7th May
After this short period of warm weather the bracken has tried it's best to push on and considerably more fronds were in evidence in areas A (Top Quarry Area) and B (Bottom Road Area). After 60 mins of constant cutting I can say that the vast majority of fronds were removed from both areas. Due to the excellent growing conditions for the grass there was some difficulty in locating the fronds but after a few mins I got used to the tell-tale signs. The size of the fronds removed has increased somewhat to between 150-200 mm. It should be noted that these fronds have, in the main, appeared and grown to this high in the previous 3 days!
I have not needed to adopt last years "white suit" as the fronds are considerably lower and softer and I understand that tick activity should be reduced. I will ensure that this is the case before going out again in a few days time and, if needed, I will re-commence the use of the white compression gear.
During this early part of the growing season I have adopted a new, slightly more rudimentary device for the actual cutting of the bracken. A simple child's spade, purchased at B+Q last year for the princely sum of 50 p. It is very unlikely to wear, something that can not be said of my ankles and knees (hence the min 2-3 days recoveries between sessions). So far I have not encountered any soreness and I am hoping that I will be able to maintain the current activity level throughout the Summer months. Last year I fell foul of over-exerting my self with the consequent periods of lay-off causing the bracken to advance at an excessive rate. This lead to a much larger issue of litter removal and destruction, which continued through the Winter.
I am aware that I have not been able to complete the removal of a considerable proportion of last year's bracken litter from the Pill Box Area of our land. Weary as I am of causing any injuries that might mean I can not maintain the 2-3 day interval during the early growing season. I will attack this area next but, due to the 20% slope, the weather may well play a part in how appropriate this might be. Fingers crossed the dry weather will continue and I will be able to maintain footing.
10th May
Today's work can be seen in outline via the videos I have taken. After the work done on the 7th I was not expecting much activity but in the end it took 75 mins to clear all the areas. The warmer weather will be encouraging growth as is clear from the area of SSSI land adjacent to the area I am treating. I have spoken to the council, last year, but there appears to be some red tape to remove and I don't have time to deal with this at present. Now for the short videos -
These show that the situation appears nicely under control. Given that the total area being "treated" is less than 1 acre the applicability of my strategy is rather limited but hopefully, as the total amount (hours) of work, and skill level, required is low, it could easily be scaled-up.
14th May
Another 75 mins of work was done. On a personal point I have purchased an additional ankle support which hopefully will help me maintain my work load over the next few weeks.
I will be interested to see whether additional fronds are generated by the plants which I have previously docked. I am expecting this years growth to be significantly greater than last years as the plants empty their rhysomes in an effort to survive.
On this occasion I have included some photos of the extraordinary tenacity of this plant to overcome considerable damage. As can be seen in the photos I had previously cut this frond but the outer sheath of one side of the frond was still intact. This has allowed the frond to continue growing. Just a reminder to keep the cutting tools as sharp as possible.
The volume of fronds in small areas was significantly increased. These clusters of growth mean two things. Firstly, more actual cutting and secondly, less movement in order to find fronds. The material I am cutting is still on the 200-300 mm scale. As I don't expect this to generate any significant litter I am not collecting damaged/cut fronds from the field.
16th May
Around 7.30am, after just popping out to check drainage channels I noticed that there were several clusters of new growth at the bottom of the bottom field. It took 20 mins to remove all I see in this area. I curtailed my efforts as I had not emerged with any of my gear on.
Later on, around 6pm, I popped out for another 20 mins to remove as much as I could from the left hand side (from the road) of the bottom area. The grass is quite long so it is becoming more difficult to see the fronds as they emerge. I now consider this bottom area cleared.
17th May
I did a full 90 min session this morning. This was the duration of the full clearing of the top Quarry area. The word for the day is Cluster! The fronds presented in a large number of clusters of maybe 5 or 6. There were still many individual examples but this has not been a feature previously. This was the reason for the increased duration of the session. The final 20 mins were spent clearing new material on the road edge of the bottom field. The whole of this area is now as clear as I can make it.
20th May
This was a short session as the grand-children are visiting. They did enjoy the identification and destruction of the "nasty plants" and I did manage to cover about 25% of the land on the Southern side - The Quarry and Road areas. Frond density was lower than I expected. I am waiting for the storm to hit!
22nd May
The pressure of work has meant that things have slipped a little so I went out from 6 pm to 7.30 pm.
The battle is ON!
Frond density is high and the speed of growth is quite extraordinary. I will need to do a few successive days in order to get the Southern section under control again. More anon..
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