All the birds seem to agree with St Brigid. While, technically, 1 March marks the beginning of meteorological spring, the birds have been singing their little hearts out since St Brigid’s Day, so they’re sure spring has sprung.

However, these little opportunists giving it socks on a stretched evening could yet be fooled, as February is often the coldest month of the year.

The evening chorus was really obvious as I sat on an old garden chair with the sun bidding a fine farewell in the western sky.

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I was amongst newly planted oak, spindle, hazel, alder and Scots pine in the new garden I have created in a field corner, about 300 metres from the house. I say ‘garden’ as I can’t call it woodland but more on this in a moment.

Some might describe this two-acre patch as a hare’s corner, which is a traditional name for an obscure field corner left to its own devices with maybe a few trees.

My poet cousin, Jane Clarke, contributed some suitably rustic lines to Catherine Cleary’s book entitled; The Hare’s Corner - Making Space for Nature. It’s not the sort of book that you won’t be able to put down but it’s a beautiful production and lovely read to dip in and out of. It may even encourage you to rewild an acre or two which could only be a good thing.

But the 21st Lord Dunsany, who prefers to be known simply as Randal Plunkett, has really embraced the rewilding concept with gusto in Co Meath. Farming has ceased on a few hundred acres of what was once grazing land since the year dot.

Randal Plunkett explains his vision in his newly published book entitled Wild Thing. Rewilding to this extent is not a decision he made lightly and has profound fervour in what he’s doing and that’s infectious.

The book is an engaging read and a very honest account of his life and why he has moved in this direction. I might not agree with him ideologically, but I have respect for what he’s doing.

Biodiversity

I am of the view that all farmers should consider fencing off an odd hare’s corner or two around the farm to increase plant life and biodiversity in all its forms.

Maybe Dunsany’s huge block of rewilding has enormous potential (and it seems like it does) for pioneering plant and animal enrichment, but on the other hand a couple of hundred acres of hare’s corners scattered around the county is a significant help to increase biodiversity and, indeed, to salve our collective consciousness.

However, as alluded to earlier, you need to be a little careful as to how you go about your hare’s corner project.

Three or four years ago I applied to the Department of Agriculture for the Native Tree Woodland Scheme on my new garden/hare’s corner project, which I thought a great idea.

The forest service didn’t agree because the plot was triangular and didn’t meet the minimum width of 20 metres in one corner. I pointed out that, from my schoolboy geometry, a triangle cannot have a minimum width of 20 anything.

This didn’t go down well and they forbid me to plant a woodland, purportedly because of archaeological remains.

Despite the fact that we have tilled the same patch for 40 years and never found so much as a megalithic mouse skull nor even a relic of St Brigid’s cloak. Anyhow, undaunted, I decided to do my own thing without State aid and planted 800 trees in the new ‘garden’ or as we’ll call it now, the hare’s corner. But secretly I hope there are no hares in it as they’re very destructive to newly-planted woodland. Sorry – I mean garden.