The weekend, trees and hedging

A busy few days down at the field...
A minor trim of the overhanging willows from the north (by-pass) boundary, so as to get to the 4 rail fencing for repairs - I've left the Salix viminalis type for now, as that will be handy for cuttings later just poked in the ground.

Saturday was spent at Cannock Chase for a Forestry Fair. Apart from various chainsaw championships and demonstrations, quite a few trade stands and a return home with the Landrover a bit fuller and the wallet a touch emptier.
Mainly hand tools you won't find in B&Q and a few bits and bobs and 80 cell-grown young trees for patching the hedges and planting up.
One handy item was a post-ram for hedging / marker stakes, from a tree-guard and supplies specialist reasonably local in Shropshire.

Sunday was a stunning sunny day - breakfast and groceries from Hawarden Estate Farm Shop, then several hours work clearing the short east boundary hedge along the track-way.
Badly overgrown and thin and patchy at the base, rusty barbed wire and odd fencing removed, I've trimmed the hawthorn ready for layering and left enough room to establish the original line and to get in for new hedge planting and new post and rail fencing behind.
There were only 13 hawthorn 'trees' in all along 30 metres and a few dog-roses saved along the line too.
The wood-burning kettle on the go most of the day, in shorts and T-shirt weather and with a few stops ploughing through provisions from the farm-shop.
A reasonable sized dragon-fly whizzed by and something larger than a rabbit was moving through the long grass with a cob of maize from the field next door.

Monday wasn't so sunny, still a fair bit done and the east boundary almost ready now for the post-hole borer and a new stock-proof fence and gate...

From Blogger Pictures

planning & planting

Looking ahead hopefully to some reasonable weather over the next couple of weeks:
Some of the pot-grown native trees from home will be planted in the narrow end of the field and maybe some fruit trees too.
I've ordered 200 various tree guards from both Acorn and Tubex - 100 are general spirals for rabbit / small mammal protection and 100 across both manufacturers are more robust various rounded top types to prevent bark damage from wind-sway and enclosed for a micro-climate to assist growth.
I get enough young Ash trees sprouting at home to chance a few with no protection to see how they compare to trees grown in quills.

A bit more research into planting patterns - working roughly on a 2m grid spacing with variations from straight lines and with small clumps and groupings of species and allowance for different growth rates and habits of the trees going in.
As well as considering some Elm, (hopefully with Dutch Elm Disease resistance) as part of a National experiment and specimen Black Poplars in the meadow - I've been looking into a few specimen Walnut trees for future timber use (as well as nuts at the orchard area edge).
The Walnut Tree Co. have a few specialist varieties that are tempting - although 60+ years before any realistic return.
Once the leaves drop for the dormant winter season, I'll be ordering a few species of bare rooted trees for planting, to bring the planting density up, initially over a 0.2 hectare area and rounding off 2 corners and a variation from a straight line along the road-boundary fencing...

Elm trees

Looking further into tree planting schemes, I stumbled across a project to reintroduce elm trees, with hopefully some resilliance to Dutch Elm Disease.
There will be a requirement to report progress through a nationally coordinated scheme via the Conservation Foundation.

Early September

A busy couple of weeks, but mainly at home with a new shed put up for the tractor...
Also at home, the pot grown fruit trees and a few specialist varieties grouped together in the yard so as to help devise a planting scheme - particularly for a heritage varieties orchard.

This weekend just gone, I called in again at Bernwode Plants near Bicester and picked up a couple of young apple trees likely to give a pink juice (Beckley Red & Sops in Wine).
I took a long walk from Lower Heyford to Oxford along the canal tow-path (in fine sunny weather on the Saturday). Part of the purpose of which was to look over various bits of meadow and the general habitat and conservation issues along the Cherwell Valley.
Also a visit on Sunday to Wychwood Forest Fair - a good day out (once the rain stopped) and a lot of conservation habitat information available from various projects and groups. Another heritage apple variety purchased (Châtaignier).

Down at the field the grass has really come on, but still a fair amount of buttercup foliage coming through and patches of nettles at the north and east boundary.
Late one evening the wind was getting up a bit and a noticeable amount of leaves are starting to turn or come off now.
The damaged gatepost at the bottom of the access track was replaced and I re-hung the gate so it can be left closed - just as well as about 20 tyres had been fly-tipped into the brook at the side of the public footpath.
I used the Cheshire West & Chester website 'fly-tipping' on-line report form last Friday and by Monday evening the tyres had been removed.

I gave the south hedgerow mature ash trees a bit of a closer looking over, I'd noticed one was partly hollow about half way up (40 feet?) - most have been pollarded at some time in the past, but the hollow one is one of the tallest in it's natural form and from across the field daylight is visible all the way through.