From Field To Woodland

So, time is marching on and I am hoping to start planting next month sometime - if the temperature drops sufficiently.  I have had confirmation that the horses will be leaving us in November (around bonfire night I think) which gives me very few reasons not to crack on.  The problem is, the plan is still a bit vague - and I need to firm it up now. The Woodland Trust gave me the green light after their visit . They didn't see any major problems with my design (although it was all a bit rough and ready to be honest).  Before we can plant, we need to know where to plant, and the location of the planting will really be "everywhere there isn't a path or clearing". So the paths are really the first things to mark out.  After a lengthy discussion about Glyphosate with my good friend and adviser Owen (as a chemical it appears it isn't anywhere near as bad as I had imagined) , it was decided that the way to mark the paths out was using chemicals rather than to try and stri...

For a little while, I have pondered that it would be nice to have some wild flowers in the field, the problem is, on dense grassland, it would take considerable effort to remove the grass (and prevent it growing back) in order to sow new wild flower seed. It probably needs a plough (or some stubborn digging).  Then I thought, wait, there are 3 patches of bare earth from work that was done in recent weeks that would be ideal, the bare patches have grass seed on them, but a good wiggling around with a hoe should disturb the grass seed enough to then sow some nicer ground cover.  Armed with a huge box of named brand "Easy WildFlowers" I set off to the field to have a go. Branded seed (granules as it turned out) I don't want to take all the credit for the flowers - I had help The first target area were the scars left by the wall repairs on the upper boundary of the field. Both above and below the wall lay bare soil - with the beginnings of grass coming through from the grass ...