A murky January day getting on with planting. We've begun this annual winter task a bit late , normally trying to get it done before Christmas. There won't be as much to do this year. Only planning to plant about 200 this season. We started with creating a small Hazel Grove in an area of the wood colonised by birch , choosing a spot with a lot of bramble in it, which clearly gets more sun than other areas . The hazel should do well here, with the added bonus of it eventually shading out the bramble . It's all about the light levels - too much light and an area is taken over by bracken and bramble, too little, and nothing much will grow. We are always conscious of trying to strike the best balance. We are using recycled tree tubes, and the stakes are poles from another area of the wood where there is a lot of neglected hazel. We will pollard this before the Spring to improve its health and strength and harvest their very useful, strong and straight poles at the same time. We might also try a bit of experimental coppicing, but are a bit wary of doing this because of the somewhat diminishing, but still present chance of deer depredation. They love fresh green hazel shoots!
The hazel poles have the bonus of often producing roots, which will double the number of plants
A patch of bramble which will very quickly increase in size if left another season.We have plenty of the stuff for wildlife, but un-managed it will very soon take over a large area
The soil here was pretty good for planting - not too much sandstone.
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