Doctor gets himself in a hole - more than once!



The doctor looks into yet another hole!

Alistair in his element!

I spent the day at the GWCT farm at Loddington in Leicestershire yesterday, running another BASIS training day and was helped this time by Dr. Alistair Leake, head of the project there. Alistair has many arrows to his bow, but he is perhaps best known for being a top authority on soil and water and how different farming techniques influence the way these important resources interact.

Alistair often says that there is no supplement to getting the spade out and digging a large hole in the ground to see what the soil structure looks like, as the composition of the soil is vital for growing top quality crops, increasing earth worm numbers and also helping to prevent flooding events amongst other things.

Certainly the group enjoyed the walk around the farm yesterday afternoon, looking at various habitats and discussing how they are created and maintained, but perhaps the stop they found the most intriguing was the doctor in his hole!

As if that was not enough, Alistair found himself peering down another hole later on as the sewerage from the new “eco-build” conference centre was not running away quite as it should! Apparently, the farm manager had used up the collected water supply that normally flushes the system through, to irrigate a newly grass sown grass lay – not something that had been factored into the building’s plans!!    

Still Alistair is never happier than when in a “bit of a hole”!!

Alistair getting a "hole" lot of attention!