Harrowing clods

A bit more freshness in the air, the dog has woken up, and we are busy establishing a couple of patches of pollen and nectar for the Higher Level Stewardship agreement. Where we are putting them is an odd shaped nucket of the Middle Field, all short work and heavy clay. In the past we had a game cover mix which wasn't highly successful.The rest of the field-the long straight runs -has been ploughed and manured , and will be reseeded with the Great Omenden Farm ryegrass and clover mixture. We've started to work the ground down, but despite all the summer rain, it is very hard, and is drying up rapidly.
Once I achieve a seed bed, we will broadcast a bagfull of "brushings", kindly given us by a neighbour from one of his established wild flower meadows. We will follow this by overseeding with a proprietary wildflower mix next spring. I hope to post on the performance of these patches, as it is a major departure for us.

A view of the Middle Field:the pollen and nectar plots will be in the foreground.
This is real clay, Monty Don!

The unusual summer has proved trying for the Nursery, and sales are down , though we had an excellent day at Sussex Prairies a couple of weeks ago, and are looking forward to a good day at Denbies tomorrow.