Country diary: One by one the 'ghost' hedgerows are being restored | Andrea Meanwell

Tebay, Cumbria: This kind of work is invaluable for the soil, the farm and wildlife such as red squirrels and hares. Today's hedgerow has eluded us for a whileIt's over a year since Storm Arwen swept through the valley leaving a trail of destruction, and we are still tidying up after it. The top two-thirds of the giant ash tree we are bringing back to the farm today was blown off by that storm. The recent frozen weather allowed us to get to the remote location without the tractor getting bogged in peaty soil, and now the trunk is to be taken to our local sawmill to be dried, and eventually made into floorboards for our farmhouse renovation.The tree stood in a "relic" or "ghost" hedgerow at our abandoned farm, Low Park. These wispy relics of hedgerows with overgrown trees show where field boundaries used to be, before the farm was abandoned 50 years ago when the M6 was built. Now the trunk has been moved, the relic hedgerow can be double fenced and planted up with tree whips this winter. One by one, these tiny whips are reviving the landscape. Continue reading...