Grand Central Ditch

The dead-line to get this woods finished, is running dangerously close, as an exceptionally warm Spring, ripens tree buds.

I have half dug this wide ditch, through half the boggy land, which I am planting up.   The waters, which are sucked out of the upper part of the land feeds into a. Long pond and from there the water just spills over onto the remaining part of the swamp.  This gives me a dry half and a boggy half.

With the soil from digging the ditch I have raised some bits of land up a layer or two, so non bog trees should be able to thrive here.  Also I have made some larger banks for Oaks and other large trees to have an optimum location.

Today I found about four Oaks, but a Dog walker tipped me off, as to where there might be loads of them in the Torridge Valley.

With no time to waste; I must try and find this location tomorow and then this little late season woods, next to my home; will be complete.

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New Land to Plant!

Marshy Clay

I actually have permission to plant trees on this largish marshy, swampy, fenced off bit of land, between conifer plantations and fields of Horses.

The land owner said I can plant this bit with trees, if I so wish, also; that I can landscape it a bit.  I reckon that if I raised some little banks up off the normal ground level a bit; I could grow some Oaks out here, which would be good, since there seem to be so few of them on this massive plateau, which makes up the Northerly border between Devon and Cornwall.

The soil here is a thin layer of peaty, saturated mud, under which lies a thin layer of peaty clay.  Below and beyond that is seemingly just endless clay.  In ununiformed layers of different colours, ranging from light grey-blue to bright irony orange.  Mostly though it's just grey.  Probably be quite good for making plates out of.

Creating a variety of Habitats

At the moment this is a flattish swamp, it will support only a small variety of wildlife and only such things that will live in a swampy grass-land.  Besides the conifer plantations that are common-place up here; most if not all of the remaining land is like this and usually being grazed.

What I want to do on this site is to create a variety of different habitats, so that the maximum different plant and animal species can thrive here and hopefully be able to co-exist.

The aim, for me is to create large, seemingly random and natural areas of the following land types:

• Raised areas of land, maybe by only a foot/30cm.  Just enough to create a dry area, where trees such as Oak and Hawthorn can grow.
• Ponds, where much more water life can exist than just on a swamp.  I want to make them about three feet/just under one metre deep.  I also want to make them fairly large, as it is possible this clay might collapse and the bigger the ponds are; the longer they should survive for. 
• Areas of existing swamp, so that such plants and creatures that live here already can continue doing so.
• Areas of drained swamp, where landscaping has altered the groundwater supply and some bits of the bog will become dry or dryer.  These bits will be good for Birch.  Which seem to be mostly absent, from this whole area.
• Water Courses or lower areas, where water can flow through the swampier areas and ponds.  I want to channel the water where I want it to go and to cause various areas to become either wetter or dryer.
• Lowered Swamp areas, where I just lower the land by a few inches/10cm(ish), to create a wet-land environment.   Also areas when water is directed to, which will become vastly more boggy

 Ponds are best put in the boggiest places

        The aim of this first bit of swampy landscaping, was to drain this very swampy bit of land(shown above), at the bottom of the neighbouring Horsey field, into the (already featured) pond, which I have dug near by.

I had put the pond on what looked like a position further down this gradual slope.  But no!  As you can see here; the water has gone the other way and is saturating the bottom of the Horsey field even more. the ditch I dug to drain the swamp into the pond is full and over flowing at the swamp end, whilst the pond still has an inch/2.5cm of cliff before the normal land level.

Oh well, at least I have drained a small area of marsh on some of the sides around the pond and I have created the beginnings of a water course, which could snake its way though the whole thing if I do it just right.

Freezing Night Time Hedge Planting

Leat Side Hedge

The day time temperatures up on Dartmoor at the moment are scarcely rising above minus two, so I dread to think what the temperature is tonight.

 There was no way I could have gone out tonight without gloves, so I hunted high and low for them and eventually found them in the very bottom and back out a seldom used cupboard.  In fact there were two pairs there.

Tonight I am extending a hedge, which as you can see from the proximity of the fearsome glow from the near by prison; a bit further away from my usual planting sites.  This bit lies just down stream on the leat, where I have gradually planted a hedge along a thin strip of land between the leat and a barbed wire fence.

