Banks , hedges and trees .sx Alan Beat .sx The making and hanging of gates as described last issue was only half the story on our smallholding .sx Some of the gateways themselves had lacked gates or even posts for so long that the passage of animals had worn away the traditional Devon earth banks on either side to leave a gap of up to twenty feet wide .sx With a ten foot gate now freshly hung between its posts , the task remained to make good the banks in stockproof fashion .sx A few small gaps were blocked with wire or rail fencing between the new post and eroded nose of the bank , but this looks the temporary measure that it is .sx For a 'main thoroughfare' gateway seen and used daily , I decided to tackle the job of restoring the earth banks and facing with dry stone walling - or stone hedging as it is known in these parts .sx I had a quantity of stone salvaged from a collapsed wall , so the raw materials were free , and so was the advice from a local man with knowledge of stonework .sx It was commonsense really - dig out a footing trench down to firm subsoil and set out a foundation course of the largest stones within it , building up from this with staggered joints between courses ( as in brickwork) .sx I set to work in this fashion , using dry earth in place of mortar to bed down each stone and filling in the bank behind as the wall rose .sx It was a long job , made longer by two factors .sx One was the irregular shaped stone , which gave rise to much offering up and trial and error before each would fit snugly on top of the previous course .sx What little square - faced stone I had available was much easier and quicker to place .sx The other factor was having to dig and wheel-barrow the earth infill from some distance away , whereas a handy pile tipped on site would have saved hours .sx It turned out that after rebuilding the semicircular end 'nose' of the bank to the gatepost each side in stonework , there was no stone left to face the remaining repair work , but this coincided with a request from Rosie to strip some turf from an area of rough lawn in the garden to create a new bed for her plants .sx Cutting the turves carefully in neat rectangles with plenty of soil attached gave me the ideal material for turf facing my repaired bank .sx The same procedure was used as for stone - work , setting a foundation course below existing ground level courses with staggered joints , ramming earth infill behind as work progressed .sx There are two schools of opinion locally on the orientation of these turves ; some say lay them grass upwards , as dug , thus presenting an earth face to the bank which will quickly sprout grass cover from all the roots it contains , others say lay them grass looking outwards so that the face is instantly green .sx I tried both , and time has shown the grass-outward method to be better , not only in appearance but in withstanding wear and tear from the sheep .sx Either way , turves are easier and much quicker to build with than stone , although I have no doubt which will stand the longest .sx When at last the work was finished , I removed the temporary fence wire that kept the sheep away from the site area .sx The flock came over to investigate and one of the Shetland ewes jumped effortlessly to the top of the new 4ft 6in high bank to admire the view !sx And so I have to suffer the indignity of barbed wire along the top until a sufficient hedge has grown to render the bank finally stockproof .sx Hedges This brings us on to hedges and hedgelaying , another new skill with which I quickly had to grapple on account of the neglected and gappy hedgerows which both surrounded and criss-crossed our holding .sx My initial efforts were directed at blocking the gaps through which the sheep had forced , and consisted of laying a nearby thorn across the hole before tying firmly in position with baler twine .sx Of course , there wasn't always a convenient nearby thorn , and I soon learned that if the gap was not blocked thoroughly the sheep would test the repair until it gave way .sx If it held , the animal would then find the next weak point alongside before making a new gap !sx Patching a strong hedge was worthwhile - patching a weak one definitely wasn't , it was back to fencing to contain the stock until the hedge could grow up sufficiently to be relaid effectively .sx The Devon method of hedgelaying is straightforward enough .sx Unwanted growth is removed from both faces of the earth bank , surplus growth not required for laying is cut out from the growth along the top , then the remainder is laid by cutting the stems almost through before lowering almost horizontally to the bank top .sx Tying with baler twine at intervals gives a firmer job .sx The result is not the artistic woven pattern of some other counties , but it is stockproof and forms a thick hedge of natural appearance again within a few seasons if not trimmed too hard .sx Trees One thing our smallholding lacked , to our eyes anyway , was woodland .sx There were some lovely individual trees , mainly oak and ash with a few beech , in hedge - rows or along the river's edge , but no copses .sx So we decided to plant a few field corners and grow our own , motivated by a whole host of reasons - landscape value , woodland plants and wildlife , coppice for firewood , timber for posts and gates .sx Yes , it's a long term view , but we aim to be here for a long time !sx And if we don't enjoy all the benefits , our children will .sx I fenced off the chosen areas against stock and bought our first trees , 50 ash and 50 southern beech ( Nothofagus procera , a South American relative of our own beech but much faster growing) .sx