29) farmingGeorge’s Fobbing Farm Update: Trees!

  farmingGeorge’s Fobbing Farm UpdateTrees!With the aim of actually giving myself some kind of Christmas break, and given the furious level of work over the past week, I have decided to write my January blog edition three weeks early (on 18th December).  But despite that, I hope that everyone had a great Christmas period even if safe reuniting of families has had to be delayed.I finished my last article having planted 11 trees (quinces) with Mum & Dad.  That number now stands at well over 3,000, with 3,000 more willow trees due to arrive early in January to complete this epic planting project in the field to the North of Marsh Lane known as Spratts.  The sprials (tree guards to protect the young trees from hares) make the field really stand out from the road now.One of the birch and timber belts being established, with canes & spirals to protect & support the young treesTo say that the week of tree planting was exhausting is a massive understatement – it was a colossal physical and mental effort.  There was a great deal of physical exertion from the team around me also:  Mum & Dad and Paul (my employee) worked absolutely tirelessly with me, with Mum still providing a hot square meal at the end of each day (quite the Supermum!).  I also had the help of a couple of students from Writtle Agricultural College – Joe for a day, and Morgan for the duration (save when he had an exam and the two requisite Covid tests allowing him home for Christmas).  Plus five Romanians hired in through the firm ‘Van Stomp’ and a couple of afternoons’ volunteering from my friend Cheryl.  So big thanks to everyone involved there – I couldn’t have completed this without you.I was also lent an ATV (all terrain vehicle, aka a quad / buggy) by family friend Clive Mullins, who is a keen gardener and has been super supportive of the work that I am trying to achieve.  I would have been lost without this vehicle to transport trees and materials – so a huge amount of gratitude is owed to him.Like most of the projects I have attempted in 2020, conditions conspired against me in as many ways as possible.  Firstly, it was wet.  Not a little wet, but properly soaking (although to look on the bright side it didn’t downpour on us whilst we were working!).  The field was just sodden, making the act of moving things about tremendously messy.  However, there is a phrase about an omelette and some eggs, and I’m sure this field is going to be a cracking omelette so the mess will be worthwhile.Very messy!This was where Clive’s ATV was so invaluable.  Even though it still created some visual mess on the field surface, it did at least mean we were still able to traverse the field by vehicle.  And ATVs are so light that I am sure the field will recover swiftly.  Ironically, had conditions been reasonable, I would have been able to hook my large flat-bed trailer onto the back of the ATV, providing lots of room for trees, and consequently considerably less running about required.  But never mind.I had to use my motor to run about a lot going up and down Marsh Lane…resulting in this.  Not really very legal.So, first time under the pressure washer for 18 months and it looks a little better!The biggest issue for the tree planting came down to logistics though – or more specifically, couriers…  I was due all my trees on the Friday, with planting to commence on the Saturday.  This made perfect sense to me:  sort all the trees efficiently on Friday by field location, then logically work our way down the field.  Trees were coming from three nurseries:  Frank P. Matthews, Thorpe and Adam’s Apples.The first lot turned up early on Friday, and they were huge.  This was when the scale of the impending week really hit me and made me feel quite sick.  We transported the trees to site (making quite a mess with the loader at the bottom of the field) and began to sort those trees.  Most were containerised in pots, which meant there was considerably less expediency required with regards their planting.But then we waited.  And waited.  Where were the (critical) deliveries from Thorpe and Adam’s Apples?  To be clear, it wasn’t their fault.  Both nurseries were terrifically helpful in trying to chase up deliveries.  Thorpe’s (the woodland and timber trees) turned up on the Saturday morning.  But the Adam’s Apples’ delivery only finally arrived late on the Tuesday morning.  I was especially panicking since these were bare root trees which could dry up in shipping and possibly die (thankfully they were packaged very expertly).With deliveries all over the place, efficiency of planting went out of the window.  So my planting team spent much longer walking over the field (a slow and tiresome act given the waterlogged soil), planting the places where trees had arrived, rather than in the logical order.  And as someone who prides themselves on that kind of logic and organisation it was pretty maddening.Due to these issues, Paul and I had no choice but to work on the Sunday.  I hate working through the entire weekend, and this is the first time we have done so for two and a half years.  But it was critical for us being able to categorise all the timber trees which had arrived.  Saturday had been a very frustrating day of planting, and had worried me as to how long the planting operation would take (we only managed a couple of hundred trees on the first day).  But having managed to get somewhat sorted (albeit still missing some key trees), Monday was a much better day seeing us establish 817 trees!Paul & I categorising treesThe following day the final fruit trees arrived, and we managed to get them safely in the ground, leaving Wednesday and Thursday to do the final tidying up of the planting operation.  Including Arthur from the village donating some cobs from his garden (thank you very much, Arthur!).Agroforestry has been a project I have been working on for five years, with a really big push for the last two.  A massive long term time investment.  I am particularly pleased by the wild margins which make my project so unique – squaring my field up, and providing an amazing habitat for all kinds of bugs, creatures and wildlife.  Obviously they don’t look like much yet, with only tiny tree whips in the ground, but the potential is thoroughly palpable now.  This is the first of many really visual changes I am making to the farm, with ecology as my number one priority, and it gives me a great deal of hope for what my farm can become.With the trees being so large, the immediate visual impact is tremendous.  These are quince (LHS) and plum (RHS)So the final thanks of this article (which has had a lot of thanks in it) goes to The Woodland Trust (specifically Paul Woodgate and Ashleigh Poole).  I was very lucky to receive funding through them for the trees that I have planted, and I could never have afforded the project on this scale without their help.  My hope is that it will demonstrate to other farmers and policy makers the potential of farming with trees (especially in this ordered fashion) and the benefit that they can provide to farm ecology, as well as reduction in nasty, costly artificial inputs.I am certainly now looking forward to some degree of a break over the Christmas period, although I am not entirely sure how much I will be able to afford.  I have to finish up construction of my mill room, a couple of opinion pieces to write, as well as preparing for presentations at both the Oxford Farming Conference and Oxford Real Farming Conference in January.  However, after the dummy of a year that 2020 has been, I have all the confidence in the world that 2021 is absolutely going to smash it!Contact details:George Young07792 508 611George@FobbingFarms.co.uk@farmingGeorge