I began planting this hedge about four years ago, with the odd surviving tree from predating years, some being in for about ten/eleven years now.  Each year I add another couple of chunks of hedge along here and this year I have chosen to do the far end, where the leat comes up to the main road (B3212).  

Tonight I have only planted Oak, Hazel and Blackthorn, but many established trees of other types, which I have added during previous years; already exist here.  so tonight I was really filling in the gaps, with what was missing.

Concealed Stash of Trees

Tree Stash

It is always good to keep things in one place, which is memorable, easy to spot in the dark and somewhere that no one goes.  It saves panicking in the dark and spending a long time searching for lost trees and tools.
When I leave my stashed tree pile, for any length of time; I cover them over with grass and/or leaves or snow; to conceal them and to keep them from becoming dry.  

Tonight's trees have been stashed underneath this young Spruce tree, which I planted 11 years ago.

Conifers in places

I do not normally plant non native species, but on this site there are huge clumps of Spirea, which have escaped from people's gardens and are marching across this site at an alarming rate, so I thought a neat little belt of Conifers, on that edge of the site.  On the North facing side of the houses; should ought to halt the Spirea clumps in their tracks and then eventually smother them.

Tonight I added to this barrage with just a few more little conifers, but all the other trees in the bag were native and deciduous.

These types of Spruce are not like the invasive Maritime Pines, like you get along the South coast.  These ones will not compete in a deciduous woodland and will be very unlikely to seed themselves here.

Planting Trees in the Snow

The Snow makes work a bit harder, but there isn't loads of it.  In fact this is the first significant snow of this Winter.  Very different from the last three unbearably freezing tree planting seasons, when snow covered the whole area for many months, sometimes over a metre deep. 

This snow is melting rapidly and will probably be gone completely in a couple of days, if not later on this afternoon.  I hope so, because I had planned to go out tree collecting.

Snow must be shovelled off the patches of ground, where the little trees are to be planted and then kicked back over again a bit, to hide the disturbed ground, after each one is done.

On this site I am planting tightly packed clumps of mixed small Willows and Birch, often two or three to a hole.  I have found out through experimentation, that most species of tree, but most especially Birch; grow allot better in clumps.  I am not sure why this is, but I now always try and group them together in clumps, leaving good spaces between these clumps, for people to comfortably walk around and between them.

I hope that I will complete this site before I move house, but if not; there are enough wild trees species to colonise the remaining bits naturally.  To allow me to cut a few corners, I have left a few grassy open patches and added allot of suckering Blackthorns, which will spread out, with their underground rhizomes and extend the woods in whatever directions necessary.

Last Years Trees

Walking around here in the snow; I can spot just about all of my trees from last year, as the snow has flattened and obscured the grass and other vegetation, which normally camouflages them.

It is hard to believe that these have only been in a year; they have grown loads!  Particularly trees which are often difficult to get started like the Oaks, which are doing extremely well.

The Willows and Birch from last year have all grown long shoots in the growing season and look so much bigger than the ones I have put in today.  

Trees all planted, I got myself back into the warmth and I hope that the snow melts soon, so I can get out and get some more trees.

Dawn Alder Planting Mission

Tricky Sites

This site is one of the most awkward to plant; it can't be be done in the day time, because its on an 'almost cross-roads' between two semi-major foot paths, it is over-looked by the village and also by Dartmoor Prison.

Planting this site in the dead of night also presents problems, as the site is very boggy, tangled with brambles and small prickly shrub trees, which I have planted here in previous years and the site lies between a leat and a ditch.  The only time that I felt it to be safe to plant this site was at the crack of dawn, when there is sufficient light but hopefully no people.  So that it what I have come here this morning to attempt to accomplish.

Many trees and shrubs exist along this narrow strip of land and of many types.  These I put in over the past decade, they are nearly all shrub trees and are mostly getting well established here.  They include Broom, Gorse, Willow, Hawthorn and Birch.  But I haven't really added any thing to this bit directly for five years.  In that time however all the surrounding land has been planted, so this last little bit that I am doing tonight; completes this bit of the woods.

There remaining gaps between the clumps of young shrub trees were all very boggy, so I decided to string them together, with tightly planted groups of Alders, which I am confident; will do very well here.

