Blackthorn

Three weeks ago, we started clearing the swathe of blackthorn (sloe bush) that forms the back of the orchard. It's about 30' thick, in places, in front of a number of quite old and established trees. They're quite attractive, and the blackthorn's rather scrubby, dark, unproductive, and thorny. We've long intended to clear them, and increase the size of the orchard (our 'Chelsea' mulberry is waiting in its pot until we've cleared its space), as well as expose the more attractive treeline. There'll probably be some spaces, up against the trees, where we can plant small trees or shrubs, to get a transition from the more open orchard into the woodland.

First, though, the blackthorn needs to come down. We light a bonfire on the same spot as before, and I dragged brush to it while Liz worked on cutting down and disentangling the blackthorn. We're now probably two-thirds of the way through it, and progress is now visible from the orchard side of the bank: last time we worked from above, and were hollowing out of the stand. This time we broke through, and the chestnut that was hidden in a bight in the blackthorn has now been linked to the orchard properly. The solitary established apple tree that was separated from the others by blackthorn is now connected to the rest, too.

The fire was a bit tricky to get burning properly, but once it was going, a real depth of charcoal built up, and was so hot that anything thrown on rapidly ignited. We came in at about half-six, scratched and weary, but the mound of embers was still glowing brightly in the dark, when I went to check on it four hours later.