281. The ABC of the foraging hedge and a quiz . . .

You may remember me planting the foraging hedge in March 2013 (see blog No 103); if you don't it consists of over 100 trees, the idea being to provide food for the bees and us.


There are 9 nine types of tree / plant but when I am doing my smallholding tours I can never remember all 9. So when we were flogging up and down in the Alps recently, I came up with the ABC of the foraging hedge . . .

A - Apple
B - Blackthorn
C - Sea Buckthorn
D - Dog Rose
E - Elder
F - funny tasting fruit, Medlar
G - go and eat your hat, an admittedly oblique reference to a Pear, the explanation being that on an already in-situ hawthorn bush I have grafted a pear (Beurre Hardy) and if it produces any fruit then Sarah said she would eat her hat
H - Hazel
I - I-shaped growth, Willow

The QUIZ for you is to work out / remember why I have planted those 9 varieties ie what type of foraging each provides and for who.

After 3 years the hedge now looks like this . . .

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