Bog Myrtle & Peat

Hours after getting hold of the Chayne’s first tractor, the rotovator I was planning to use for the game crop ate itself in a moment of noisy destruction. Left with a twisted ruin of angry-looking metal, I was faced with the deciding whether or not to call in the cavalry or abandon the idea of game cover altogether. Given that it is getting rather late in the year to be sowing seed, I decided to make one last big push and get a “real” tractor (humph) in to do the job at short notice. Sure enough, a shiny new 4×4 maisonette arrived this morning at eight o’clock and churned the field into a mess of divots with the most enormous set of disc harrows I have ever seen. The partridges weren’t too keen on the process at all, and they melted invisibly off into the rushes. I’m sure they’ll return when the wind dries off the soil and makes the biggest dust bath they’ve ever seen.

I will get the field rolled and broadcast this evening with my own tractor, provided it doesn’t rain. I’m keen to get everything in and sorted before the Game Fair at Scone this weekend, so that whatever it is that I end up planting has the chance to get started while I’m away.