From Field To Woodland

 It is funny when you day dream about something , and then you worry (or I do) whether it will live up to expectations. I dreamed about our first "real planting day" - planting days like the ones I have done years ago, with the Woodland Trust and the Heart of England Forest, where dozens of trees are planted and a woodland actual starts. This dream has gone on for years, but it has been much more in my thoughts this year for obvious reasons.  That dream planting day came all of a sudden, and to a certain extent took me by surprise. I got an email from a tree supplier to say "your order has been despatched". It didn't say which order (25 trees or 45 trees - or both).  In my head, trees wouldn't start to arrive until the really cold weather in the New Year. It still feels (and is) absurdly warm - which is a worry for climate change reasons. I had imagined that I would have all the paths marked out before  tree arrived - but no, trees were arriving very soon. T...

 Sometimes when you day-dream about something for years, when the time comes, it isn't quite as good as you imagine it. I know that the day I get to take to the stage with the Foo-Fighters, my windmill guitar moves won't be as wild as I have imagined. It will be great, but not quite  as the dream.  Occasionally though, stuff does work out as you hoped. Today was one of those days. I had planned to plant some daffodils as you walk into the field. I know thad daffodils isn't a wild woodland thing, but it is nice right - and I want it to be nice. In 50 years time when I am nothing but a skeleton under some of the trees, nature can decide if the daffs belong or not, but for now, they belong. I am over-ruling nature in the short term.  On this basis, I ordered myself some "bulk" bulbs. How many is enough? How much qualifies as bulk ? I went for 25kg. If I had too many, I could always give some away, too few, order some more. £44.39 well spent (including delivery).  J...

 After an impatient few days, constantly watching the grass to see if I could detect any changes in colour, finally the magic has started to happen and the glyphosate has started to do its job.  There are definite lines now, I wasn't sure if they were in the right place, but the lines for half of the design were definitely there.  A quick text to neighbour Jeremy (who I discovered has a drone) and we had some confirmation that the first part of the pathways were in the right place. Thanks Jeremy, it really is the only way to know where we are at.  So, hopefully this week we will return for spraying session part 2. If we get this right, then I can do the job that I am the most looking forward to - marking out all of the pathways and clearings. Then, finally, it must be planting time....

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 ...

It is a scary thing for me, having dreamed about a project for many years, and then suddenly, having spent a ton of money on it, being faced with committing to how that project will look over the next fifty to a hundred years.  I imagine this is how people who self build their dream home feel - you get one shot at it and you have to commit - and you live with the consequences for the remainder of your days. So, now I put it like that, my dilemma doesn't seem so bad , I have to plant some trees, it isn't the end of the world, but I still want to get it right, I want this place to look beautiful - it already does in many ways and I want to enhance that, not replace it.  I don't have the skills or experience for the job in hand really, I am learning things for sure, but I definitely need help and advise. Top of my list of advisers were the Woodland Trust. I had done a little planting with them previously in 2005 when my kids were toddlers, we sponsored and then help plant a co...

We have some new guests in the field this week.  The grass has grown rapidly in recent weeks. Sun + Rain = Long Grass! It seemed a shame to waste it, and also, long grass will make planting harder in the winter. So, what to do! The land isn't an ideal shape to have hay taken off it. The lumps and bumps that to me, give it its charm, would wreck the cutter apparently. So the next option - livestock of some description.  Cows would need access through the bottom of the field (which would mean trashing the new westerly fence) though cows would have made short work of shortening the grass. They would likely have trashed any bits of planting we have done though.  Sheep would have done the job well but don't tend to like longer grass - also I couldn't find anyone who had sheep locally.  So, it ended up being horses (Horses? Horses? Andrew Likes Horses!).  These fellows look fully grown, but , as Father Ted knows, they are actually far away! They are very young ladies,...