While February often tempts us with the first signs of spring — snowdrops in the verge, longer afternoons, a softening in the light — it’s still, at heart, a winter month. And so, before the growing season takes hold, it’s been good to pause and look back at some of the quiet work done earlier in the year.
On the 16th of February, I spent a bright, cold day planting more native hedge along the back fence at Gamekeeper’s Cottage. It’s been in the planning for a while now — a chance to reestablish something traditional, wildlife-friendly, and deeply rooted in the character of this landscape.
In total, around thirty bareroot plants went into the ground. A proper mixed hedgerow, made up of hawthorn, blackthorn, guelder rose, yew, spindle, and oak — each one chosen for its value to birds, insects, and the general biodiversity of the garden. I gave each one a generous mulch of leaf mould to help them settle in, and have been keeping a quiet eye on them ever since.
I filmed the whole process for the YouTube channel, so if you’d like to see how it all came together, you can watch it here.
Bareroot planting is one of those honest winter jobs that feels like time well spent. The garden isn’t clamouring for attention just yet, so there’s room to focus on slower, more deliberate projects — the sort that will shape the years ahead rather than the next few weeks.
Already, the line of young whips looks at home — dark against the pale February grass, braving the wind and rain as they put down roots. In time, they’ll knit together into a thick, living boundary, full of blossom and birdsong and all the gentle disorder that comes with an untamed hedge.
It may be weeks before any of them break into leaf, but the work is done, and that in itself feels like a quiet victory. A little progress, even in the dead of winter.