Bel's Wood

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 have been at the wood a great deal since February laying mulch mats and then clearing bracken. Around me the trees have started to grow. Now that the bracken is down it is easier to see that a woodland is emerging. I have photographed each of the different tree species planted however they have arrived at the wood - those trees ordered from nurseries  (17 varieties), those donated, those propagated from seeds and those that have self seeded and here is a record of progress over Spring and Summer 2024. Alder Aspen I won’t ever know but I do wonder if the Aspen trees that have shot up are the ones donated by BOOM (Back on our Map). Downy Birch One of the first trees to emerge in spring was this Downy  Birch and when it started to show I realised why they are called Downy Birch - you can see the down on the stem Birch are known as a ‘pioneer’ trees being the first to establish themselve in land that will allow it to grow. There is a large amount self seeding and here cheekily b...