwoods and a lot of snowberry. We wanted to make it more attractive to wildlife with edible berries and a variety of shrubs that would flower at different times. Andy Love raised money for the project in January by chipping Christmas trees and we bought a bundle of 2 year old fruit and nut trees.

To prepare the ground, we first had to remove snowberry bushes. We decided to keep snowberries on the north-facing half of the space so there were some mature shrubs for wildlife this season, and just clear and re-plant the southern side. The second job – the worst – was removing the weed suppressant fabric that had long since stopped doing its job. In fact, we discovered it was welded by snowberry and ground elder roots to a second layer of suppressant that may have been carpet from the old hospital. It was a slow job but finally we had it loaded up ready for the tip, with as much ground elder root as we could catch. Not that I have anything against ground elder, but it would smother the new trees.

The next step was to dig the ground thoroughly and make a trench approximately two feet wide and a spade’s depth to take the first zigzag row of saplings. We tried not to disturb the millipedes.

Once it was filled with a layer of horse manure we were ready to plant. A second, narrower trench was made for a third row of trees.

Fingers crossed that the area gets enough sun once the oak tree leaves come out and that we and the wildlife can enjoy an array of flowers and fruits. This is what we planted: myrobalan plum, wild cherry, hazel, hawthorn, blackthorn, sea buckthorn, spindle, and guelder rose (a native viburnum).