Over 4,000 saplings were planted in December 2023/ January 2024. Apart from the Scot’s Pines they are deciduous trees so were dead looking sticks of different heights.
The focus in 2024 was to give the newly planted trees as good start. By Mid January, after storms, floods and frozen ground, they had all been planted. The planters did a brilliant job under difficult circumstances.
The next job was to give each tree a mulch mat to surpress weeds, help with water retention, shading from heat and in time a source of nutrient for each tree. Friends helped and the job was done before the bracken appeared.
With last year's persistent & heavy rainfall the saplings had a good start although by September those that had not made it above the height of their tree guards were beginning to rot!
This year has been an excellent growing year too. There have been some warm spells with a dry period in May where the flow in the beck dried up briefly. The leaky dam that I have put in held some water for wild life and I picked up some excellent wildlife footage. Here is a buzzard drinking from the beck:-
And a sparrow hawk and you can see that there is no flow by this point.
I have spotted 3 trees that have succumbed to the ‘drought’ which is not bad in the scheme of things (over 4,000 trees in the ground).
Aspen
Observing the trees growing this year has been interesting. They have sprung into life at different points during February, March & April.
First to show buds were the Alder and Hornbeam in late February
I have taken a lot of photographs like this with twigs and tiny buds showing growth in February. After looking at the trees all winter seeing the bark swelling and then green shoots appearing has been very exciting! A month later in March the leaves are recognisable:-
Wild Cherry in March
Hornbeam in leaf in the hoar frost in April and a Field Maple leaves slowly emerging but still below the height of the tree guard.
By May the Willows were thriving and this one produced flowers which is a first for the newly planted trees. It's lovely to see it surrounded by bluebells which have continued to spread across the site now that the deer have been excluded with a fence.
Some of the Rowans have really taken off too. There is wide variation across the site now. Where the ground is more level with deeper soil that holds water and surrounded by trees and shrubs giving protection from the wind, with enough sunshine the saplings have thrived. There are pockets of planting like this across the site.
The Quaking Aspen are making a woodland at the top of the wood
The Scot’s Pines slowly grew early in the year and then as the days have got longer have put on a rapid growth spurt. Again there is wide variation and they appear to be very light sensitive and I keep opening up the bracken around them to give them light even though it was not yet time to cut the bracken (which I aim to do when it has reached full height).
The is currently the tallest Scot's Pine
By measuring it against me I estimate this has reached 140cm
While I excavated this little one and gave it a second mulch mat to help it along its way this year. The glove gives a good comparison.
I have also observed a variation in leaf shape and colour between Scot’s Pines. They came from the same nursery and were planted at the same time and these two are close to one another:-
I have been advised that this is likely to be due to different chemical make up of in the soil such as nitrogen and magnesium.
There has been vigorous growth for the Hornbeam, Alder, Hazel, Sweet Chestnut, Wild or Crab Apple
Hornbeam Alder
Wild or Crab apple
Wild Cherry
Small Leaved Lime Spindle
Hazel
Some home germinated Horse Chestnut trees have been planted and this one as an experiment has not guard or mat. These trees don’t appear to like being squashed into guards and so far this one is thriving unprotected.
The trees that have done less well are those on the top south west facing slope.
The soil is poor here and it faces the prevailing wind. The gorse is coming back vigorously. Hazel, Crab Apple and surprisingly Alder are doing well here. I have moved some self seeded Birch into some gaps along the edge to hold the gorse back and have allowed some of the gorse to take over where the trees have failed and to provide a wind break. I shall keep moving self seeded saplings into here where they are a tree that suits the conditions and if need be buy some more Crab Apple and Hazel to fill any gaps.
I wonder if this is the area that the Dog Wood were planted. I have found one Dog Wood here and only 3 across the whole site so they are clearly not happy as a newly introduced species so I will not persist with these.
I am pleased that the Wych Elm are thriving. I only planted 100 of these as they were only available from one nursery as 3 year old saplings and so were six times as much as the one year saplings. These will make their presence known in time.
It does appear to be ideal growing conditions this year with regular rain and some warm sunny days. Getting the bracken down has been the main focus over the last weeks and round 1 will be finished this first week of July. I can see the need for a second round already but that’s a story for another blog!
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