Hedgerows and Orchards: a Slow Reclamation of an Upland Farm

A Guardian Country Diary entry follows an upland farmer planting a fruit tree every 200 metres along hedgerows and establishing a new apple and damson orchard at Low Park. While snow lingers on the fells, primroses bloom in the sheltered orchard and fungi appear on deadwood, highlighting a landscape in gentle transformation as the old farmstead and a nearby railway crossing are gradually reclaimed by moss, ferns, and nature, signaling that upland farming may one day become a memory.