Woodland taking shape

Over 4,000 trees were put in the ground in January 2024 and Project Mulch Mat commenced in February. Friends pitched in and slowly but surely each tree got it’s mat. I had researched the value of this large task and was convinced that it would help with weed supression (grass and bracken to some extent), water retention (not yet an issue but if we get a dry June like last year they would help), temperature moderation (again not yet an issue but we hit over 30ºc at the wood last year so shading the roots will help) and finally providing nutrients as the jute mulches down into the ground to support the tree roots. Although hard to assess the efficacy I can see that the protection from grass and bracken is working. Here is a little Scotts Pine receiving sunlight due to the mat being in place.

I gave the honour of laying the last mat to my friend Mags who has helped me over the last months.  Many other friends have helped including Tina, Jacqui, Charlie, Charlotte, Michelle, Sandy, Sue, Steve  and the working party members on Good Friday who really helped me get the mats down just in time.

All too quickly, after the last mat was laid, the bracken really took off. The first photo on the left is one week later and on the right 5 days after that.

           

I had hoped for a longer break between laying mats and tackling the bracken but with a mixture of sunshine and rain I had to get cracking before the trees get shaded out. I have really enjoyed seeing the trees growing out beyond their tree guards and showing their different shaped leaves. More learning for me as the new species push through.

   

Hornbeam            Wych Elm

                      

And so bracken bashing begins in earnest. I bought some extra bashers but as I walked round the wood the size of the task felt too great. Last year I borrowed a petrol strimmer and found it heavy, noisy and cumbersome and abandoned it quickly for my trusty basher. But that was on the second round. I had had a contractor with a mower manage the first growth. That isn’t possible this year with the number of trees in the ground and their spacing. I can see that in the area that have been bashed for 3 years, the growth is shorter but there are some areas which are rocky and the mower never reached and the bracken is my height already and certainly over 1.5m! On further investigation I decided that a hedge trimmer would work nicely. I tried a battery operated long handled hedge trimmer with a harness but it was just too unwieldy. I would be using it back to front and the ergonomics were wrong. I borrowed my friend’s ‘domestic’ hedge trimmer. It worked really nicely but I needed to bend quite low which would not be sustainable. I found a more ‘industrial’ sized trimmer and have gone for that.

It cuts through the bracken really easily and the length of blade helps. I can just take the tops off without having to stoop down and the length of blade also cuts 2-3 fronds deep. I started just taking out the bracken around the tree but then remembered how the fronds feed the same rhizome below the ground so I am taking it all out where there are trees. I am allowing areas to grow where trees have not been planted and bracken does have some value to wildlife notably fritillary butterflies. I have left stands where the violets grow as it is this combination they need. The down sides of this piece of equipment are that is a powerful piece of machinery and I am wearing protective gear (trousers, gloves, visor and solid boots) and secondly the weight. The trimmer weighs 3.7kg without the battery so I guess just over 4kg with. I was advised to add oil every 20mins and that suits me fine. I take a break of 5mins and then go again. So far I have managed to do 4 sets in one session. I am sore afterwards in the forearms but recover quite quickly. I discovered that I had really got stronger from laying the mulch mats - kneeling down and standing up for each one. This will work the top half of my body.  From my first two excursions I have covered quite a bit of ground - coloured in in yellow below :-

If I can keep going at this rate visiting the wood 3 times a week I hope to get the first round completed by early - mid July. The second growth will then need to be tackled but with any luck I will have a break before starting again in August. Hopefully the second growth will be less this year than last. Also I have had offers of help including the Scything Team linked to the South Lakes Woodlanders. That would be a great help and really interesting to see this old fashioned but effective method in action!

(gloves off as I am taking the selfie!)

I have started working outwards from where I park. I will head up to the top to tackle the bracken around the Scots Pines next as they are the shortest tree. I didn’t start there as I wanted to get more proficient as they don’t have tree guards. Generally I am working well with the trimmer but have taken the tops off some of the bamboo canes, sadly lopped some bluebell seed heads and some fox gloves as they come into flower. I have only lopped the top off one tree so far and that was quite high so the tree will survive!

I am sorry not to have time to plant some of my seedlings or to capture all of the naturally generated saplings; maybe I shall find time soon. They can wait until autumn but if we hit a dry spell I shall move the ones in pots into the beck.

Donated horse chestnut spalings and some rowans to be planted

Oak seedlings underneath Gandalf                Hazel seedling by the beck

There are also lots of birch growing inside the butterfly ride which will need to be moved but they can stay there this summer. I have staked them and added tree guards and I remind myself that this will happen each year now that the deer have been excluded so my focus must be on the planted trees to get them away safetly so that next year they will start to shade out the bracken (hopefully!). 

Note to self: try not to be a bracken bore! Now I have done this blog I shall aim to report back once it is done!