May; Blooming Lovely

The bluebells were putting on a great show again. I do think we are luckier than many of us appreciate to have such beauty in our native land. You don’t have to travel the planet to see how wonderful this world is. Our time in the woods in May saw more pottering than hard work. A start was made on clearing an old 4x4 route through from the main track into the glade, another tank of chainsaw fuel should see it totally cleared and ready to allow access into the glade for collecting the stacks of logs there; and maybe sometime in the future we will get a 4x4 camper van – time will tell. The tree guards were retied to ensure the saplings had enough room to grow, all doing OK apart from 1 beech which has given up. Julie and Tom spent some time managing the bracken in the glade and the seating / camp fire area was pottered with too. Bluetits are again making use of one of the bird boxes (the same one that was used a couple of years ago). We will move the others before next spring to see if a different location encourages these to be used too. And great news; the pile of rubbish that had been getting bigger near the wood entrance has now disappeared – yay!

April, Wet and Dry

The first visit in April found us driving into a very wet wood. The track was muddier than ever, not helped by being churned up by persons unknown including those who had increased the size of the rubbish pile by the entrance to the woods. Areas that have previously been, at most, damp, were more than soggy with standing or running water in some places where there was none before. It wasn’t all bad as the steam looked and sounded great with the extra flow. A couple of tasks on this visit were to tidy up the glade and attack some brambles. In the glade trees that had been felled were sawn to length and the logs stacked, the hardest part being moving 10 ft long trunks. Julie and Tom put the new brushcutter to use on some of the brambles that were growing near the path. We just got a cheapo Spear and Jackson one from Argos and its progress is slow but sure so far; easier than a machete or loppers, and cheaper (but of course less effective) than a professional machine. Another job later in the day was to push the car out of the mud.

A couple of weeks later and what was mud had mostly set hard and there was no standing water anywhere to be noticed. The sun was shining and the glade saw further tidying as piles of brash were burnt and some more logs moved to larger piles. While Tom did more debrambleficationing with the brushcutter. There were more anemones out, also primroses, violets and the first few bluebells showing their petals to the sun. The young trees are growing well and generally not getting eaten. Along the wayleave where we had in previous years seen 2 orchids, there were now about half a dozen starting to show through. Making the most of the sun shine (and the gap linking the glade to the field) we saw quite a few butterflies including a pair spiralling together.

Bleak Midwinter

That long period of snow (remember that?), plus travelling with work and keeping balance with other things in life has meant we didn’t get to the wood as often as hoped this winter. Instead of trying to coppice another half acre, which we wouldn’t have managed, our visits have been a little more relaxed. Work has been done on widening the glade a little to allow more sunlight in to benefit the wildflowers and butterflies. We now have piles of brash to be burnt or relocated as habitat piles. Many of the birches along the way-leave were bent over from the snow and these have now been cut back to keep the way open. The trees we planted from the Kent free tree scheme are doing OK, but those that were taller than the tree guards are now the same height thanks to the local fauna. Tom has been having fun with his new catapult and has been making an impact on his targets with paintballs. A good idea as the casings are camo’ and degradable and the paint is water based so doesn’t hang around. We are now looking forward to the arrival of spring flowers and warmer (and longer) days in the wood. However work will take me away again next month, oh well, only maybe another 10 years until retirement? We may have another session widening the glade before summer and I am also planning on getting a brush cutter to tackle some of the brambles (but want to leave some for diversity).

November Blow Job

Our first visit for a while and the main job was to check what damage had been done by the recent storms. Fortunately only 2 trees down as far as we could see. The first, a young chestnut, was soon cleared from the path. The other was the large birch in the glade that I had ring barked last winter with the intent of providing standing deadwood but is now providing leaning deadwood. Over the summer the birch had continued to grow but its leaves were smaller than the other birches so I was expecting it to die off slowly, but the weather had other ideas. Lesson learnt; if ring barking birch only cut in less than an inch (this one was cut about 2”). The storms also took the tarp of the ‘kitchen’ bender but that just needed tying back on. The stream was more full than ever and there was so much flow that it couldn’t all fit under the bridge.

We also planted more trees (like last year, these came from Kent councils free tree scheme). Some went into extending the hedgerow we planted last year by the track and creating a short hedge at the end of the glade (which we intend to lay to keep it low so it doesn’t discourage the butterflies etc from entering the glade from the field edge). We also planted a trio of wild cherry near where the path enters the glade, and a trio of ash near the parking space. This time we provided the new trees (and last year’s survivors) with guards so hopefully they will survive the attention of rabbit and deer a bit better.

August – Summers End

A chilled out time in the woods this month. Spending some of the time just sitting with the trees watching the world drift by with the clouds. Plus walking through the woods and reminding myself of what is there and how lucky I am to have this place. A new sighting in the wood this month (which I would have stepped on if it hadn’t moved at the last minute) was a grass snake sunning itself on the track. I also noticed a woodpecker hole in one of the oak standards that is now in space where the surrounding chestnut was coppiced last winter. A bit late in the season I did some work for the butterflies; cutting back the trees at the south end of the glade so that butterflies flying along the edge of the field/wood can now also fly into the glade. The bright green of summer starting to mellow, my thoughts turned to the coming winter (or ‘felling season’ as I’m starting to think of it) and where to concentrate my efforts. I’m thinking that instead of coppicing another half acre (which hopefully Silva Energy will do instead) I may spend time broadening the glade, cutting back some regrowth and maybe thinning chestnut from around the indigenous trees in the central area (leaving mainly oak, birch and the few rowan that are there).

July – Back at Last

After not being in the wood since early May, made up for it with 3 visits in July. Surprised to see just how much it had all grown up in just a couple of months. So the 1st job was to cut back the growth of some brambles and chestnut (that had been coppiced the year before) to re-clear the path from the parking place to the glade. Well, when I say glade, it was really a bracken forest and was starting to choke out some of the other plants that had only started to get established last summer. I did try bashing the bracken but it had grown too much, so the machete came into play and had a more significant impact. Also attacked some brambles in the glade with the loppers to start getting them under control there. The track had too much growth to drive up so the machete again saw some action hacking back the sedges that were hanging out over the track. Some of the trees planted last winter (Kent free tree scheme) were being crowded out so I also cut back around them to give them some light. Deer have also been having a munch, sometimes on these new trees and sometimes on new growth from coppice stools. One of these (an oak) has responded by growing a leaf as large as my hand (*wonders what largest oak leaf ever grown is*).

Was surprised to see what I though were ash trees were actually rowan and are now heavy with berry. The tree camps also had some work, the older one having a trim of the fresh chestnut growth that was crowding into it, the other having some more floor boards fixed on. There was also some maintenance work fixing the loo roof where a gap had appeared between two sheets of tarpaulin. The last visit of the month included a bonfire to tidy up the twiggy stuff that had been piled up from last winters coppicing.

May

Started with some ‘proper work’ stacking all the remaining logs in the area coppiced last winter and also piling up the smaller stuff ready for burning (or leaving as habitat piles). Having done that it is now possible to get to the last few trees that need cutting into logs, but this didn’t get done as the tree camp was calling for attention. The floor boards that were split last time were nailed down and we split some more and fixed those too. The floor is now over half way across and it is now noticeable that one of the main supports is not quite level with the other; maybe it’ll be left rustic but it would be good if it were possible to reposition it without the whole lot falling down when I undid the fixing. The bluebells were in full bloom and the wood is beautiful.