Wealden Times | WT170 | April 2016 | Garden supplement inside

competition
win a HARVEY WATER
SOFTENER AND FREE
INSTALLATION WORTH £1600
Fables
From
The Farm
Jane gets help
creating a meadow –
using ferrets...
A Harvey Water Softener will help you to eliminate
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For your chance to win an HV3
Harvey Water Softener from Harvey
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question: ‘What effect does having
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Enter your answer with your contact
details* in the online form at www.
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to: Water Softener Competition,
Wealden Times, 21 Stone Street,
Cranbrook, Kent TN17 3HF by
15 April 2016. There is no cash
alternative and the prize must be
taken. *All entrants’ details will be
passed on to Harvey Water Softeners
and Wealden Times Events. Please
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A
s I explained last year, for ages I have wanted to create
a wildflower meadow at Coopers Farm. In the fifteen
years we have been here we have never used herbicides,
pesticides or fertilisers yet, despite our best endeavours, the
fields remain largely a monoculture of rye grass, devoid of any
interesting flora. Thistles, buttercups, daisies, Lady’s Smock and
clover just about sum it up. Over the years I’ve tried spreading
hay (full of seed) cut from flower-rich meadows, inserting
plugs of yellow rattle – a plant which will weaken the rye
grass thereby giving other species a chance – and broadcasting
local clay-loving wildflower seed mix, but all to no avail.
Those in the know were not the least bit surprised by my
dismal results, so last summer we employed the services of
local wildflower guru Colin Reader and embarked on an
ambitious programme to turn the six acre field by the house
into something straight out of The Darling Buds of May and
hopefully buzz all summer with busy bees, butterflies and birds.
Against all my green beliefs, the field was sprayed with
glyphosate three times between July and September. Each time
it was done, a week or so would pass and it looked yellow and
sickly but, blow me down, another three weeks and it would
bounce back like nothing had happened. But eventually the
chemicals prevailed. So, at the end of the summer, the field was
scalped by a machine that peeled off the top inch of roots and
we have spent the winter looking out over a bald brown field.
Unfortunately, although the sheep did a fine job of breaking
up the surface (we shut them in for a few hours much to their
non-amusement at the lack of grass) we still have too many
rabbits. Apparently, the quickest, most efficient and indeed
humane way of sorting this out is to bring in a ferreter. So our
man arrived last week to address the problem.
I have never given much thought to ferrets and ferreting
but how fascinating the whole thing is. Introduced probably
by the Romans to control rats, they came into their own after
the Normans introduced rabbits – which did what rabbits do
and bred like, well, rabbits! Initially ferreting was the sport
of noblewomen – Elizabeth I had one she kept up her sleeve
(yikes!) but as the rabbits bred, everyone got in on the act.
In more recent history they have been used for all manner of
things – the Boeing Aircraft Corporation employed a ‘business’
(the collective noun) of ferrets as recently as the 1970s to thread
guide-wires through conduits from which they could then pull
through electrical cables. Fascinating, but I digress.
Our man has been working the burrows with his Jills (girls)
and I think we can now safely call Colin back and get sowing.
We will then just sit back, rather like Pop Larkin, and wait for a
carpet of beautiful flowers to appear before our eyes.
Well you can but hope!
Follow Jane on Twitter @coopers_farm
Congratulations to James E Smith who wins our March competition for dinner
for two, with a glass of Balfour Brut Rosé and an overnight stay at the Tickled
Trout in West Farleigh
07WT170WhatsOn.indd 166 23/03/2016 11:36