Bel's Wood

The entrance to Bel’s Wood has a small clearing for a few cars and a gate to the country lane. I arrive and leave from this point on each visit. Right from the beginning I admired this mature Silver Birch overlooking the entrance. It always felt like a welcome and a farewell; grand but standing back; beautiful, tall and confident. It took a while but after a visit from some relatives to the wood I associated the tree with Marion and so I now call this tree The Marion Tree. I have photographed and taken videos of The Marion Tree in all seasons and thought I would collate them here as they begin to tell the story of Bel’s Wood and the work I have done there with help over the last 5 years. I am pleased to find this photo which was taken the day I visited the wood for the first time in August 2020 when it was on the market. The gate was not in place at this point and I was fighting my way through the bracken to try and reach the perimeter to get a sense of the whole plot. Two years la...

Every year feels like a big year at Bel’s Wood! Year 0 2020 - Find and Buy the land Year 1 2021 - Develop a plan to create a woodland Year 2 2022 - Prepare the land and apply for the woodland creation grant Year 3 2023 - Buy and plant the trees Year 4 2024 - Lay mulch mats and control bracken around the 4,294 saplings Year 5 2025 - Watch them grow! As spring arrives I am looking to see how well the trees that were planted last year have established themselves. I will have lost some just through the process of planting and others through the conditions last year. I was lucky with plenty of rain with no periods of drought but by September, the amount of rain we had had, was causing a problem. Those saplings that had not grown beyond the top off the tree guards were going mouldy! I took those guards off where I spotted this happening but some will have perished.  Some saplings were shaded out by the bracken despite the huge effort put in last year to get round them all in time ...

I am coming up to the 4th anniversary of taking ownership of Bel’s Wood.   So much has changed in that time and yet I feel I am at the beginning of this journey of creating a wood.  The saplings were delivered last December and planted by mid January.     Mulch mats were added February - May  Followed by 31/2 months of bracken bashing Watching the saplings grow has been a joy with some anxiety thrown in. I took stock of their growth a couple of months ago https://belswood20.blogspot.com/2024/09/celebrating-new-trees.html   Since the bracken died back I have enjoyed spending time at the wood removing grass from spirals, pushing back the remnants of bracken and clearing some brambles where a sapling is being overwhelmed. I have also ‘captured’ quite a few naturally regenerating oaks and hazels.  Oaks    I am leaving the birch without spirals or stakes as they are thriving more than those that I planted. I may move some which are strad...