Blue - done
Pink - to do
With help from friends and with lengthening days I remain on target to get all the mats laid by the end of April. I’ll then go round again and add the extra spigots where we have only added one for now and finish by mid June just in time for the bracken to start growing. I am really enjoying it. I started with a sense of rush and press to get the mats down. Now I know I can do 50 when feeling tired/ in the wet and the cold; 100 on a normal day and 150 when I ‘go for it’ I have a sense of confidence that they will get down before the grass starts to grow in earnest. I passed the half way mark of 2,125 this week & I now know what it will take to do the other half. I am going to the wood often for a couple of hours at a time and friends give me an hour or two most weeks and that has kept the plan on track. Here is the story of the first half.
The first half arrived in early February on a cold wet day
They were stowed to protect them from the rain and then we got started
Day 1 I laid 50 with my friend Mags as we worked out what was needed. Pen knife, mallet, a spigot bag and a tolerance to either bending over or getting on and off the ground.
I found hauling the bag of 100 mats up to the top of the site sapped my energy. Steve came and gave a hand taking 1,000 up for me over 2 days and a couple of hundred spigot bags too.
To get the numbers down quickly, I adopted a 1 spigot strategy. Each mat needs 4 spigots. By putting just one in I could double the number of trees that got mats. This means I aim to get round them all (4,250) by the end of April and so suppress the grass to some extent immediately and then return and add the other 3 spigots hoping that will help with bracken to a small degree.
This mostly worked but on exposed ground there was some flap page and so a second spigot was needed and could be added on the way in and out of other areas.
Tina and Mags helped me in those early cold wet days and we got a lot done
All of a sudden the north side of the wood was done!
Finding the Scots Pines is the most enjoyable part. They have no stakes or tree guards and sit nestled in the grass and brash. It is really easy to miss them. Especially those that have been nibbled already - see below!
It was good to hang out at the wood and find time for some play
My friend Mags spotted this ladder left over from the previous owners and no doubt used by the deer stalker. It's a great place to sit for bird watching. Oh and I got to sit in Agnes on a lovely sunny day too!
This rowan was so nibbled by deer that I feared it wouldn't survive but since the deer fence has been erected it has thrived while living with the scars from it's juvenile years!
With time to stop and stare
I stopped when my clothing stopped giving me protection from the rain!
The weather has finally improved in the last couple of weeks.
I've taken an occasional break from laying mats to tend to some of the newly planted trees. These hornbeam look a bit squashed into the spiral guards. I have some wider wrap ones that were used in another wood and so I am switching these over.
And I have found time to plant out some of the saplings I have raised myself - here are the horse chestnuts.
The increasing birdsong (I have heard gold crests and chiffchaff this week), bumblebees (whitetail and carder) and the trees springing into life tell me that we have to keep focussed.
Yesterday the final mat from the first batch was laid meaning that there are 2,150 are down.
I am experiencing some wear and tear on my body but not as bad as my trousers!
Phase 2 starts here!
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