Paths and Planting at Sustead Common

Twelve of us assembled at Sustead Common on a gloriously sunny morning on the 20th March, a pleasant contrast to the constant rain and cold we had this time last year.

 As ever, there was a variety of tasks to carry out. One task was to plant a hedge along the road on the Surveyor’s Allotment side of the site. This live hedge will eventually replace the existing dead hedge there, with Hawthorn, Blackthorn and Dog-rose, among other hedging plants. The dead hedge also had to be realigned slightly to accommodate the planting. A semi-permanent gate was also installed in this part of the site to restrict access to the sensitive nature areas just beyond the hedging.

A large pile of road planings – recycled road material – was also used to lay paths in some of the damper areas of the site to improve access. There was a constant relay of volunteers with wheelbarrows filled with this stuff, back and forth on the site. Trevor can be seen here testing a stretch of this newly laid path. This work was making good after some scheduled winter scrape and ditch maintenance work, and improving our disabled parking (special events only). We also did some general care of the access path around Spurrell’s Wood.  

Once again, a very successful session with a good turnout of volunteers, helping improve nature in Norfolk.

Andrew Gorton

March 20th 2025

P.S. A full account of the work Dom the Digger Man has done on the Surveyor's Allotment and in Spurrell's Wood will appear in the April issue of the FT newsletter.