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...

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 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...