Completion

Since this part of the woods is now compete; moral was given a bit of a boost.  I am finding that allot of sites are the same this year; as add the finishing touches all over these woods of my own making.  I have been busy doing this here for the last eleven years and now it really dose seem to have been worth it.

Along this site there are many clumps of Stinging Nettle and Russian Comfrey.  Both get quite large in the Summer and have dense light blocking foliage.  I am assuming that my Alders are both big and robust enough to cope with this, but never the less I have tended to put them around the edges of these sites, rather than right in them, as I feel they will have a better chance, than they would have had in the centre.  If they were a little bit bigger it would have been OK to plant them further into these clumps, but I was concerned that they would not survive as well, if I did.

Alders are very good at pushing up through stuff, better than most trees, but I never like to take unnecessary risks with my little trees, so I like them to be taller than the height of the summer vegetation.

Nice Welcome Home

Cats are usually noted as ignoring their humans, but I received a very warm welcome from my kitten, called Max, when I got home.  Very nice after a cold wet dawn planting-mission.  Occasionally a few of the cats actually appear when I am out planting trees, although that is usually; to come and get me, because they want something.  
Could this be an actual feline selfless act?

Lime Trees

Small leaved Lime Tilia Cordata

I don't plant many Lime tree, as they are not very common in the wild.  But I like to have them dotted about in parts of the woods, as they provide a great deal of shelter for creatures, with their many side shoots, which sprout from all the way up the trunk of mature trees, right up into the canopy.  This provides lots of high up shelter for Birds, Squirrels and other small creatures.  

The lime has a habit of trapping puddles of water between its clumps of branches, which would save animals, which live in them; from venturing down onto the more dangerous ground, to look for water.

Sometimes I buy little Lime trees and sometimes I dig up suckers, from big trees.  They seem to grow remarkably well and can put up with most things.  They are slow to start, but remarkably tough and resilient.

Planting Trees in a Bank.

Dibbing in Little Oaks
This site; the Two Bridges road, Near Princtown is my show-piece Wild Daffodil plantation.
Since the Wild daffs are starting to sprout now; I do not want to disturb them, so I have opted not to use the spade and instead have employed the actions of a little bit of tough willow stick, to use as a Dibber.


This road has a raised granite bank, all along its two mile(ish) length.  On the 5 foot high bank have been planted Hawthorns, but nothing else.
Beech and the loathsome Sycamores have started to make headway, seeding themselves onto and around this bank, sprouting up along whole sections of the wall invasivly, in the absence of all other species of trees.


Today's Mission
Today I simply wish to add Wild local Oak to this bank, so that the canopy will not one day; just be dominated by only a few species of trees.  I have brought along the odd hazel as well and a few dog Rose, but very little else.
Also; Wild Daffs love Oaks and will grow under a mixture of deciduous trees that includes Beech, but they will not grow under just-Beech!

The grass on top of this bank doesn't get very long, so here tiny little pull-up-able twiggy two year old seedlings have been selected.  These then only have a tap root of a few inches long and easily fit into the little holes that I have been dibbing.


I dib the holes as deep and wide enough, then pop in a few little Oaks  in each hole.


Next I grab a hand full of nearby mus or soil and fashion it comfortably, around the tree's bases, both for support and to ensure that the roots are covered with soil.


Since discretion is every thing; I like to disguise newly planted trees.
I do not want people to notice these little babies, until they are growing fast up through the protective Hawthorn hedge, that they are in.  So I grab some leaves and cover the patch of disturbed ground with then an top it off with a bit of grass.


The process of dibbing is illustrated here, in the above captions.
The pictures below demonstrate the follow up procedures, to maximise the survival rate of these delicate little trees:

1) Grab some mud from nearby.

2) Place it around base of baby trees.

3) add a few leaves.

4) Disguise with grass.

Planting Acorns

Some people would dib Acorns and cover them with soil. I wouldn't though.
In the wild; the Acorns fall off in October, closely followed by the leaves, which bury them and through which they grow.  So I choose to do the same.

I only plant them where there is no grass competition.  like here, in this moss.  There also needs to be a near by source of leaf mold, like from the Hawthorn hedge, so the young Oaks will have enough nutrients in the soil to grow.