Although we have had kind offers of machinery to clear the site quickly, after much thought we decided to do things more slowly, and sometimes by hand
- Why?!
Because we want to protect the best of what is there now (and we have to find out what that is first
We now know, from experience, that there is a LOT of Cotswold stone just under the surface, which would ruin machinery. We need to get rid of the worst of this first
We don't really know what we want, and we accept that what we desire will inevitably change with time
We have been told by many people that clearance using tractors etc will create more problems than it solves, as the weeds will spread
And we want to have a go at using permaculture methods - seems like a good idea - Update April 09
We were eventually very, very glad of the mini diggers that bulldozed the brambles, provided by Ttravis Perkins. However we still haven't used rotovators or tractors - just as well as we've found the hard way that there is a LOT of stone under the surface!