Jacob Wright

Hi!  I have a 3 acre plot in East Lothian, been pastured for the last few years.  Relatively dry as it's on a gradient.  I'm looking to put a hedge around the whole area which is obviously going to be expensive.  I was wondering if anyone had any advice about:

a) good hedging mixes for this area that provide wildlife habitat, stock-proof barrier and foraging opportunities.  I was thinking predominantly hawthorn but with some blackthorn, gorse (for nitrogen), hazel, rose, beech, spindle, juniper and guelder rose thrown in.

b) good suppliers of bare root hedging - affordable, healthy plants with a good selection, ideally east lothian or borders

c) any perennials worth putting in along with the hedging plants to accelerate hedge growth miyawaki-style

It was also flying ant day in East Lothian yesterday!  How do they know?  

Hi there.  I've just acquired c1Ha of land which I'm keen to turn into a wonderful resilient ecosystem in all the usual ways.
It has a small stream which enters my land through a 19th century drainage conduit and runs in a deep gully, through a pipe under a large earthen bank and then continues in the gully on the other side.
I'm very interested in damming the stream at the point it goes through the pipe under the bank to create a water reservoir for irrigation and a habitat for waterfowl.

I'm wondering if anyone here has any experience with doing this kind of thing in the Uk.  In particular:
- Where to get advice on how to make it strong enough to be safe
- How to deal with the inevitable bureaucracy (I'm in Scotland so I think SEPA is the relevant body for me)

Any and all advice much appreciated!