Creating the Certified Site

Work started in January 2009. One of the first tasks was to reduce the height of a 25ft high hawthorn hedge along our rear boundary to a manageable height opening up the views. This was a mammoth task and took us over a year to do as we had to take a break once the leaves started coming out in the Spring until they had fallen again in the Autumn.

In May the JCB moved on site to dig the trenches for electricity cable to be laid for the hook-ups and pipework for the water taps and chemical disposal point. There was also an old silage pit that needed demolishing and a large diseased elderberry tree to be taken down.

Once the JCB had finished we needed to clear up the mess it had made and a lot of levelling and reseeding had to be done.

In November 2009 the fencing was erected to separate the Certified Site from the house.

Eventually we were ready for business in April 2010.