These were bare-root whips two to three feet in height , small enough to be cheap , require no staking and , so the theory goes , establish and grow quickly to outpace larger , more expensive trees which are set back by the shock of moving .sx I followed the advice of books by stripping an area of turf ( around one square yard ) , digging a pit about fifteen inches square to accept the roots , breaking up the subsoil with a fork before setting the tree vertically in position and filling around the roots with soil , heeling in firmly .sx After watering , a sheet of black plastic was set in place over the grass-free square yard around the tree to supress weeds .sx Some new friends owned a former quarry , now invaded by silver birch and hazel scrub , and at their invitation I also dug up a number of small young trees of these two species from the woodland edge .sx I was immediately struck by the contrast between the vigorous , spreading root systems of these trees and the spindly , almost rootless things I had just spent good money on .sx I was assured the restricted roots on these were deliberate policy , for better transplanting - but one year later , most of the beech had died while the ash remained exactly the same size , surviving without growth .sx The birch and hazel dug up with complete root systems had flourished and made good growth .sx I made sure that trees purchased from then on had a conventional healthy root system to see them off to a good start .sx Crossbred lambs .sx Anne Crossman .sx We weaned our Shetland ram lambs earlier than last year , this was the disadvantage of having pure and cross bred lambs .sx The pure Shetland ram lambs had horns and the ryeland cross shetland ram lambs had small scurs only , all the females were polled , consequently the Shetland ram lambs bullied the ryeland cross shetland ram lambs .sx Head on encounters resulted in the crosses giving way and being harrassed .sx Shetland ram lambs can be a punchy lot .sx They also worried the ewe lambs .sx So we took all the Shetland ram lambs off the ewes .sx This left some of the ewes to be weaned as they either had single or twin ram lambs .sx The ewes were left on short pasture to dry them off and the ram lambs put on better grazing and were fed a few oats to make up for some of the ewes' milk and to keep them tame .sx A week later we weaned off the remainder of the lambs , pure females and cross males and put these all on one paddock again feeding them oats .sx It took two days for them all to feed at the trough .sx At weaning I gave all the ewes homoeopathic tablets , Lac-Can 6 , to help dry them off .sx I had only four who I had to milk off once or twice .sx They are usually very milky ewes and this probably helped , along with the bare pasture due to the drought .sx Last year a couple of ewes took a long time to dry off .sx After three weeks we put the ewe lambs back with the ewes , who recognised their lambs but would not let them suckle .sx The Ryeland cross male lambs went in a separate paddock along with their sire .sx This meant we had three out of ten paddocks with sheep on them and the two heifers were on another .sx Another disadvantage of having purebreds and uncastrated pure and crossbred lambs .sx The Shetland ram lambs ( all but two tiny ones ) went off for slaughter the second week in September , earlier than last year ( November ) but they were becoming rammy and aggressive .sx The weights were very small and mostly 13lb deadweight and the biggest only 14lb deadweight against last year's heaviest weight of 32lb .sx This was because they were born later and slaughtered two months earlier .sx Perhaps too , the grass being shorter accounted for the small weights .sx We did not creep feed any of the lambs so perhaps it would in future be better to do so , as they would then grow quicker earlier .sx In Autumn 1990 we have put the rams in earlier as earlier lambs grow better and we are just as likely to get bad weather in April as in March .sx Last year we had snow in April and a warm March .sx We have noticed during the last four years the seasons seem to have advanced by about three weeks , so perhaps the climate is already changing .sx If we can get the ewes to lamb in March we should end up getting a decent size ( crossbred ) gradeable lamb .sx This could prove difficult as the Shetland does not come into season until mid October at the earliest .sx The rams went in at the beginning of September and only one ewe was seen in season by the end of October !sx We shall know in the Spring if they came into season early or not .sx We do not raddle our rams because of discolouring the wool , which is sold to handspinners .sx All our purebred lamb was sold privately as it was very small .sx Our four extra lambs were kept on as stores as they were tiny .sx This year the rams will be taken out straightaway after the tupping period and not left with the ewes .sx The shetland cross ryeland rams went for slaughter in October .sx None had been castrated .sx The results were very encouraging .sx We did not have them graded .sx Our butcher friend said if we can get them slightly bigger ( 15-16 kilos ) then we would have an excellent commercial lamb .sx The biggest weighed 14.5 kilos ( 32 lb ) and the smallest of the batch 16lb .sx They would at these weights be suitable for the continental small lamb market .sx The conformation was very good and the chops on the largest one excellent , so the Ryeland cross shetland does look llike a good cross .sx To transport our animals we use the back of our pick up .sx A good tip to stop them slipping is to put an old piece of short pile carpet on the floor rather than straw .sx