Christmas and 4,250 trees are ready to be planted

All of the trees have arrived and are safely stored at the wood ready for planting on 28th/ 29th December 2023.

The weather has presented challenges this year and I have gained a small insight into the world of nurseries and the risks they juggle throughout the year. The list of trees that I wanted to plant was shared with nurseries over a year ago. There was some to-ing and fro-ing at that point as some of the trees I wanted were not available (black poplar for example). Having secured a grant from the Forestry Commission I need to match the plan they approved as closely as possible and so where a species of tree wasn't available I substituted a tree from the list they have agreed that was a similar size. Having flexed the plan I then found at the point of the order being prepared that some trees were not been available this season or were scarce ie not available in the volume I wanted and/ or expensive and often not available from the nursery I planned to use.

These were the trees I tried to track down from other nurseries

• Horse Chestnut 
• Wild Cherry 
• Hornbeam 
• Wych elm
• White beam 

I did manage to source hornbeam and wild cherry from a different nursery and due to the higher cost reduced the numbers marginally. I eventually found wych elm from just one nursery,.  This is the type of elm that was nearly wiped out by Dutch Elm Disease in the 1960's-70's and I really wanted to include in the planting plan once I heard that they are being propagated successfully now. I have bought 100 of those @ £3 each (where as an aspen sapling cost 44p). It is a handsome tree and it has been an aspiration of mine since I decided to plant a new woodland to reintroduce this species as it creates a beautiful tree. I won't see anything this lovely but it is good to know that this species is coming through that terrible disease that nearly wiped it out and will adorn the English countryside again.

I have not been able to source horse chestnut or white beam even at a premium. I rejigged the planting plan to accommodate this. 

Having tried to raise some saplings myself I appreciate more fully the hard work involved in nurturing seedlings. I collected hundreds of rowan berries & extracted the seeds in autumn 2022 and have successfully germinated 20 saplings. Initially I considered this a poor outcome from the hundreds of berries I collected but feel more proud of my efforts now

  

Rowan seedlings

I have also germinated 4 horse chestnut saplings from conkers I collected from the valley where my wood is. It is a tree absent from my land so even adding these 4 will help with biodiversity and I feel particularly proud to produce these when nurseries are offering none this year.

 

I decided to build on last year's success and scale up my approach so planted 25 conkers in October 2023. I wrapped up my mini nursery in green netting and put the camera on it o see if there were any predators.

 

  

Well they lasted about one night - I collected detailed footage of a field mouse nibbling each conker in turn! I have decided to leave nursery work to the professionals! The shiny surface of the conker has been breached (see above) & the tasty nut nibbled. The mouse has left it like that and moved onto the next one and the next!

I am relaxed about there being no white beam as they are common on the land & next year more regeneration may take place on the land with grazers now excluded. It is a lovely tree and one I was not familiar with. When the leaves arrive they look like magnolia flowers in the sunshine and then they produce white flowers and then red berries so a good value tree.

Whitebeam tree

Planting day was set for 18th December with the trees arriving the week before. I received the lovely Cumbrian Aspens from Cumbria University Boom Project. The project is called Back On Our Map and they have chosen 12 species that are under threat in Cumbria. Aspen falls into this category as the stands of aspen are far apart from one another and have relied on replicating themselves by throwing up suckers. These are often grazed by sheep and deer and so stands don't make fresh stems to replace the old. The stands are too far apart to cross fertilise and over time Cumbrian Aspens have become 70% male and 30% female. The project has nurtured Cumbrian aspen saplings from suckers and from germinated seeds and have made these available to people planting woods. As I learned more about the project I discover that the saplings have been grown and nurtured by prisoners in Cumbria. I feel even more responsible for caring for these precious saplings. 

Here is short BBC item about how these aspen have been reared and nurtured https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cumbria-55121472

Trees from smaller nurseries arrived as expected (hornbeam, spindle, wild cherry and wych elm) but the main nursery raised concerns about their ability to fulfil the order in time due to the weather. They had already had to face the delay in trees going dormant due to the warm weather and meaning that they could not be lifted as planned for planting in November. Then the ground froze on December 1st and the trees had to remain in the ground. As the snow melted and it went wam and wet again the ground became waterlogged. Trees are lifted mechanically in many instances and they could not go onto the ground with machines and so could not lift the trees.

I know it has been a difficult year as despite keeping the drains clear and having some leaky dams in place the road running along the bottom of the wood has flooded regularly this year where last year I managed to solve this easily.

The drain has become overwhelmed with silt and so even clearing the leaves from the top has not freed the flow and I have tried different approaches!

The human plunger approach!

The planters been Benn stood down again and have showed great flexibility. They have now been booked for 28th December and the aim is to get the trees in the ground across 2 days although they may need to return in the new year. The land is prepared and marked up and ready for planting.

Delivery day came and went a few times but then did happen on 21st December. I received the delivery note in the morning which was sent as the van left Hexham. This includes reference to the plant passports and shows where the trees were grown. All but maple were fully grown in the UK, which were raised initially in the Netherlands. 

I added up the list of trees on the delivery note and discovered that there were 450 trees missing. Also the order didn't match the order with some extra species included (happily trees I do want on the land - more hornbeam and wild cherry) and some species were below the number I expected. This wasn't immediately obvious to spot as the order was raised using common English names (above left) for trees while there delivery note used the formal latin names (above right) and I am still not conversant in the translation!  With nurseries closing for Christmas I needed to make some quick decisions if I was going to get all the trees I needed on site for the planters. 

The trees are bundled up in the 25s and then stowed by species in plastic for transportation. With a friend I was able to open the bags to expose the shoots to the elements so they will be kept hydrated. The roots are still wrapped up in the plastic delivery bags to keep them protected from the cold air and to stop them drying out.

Although happy to do some planting myself, 450 would be too much and would throw the planting plan if I didn't know what the replacements would be. One species missing was sweet chestnut and the nursery did have 200 of these available. Another species they had available that I wanted was dog wood. This is a woody shrub with a striking red stem in winter and is a good border tree to woodlands which I can line the butterfly rides with giving a gradient of height from grass, bracken, dogwood, gorse then larger trees such as hazel and common alder which is ideal for butterfly rides. I increased the order of those to make up the shortfall elsewhere. With the nursery closing at noon on Friday 22nd December I needed to get to Hexham to collect them.

I have then build a structure out of items left at the wood either by the farmer who sold me the land or from the fence construction process plus some plastic netting from my garden. I am hoping it is enough protection that the few remaining deer at the wood will be put off nibbling my precious stock for the next couple of days. I have the camera trained on the trees so if there is an incursion I will at least know the culprit and maybe what I can do to prevent further damage.

So while there is a pause for Christmas the land is ready, the trees are ready and the planters are good to go. I need to divide the trees into groups representing the planting zones so the planters can just collect what they need (trees, tree guards and stakes) and crack on. I have taken the pragmatic decision to simplify the planting plan by moving to trees in units of 25 since all of the trees are in bundles of 25. In that way I don't need to separate the plants which would expose the roots to the cold air more than necessary. I have cross referenced the original grant application and the current planting plan and it aligns with variation being +/-13 tree per zone and in total 15 more trees than agreed.

To make the task of grouping the trees by zone easy and quick I have come up with the idea of drawing my spreadsheet on the ground at the wood and then to populate this by species and by zone in the same way that I have done on paper! That's Boxing Day's task.

  

Then there is nothing more for me to do but I will be there to answer any questions the planters have and to enjoy watching the trees going into the ground almost exactly 3 years after I took ownership of the land. I love it when a plan comes together!