Ecological Land Maintenance

17/04/2026

🏞️ One village, two weeks, and two new ponds! 😍 One of these is a *little* bigger than the other, and required rather more machinery - but both will be a huge boost to wildlife.

🪏 Digging a pond (of any size) is one of the best things you can do for the wildlife in your garden. Not only does it create a totally different habitat - especially when replacing a sterile lawn - but it gives fresh drinking water to a huge range of other animals.

🐸 I'll be back to both of these soon to level around the edges and add native plants within and around the ponds. This will add colour, scent, texture, and wildlife value to both clients' gardens for many years to come! I can't wait to see them develop! 😍

08/04/2026

A lot of my work at this time of year is around taking off the vegetation to allow more delicate wildflowers to grow, and this afternoon has been no different.

The difference is the height I've left it at. This bog area has plenty of marsh marigolds growing through the reeds already, and there were loads of marsh orchids last year too.

If I cut this area right down to the ground, I would lose lots of that diversity. By leaving 5/6 inches of stubble, I'm allowing more light to pe*****te without damaging the lower layer.

It also improves the ability of the land to capture, filter and store water. A bare meadow dries out very quickly. On the same vein, I've been using the cuttings to block up the drainage channels that my client mistakenly had dug a couple of years ago.

This slows the flow of the water and helps it to be absorbed, while also ensuring it doesn't simply flow into the pond at the bottom.

27/03/2026

🏅 I was delighted yesterday to be officially presented with my award for the Peak District Environmental Quality Mark.

🎉 I was recognised along with a select few other businesses for contributions to the environment and preserving the culture and landscapes of the national park.

🏞️ Preserving the beauty of our countryside and wild spaces is a huge part of the reason I love my job.

😍 Services like hedgelaying, drystone walling, and scythe mowing not only provide better habitat space for wildlife, they preserve traditional rural crafts and often look better than contemporary land management techniques.

🫶 It was excellent too, to meet the mind behind Regather Cooperative. I love that Sheffield has such a rich world of social enterprises, charities, and community groups.

🥁 And (drumroll, please...) I have some very exciting news on that note, which I'll be sharing very soon!

25/03/2026

It's a cold, windy day, full of snow and hail on an open hillside but I'm well protected! 💪

18/03/2026

This boundary has been an ongoing project this year, for a regular client. I laid/coppiced the hedge over a number of days back in January and February, and I've just come back this week (in much sunnier weather!) to re-install the fence. ☀️

The old fence line ran far too close to the hedge, but is now set at 1.5m from the centre, allowing me to claim Countryside Stewardship grant funding for my client for both the hedge and the fence. 💲

Once the final barbed strands are on the top, the cattle that graze the meadow each year will be kept away, protecting the hedge from grazing. 🐮

It was an eventful day too, calling 999 after lunch to report a moorland fire. Thankfully they confirmed it was a controlled burn they're aware of! 🚒🔥

05/03/2026

🌳 Another tree pruning job that I just squeezed in last week before the start of bird-nesting season. While it is legal to prune or fell trees between 1st March and 31st August, you need to be incredibly careful to check for any nesting birds.

🌿 Once the leaves are back on the trees, I tend to leave any larger pruning jobs unless it's an urgent threat to people or property. Similarly, with hedges, I do smaller cuts throughout this time (again, checking thoroughly for signs of nesting) but leave any major work until the autumn.

🐦 If you are found to have intentionally, or recklessly, killed or disturbed a nesting bird or its eggs, you can be liable for an unlimited fine and up to six months in prison (or both). It's just not worth the risk, not to mention the harm to wildlife!

23/02/2026

Free tree packs are currently available for schools and community groups through The Woodland Trust! If you are an educational institution, a friends-of group, a community garden, or just have a registered group and some land - apply today!

We’re giving away hundreds of thousands of trees

20/02/2026

Reshaping crowns is such a satisfying job. This gorgeous little Acer had got so out of hand over the years, so this pruning will hopefully rejuvenate it and round it for the next few years.

If you're pruning trees for yourself always make sure you know the proper care for that species. Certain fruit trees especially can be fussy about winter pruning, and evergreens prefer cutting back later in the year once they have the sunlight and sugars to repair themselves.

For most deciduous trees though, winter pruning (November - February) is best, while the tree is most dormant. And please remember to try not to prune or fell anything between March and the start of September, unless you can be totally certain that you're not disturbing nesting birds.

19/02/2026

It's hard to imagine that this is the same view, just 3 months apart! This has been an ongoing project for a regular client since November, and I've finally finished laying this 100m stretch of young mixed species hedge.

And it's a really good thing that Hedgelaying is one of my favourite jobs, as I've had several jobs of this size just this winter! By cutting (almost) through the stems near ground level, similar to coppicing, it stimulates the plants to send up shoots, while leaving an attractive and stock-proof living fence as amazing habitat.

11/02/2026

Who ever said wildlife-friendly has to look untidy? 😍

Much of today has been spent rejuvenating this tired, old pond for a regular client. Since I've worked here, it's been a heavily recessed hole in the ground - leaking, steep sides lined with large stones, and a lack of vegetation or wildlife. ❌

I've now replaced the old butyl liner with a more environmentally-sensitive (and attractive) EPDM liner, and totally reprofiled the sides. Birds and insects can now access the water more easily for a drink, while amphibians and other wildlife will find it easier to escape. 🐸

I've included a log pile edge, and a stone hibernaculum behind for the amphibians I hope to welcome, along with a bog garden with low-nutrient sand substrate. I've also used some of the grass dug out from the mini meadow below to grow up to the edge. In a couple of weeks, I'll plant up the pond and bog garden to truly complete the transformation and make this a thriving habitat for years to come! 🏞️

28/01/2026

Friendly reminder to all landholders and contractors out there: when planting a hedge, or constructing a fence alongside an existing hedge, ensure they aren't too close together! The Countryside Stewardship grant funding guidelines for hedges say any fence must be set a minimum of 1.2m from the centre of a hedge.

As you can see from the pictures, I have had to lose a substantial amount of hedge because the stems are on the *other side* of the fence line! Not only that but, where this hedge has been flail-cut at the same level each year by the neighbouring farmer, it has "knuckled" and bushed out, making stems extremely difficult to disentangle from the fence and each other.

19/01/2026

Large pond clearance and reprofiling job this week - the first in a series of overly-silted ponds. While the silt itself (and any wetland system that developed here) would be excellent habitat, I'm just wanting to increase the water capacity, improve flow rate out to the next pond, and improve things for the pond life.