Uncategorised

We regularly put in intensive sessions clearing roadside rubbish from the Council’s verges around the farm.  This month we cleared Watton Road.

I know a lot of the local community had noticed that the entire length of Watton Rd west of the crematorium and up to the junction with Old Lane was in a shocking state.  The photo shows the rubbish we picked from just half of the road length that we cleared  – almost all of it was drinks and snack containers lobbed out of car windows on the move as they drove between Knebworth and Bragbury End.

We cleared the rubbish over three days and by the time we had finished at one end, more rubbish had arrived at the other.

As part of our longterm personal project to further increase biodiversity at Swangleys, we have been working this year to qualify to enter Natural England’s Mid Tier Countryside Stewardship scheme.  We have now been confirmed as successful and will start to put into place the first elements of an agreed programme. 

So, over the next few months you might notice hedge and tree planting on the farm along with its associated protective fencing, preparation of wild flower seed beds and a number of other initiatives.  As part of this, we will be planting or in-filling more than a kilometre of native species hedging.  This work forms part of a longer term aim to take an active role in the UK’s forthcoming Environmental Land Management Scheme, once its details are released by Defra.  

On a related theme, Knebworth’s resident ecologist and photographer, Matt Livesey, has been documenting wildlife on the farm since 2018 and in the wider area for far longer. Matt’s latest shot on the farm is these native grey partridges, photographed last month at Swangleys.  You can see more of Matt’s work, and order prints, at https://www.mattliveseyphotography.com/ 

 

At the end of last week, we finally had the chance to bring in our hay from the few grassland acres within the wider Swangleys Farm holding ………… much to the delight of the red kites that took up position hovering over the fields throughout the three days.  It was great to see the land busy with activity again  – with three tractors working the same area at one point in order to get the job done in time. 

• 

• 

• 

Hay harvest, this year at least, has been a mini warm-up to the main arable grain harvest which – subject to weather – we hope to begin in the next very few days.  That means the inevitable sudden increase in farm vehicle movements both on the land and in the area around the farm, plus dust and noise while we race to get the crops in, so do please bear with us at this important moment in our agricultural year.

May is a peak month for bee swarming – and in the warm days earlier this month they seemed to be swarming more than usual.

Swarming – where a swirling cloud of bees and a queen leave the hive to find a new home elsewhere –  is a natural event for bee colonies, but is something beekeepers work to avoid.  The answer is to manage the colony and its environment so that it is attractive for the bees to stay.  Ultimately, bees are their own bosses in all things and will make the choice themselves.

In our case, other beekeepers have kept hives at Swangleys and its related farm land for decades, but we are now in our third year of keeping our own bees as well. We still have a lot to learn. Our own hives are not intended to produce a crop of honey on anything approaching a commercial scale, but instead these bee colonies have an active part to play in improving the vitality of our neighbouring wildflower meadow which forms an important element of our wider ecological initiatives.  In addition, the simple act of keeping bees helps maintain their numbers and their essential role in the wider countryside and domestic gardens.  Despite the surprising amount of time involved in working to maintain the colonies – and the occasional sting or two – this is something we’re personally keen to support.

• 

Last weekend –  at the very height of Storm Dennis –  in 50mph wind and driven rain , we somehow managed to complete the planting of 1,000 hedge plants on the farm. 

This is the continuation of a long term personal project of ours to re-instate hedgerows across many parts of the farm.  It’s in most part an ecological initiative, but also partly intended to restore some of the farmland to a more traditional appearance that was lost during the last century. All the plants are native British species that are already present in our existing hedgerows. More hedge planting will follow next winter and a later phase of this project will feature re-establishing some additional woodland areas on the farm.

We wanted to thank some of the friends who have helped with other recent hedgerow planting sessions. Thankyou to Max, Christian and Joe for their hard work in difficult weather and mud before Christmas.  Special thanks to Bob and Robert – both local – for putting in the hours with us this weekend despite everything that the extreme weather could throw at us.  We also really appreciated the various local dog walkers who stopped to say hello and offer their best wishes.