A handsome hedgerow for Duke’s Meadow
"Whether you are bird, bee, hedgehog, man or mouse
a hedge is an asset", that’s the view of Babs Golding of Harbledown
Parish Council. "It means habitat shelter, food, wind and noise
barrier, especially in the Dukes Meadow situation with the by-pass
below".
With all this in mind on the last day of March, a team
of local volunteers lead by Jason Mitchell of the Kentish Stour
Countryside Project set to work planting a forty meter length of native
species hedgerow in the Canterbury parish of Harbledown. Two hundred
saplings were planted, using a mixture of hawthorn, dogwood, hazel, field
maple and guelder rose.
Posters had encouraged several residents along to help
the KSCP’s regular band of conservation volunteers. Mrs Shelley Morris
and son Daniel wanted to encourage wildlife, whilst twelve-year-old Josh
Croucher’s unlimited energy dealt mercilessly with invading brambles.
Counsellor Conway and Mr Saunders ably assisted in keeping the new hedge
line on course. Jason’s own experienced, muscular team erected a locally
made chestnut-paling fence to reinforce the boundary, necessary as this
lovely open-space has too often seen motor-bike trespass.
"It should look pretty" parish counsellor Eve
Wilson remarked as she photographed the low, bare, twiggy row. The new
hedge will take a few years to truly establish and some continuing TLC
promised by tree-warden Babs Golding, "but this is for the future, a
hedge lasts for centuries".
Babs Golding
