Operation Mulch Mat!

When putting together the planting plan it was advised to lay a mulch mat around each tree. These suppress the weeds & grass and maybe help a little with bracken; maintain moisture in dry times; provide nutrients into the soil for the roots as they decompose and control temperature. Laying them while planting the trees is ideal but slows the process down considerably and increases the cost per tree. Mindful of the English Woodland Creation Offer and having learned about its limitations ie the grant doesn’t reflect actual costs, I decided that I would lay the mats myself (with help from friends who have been brilliantly supportive of this project right from the beginning). I have time from the end of planting until spring when the grass begins to grow to get them down. Clearly the delays in planting that I have mentioned in earlier blogs has eroded this time (plans were to plant in November but trees didn’t go in until January and were fully planted by 18th January this year).

And so Operation Mulch Mat has begun!

Half delivery stowed to protect them from the rain and also birds and mammals enjoy using the jute for nest making. 

The mats are 500mm x 500mm and made of biodegradable jute. Each one feels light and they come in packs of 100. Moving 100 on the level is ok but up hills takes some doing. Each mat is held down with 4 bamboo stakes one of which holds together the cut. The planters had advised that they work best when the mat is flush with the tree rather than the stake. In that way the grass doesn’t come through by the tree root.

I had laid some mats last year with the Vegan Land Movement in Somerset https://belswood20.blogspot.com/2023/03/vegan-land-movement-planting-trees-in.html. I have learned a great deal from that weekend planting trees and laying mats & I think of them often. As a volunteer I felt that I came away with more than I had given despite my hard work. I knew to tuck that mat in under the tree guard. On that occasion we used the pegs to make a hole in the mat. This sometimes stretched the jute and made the fastening less secure. I therefore decided to make a narrow hole with a penknife. This worked well but adds another step. I experimented with making the holes at home and quickly realised they are impossible to find once made! So I then used a sharpie to mark the hole - another step. 

Instead we use a knife in the field.

The first session with my friend Mags went well. We decided it took 2mins to lay each mat. That was after moving everything needed to the trees. I calculated that I would need to have 9 person hours a week at the wood from February - mid June when the bracken will be coming back.

  

After laying about 150 on my own one day I realised that one peg where the overlap is, holds the mat in place and with rain it presses into the grass pretty well. I hatched a plan to lay all 4,250 mats with one peg each and then return to fix the other 3 pegs in place. In this way all trees will have some grass suppression soon - ideally by the end of April before the grass really starts to grow. I will then come round again and add 3 more pegs. This is much quicker as there is no more carrying the mats or laying the tree guard. The experiment went well the first day.

Tina and I worked together and found it much quicker and enjoyable moving onwards to new trees so rapidly. We managed to lay 200 together in a wet afternoon session. I re-ran the numbers and now have a target of 350 mats to be laid each week by the end of April and then 700 a week after that to finish by mid June. 

I laid the mats aligned correctly and Tina followed with the penknife, mallet and pegs.

I went back the next day which was very windy. The prevailing wind is from the south west so it whips straight up the valley. Tina and I had laid on a south west facing slope and I could see some ‘Marilyn Munroe’ effects on a minority of mats. I added a second peg on the downhill slope. Sometimes a third peg was needed so then I added the fourth thinking ahead to our return journey where it would be a delight to come across the occasional completed tree amongst the majority of single staked ones.

I managed to lay 130 on my own; this felt like real progress and dealt with the flappage that I could see.  Tina, Mags and I worked together for a couple of wet hours later that week & we laid 170.

One of the advantages of laying a mat at each tree is that the planted tree can be inspected. Sometimes the shoot is not fully nested in its tree guard leaving it at risk of predators

Other times the tree guard hadn't been placed on and on occasions it has blown off.  I have found a few saplings that had dropped out of the planters bag and they are now in the ground.

Then yesterday Mags and I worked together all day and hit a new record of 300 laid in a day. This was a fun session with bouts of sunshine. We worked into Zone 2 with Scots Pines. These don’t have tree guards so are really difficult to pick out. There are some downy birch in there as well with tree guards which are easy to spot. I knew the planting ratio was 4 Scots Pines to 1 Downy Birch and we knew we were not finding them all! We got our eye in eventually and realised some had been stripped bare of their leaves so looked like a bracken stalk. We had to add a ‘quality control’ step where we would walk through an area we believed we had done and found the stragglers we had missed.The lack of tree guards leaves the saplings vulnerable to predators including the deer before they were removed. We found quite a bit of damage has been done already.

  
Sapling blending into the grass before the mat is placed

Healthy specimens now mulched

The sharp angled cut here is typical of a hare having eaten the top

These saplings have been stripped of their needles probably by deer. I hope they can regenerate as spring comes.

We took plenty of breaks and the robins, blue tits and great tits kept up a constant song. This zone is as at the top of the site and dragging 300 mats up the 45m hill sapped our energy but it is mostly done.

So with two days to go, we have hit 900 mats laid against a target of 700 at the end of week 2. I am having a rest day today and there is a yellow weather warning for rain tomorrow so will not go out and I shall still go into next week ahead of plan.

Working as a team is definitely the way to go although I am happy enough taking it slow on my own. I have discovered that the mulch mats make a lovely bed and I have had a few lovely snoozes in the sun, rain and hail on mulch mats laid on top of my yoga mat listening to the background sounds in waterproofs and using the builders bags for protection. The beck is full and gives a lovely background burble with the birds adding their songs. As always the trick is to mix the work with pleasure and so far that is working. I’ll report back at the end of April by which time I may be seeing mulch mats in my dreams!