Sometimes, although it is painful and frustrating, you just have to admit defeat.
Back in March 2013, when the campsite was nought but a set-aside agricultural field, we commissioned a willow fedge to run along the edge of the meadow. It was a symbolic moment for us as it marked the first step towards our dream project. Admittedly we were planting right at the end of willow planting season, but at first all seemed to be going well. Little green shoots appeared when they were supposed to and we didn’t even mind when we found huge poplar hawk moth caterpillars munching away happily on the new growth.
But at the end of June the weather turned hot and dry, and despite my nightly efforts to keep the fedge watered, it started to look a bit sad. We still haven’t worked out exactly what went wrong but we ended up with just a few determined bits of willow growing here and there among a lot of brittle sticks. The deer just casually walk through the fedge now with a look of ‘told you so’.
And this is where the lesson starts.