Progress in the Copse



Wednesday 2nd May 2012
Another dull start to the day.

Every single tree I planted courtesy of Lincolnshire's Hedgerow and Small Woodlands Grant has survived. Peering down into those plastic tubes a variety of fresh green leaves peer back up. Some have even made it into the fresh air above the confines of their tubular home. So the plastic tubes, which cost about five times as much as the trees themselves, have done their job so far in protecting the young saplings from the ravages of the hares and the worst of the weather.

But there is one more threat. Believe it or not, the grass growing around them could kill them, competing for the soils resources but also emitting growth stunting chemicals. At the very least, it will seriously inhibit their growth. I could spray round the base of each tree, but this does not sit at all comfortably with my beliefs.
So instead, I will need to keep the area around each tree well mulched, excluding light and so excluding grass. My plan was to make good use of the grass mowings, but so far it's been too wet to try and collect them. I'm also using every paper feed bag or cardboard box which comes my way. Ugly, but they'll do the job, they'll rot down harmlessly and they can be covered with mulch when I get the chance.

A gentle stroll through the woods  listening to the dawn chorus is just a few years away!

Feasting without Food Miles.




Tuesday 24th January 2012

The tree protection tubes have somewhat spoiled my traditional sunrise photo!





Wednesday 25th January 2012

         

Thursday 26th January 2012

A series of gloomy mornings. Tuesday was a washout, but at least it watered the newly planted trees and wet the ground for those to come. Wednesday was wet till 9, followed by a dry but occasionally windy and chilly day. Thursday was a good day to work outside.

Surging Forward With The Trees
Wednesday
After the morning rain, I carried on with the job of getting the trees planted. This was a satisfying task and the end was in sight. Today I aimed to plant half of the 175 trees still left. I started with an area of Ash trees in the furthest corner of the land, by the back dyke.
The Ash tree was not very familiar to me until I moved here, but it is the species which dominates the Lincolnshire landscape. Here on The Fens it obviously copes well with an exposed site! The four majestic Ash trees which tower over the garden here produce a plethora of seeds which attract hordes of birds. A charm of goldfinches are almost always to be found feeding precariously in the tallest branches. Often I look out on an autumn or winters day to see a gang of fieldfares and starlings swoop en masse from their elevated perch down into the adjacent field, only to all swoop back up to the safety of the trees a few minutes later. These four statuesque trees are dozens of years old and it will be a couple of decades before the newly planted trees produce their own bounty of seeds. Hopefully it will be sooner than that when we can begin to take a little firewood from them.
As I came back towards the farmouse, I introduced a few woodland shrubs to the Ash plantation, the odd blackthorn, guelder rose or crab apple. Then a few Field Maples, a few more, until this delightful old English species was dominant, with just the occasional Ash, and Dogwood and Dog Roses for the understorey.
Before I knew it the sun was on it's way down, the chickens and pigs needed their late afternoon feed, and I had been so engrossed in the task I had completely missed lunch myself!

Thursday
Only 94 to go! An early start and a determined attitude. I had enjoyed this task, but would be happy too when it was completed. The weather might not hold out much longer, and the young saplings would appreciate being in the ground sooner rather than later. In went the last few Field Maples, merging into an area of mixed Goat Willow, Rowan and Alder. Planting was very easy as the rain of Tuesday night had softened the ground perfectly. I worked straight through breakfast and lunch, and by 3.30 I was finished, with time to stand back and admire too. I was finished! 430 trees planted in a week. Not bad going!
Now to be patient. Another five years and it will resemble a young woodland. Another twenty years and I will be strolling through an established woodland in my retirement


Funny Old World
It's funny how things turn out. We have made the conscious decision, as far as is practical, to settle for the foods we have, rather than flown-in exotics from all over the world. The only exception to this is fruits, until our orchard and fruit bushes become productive enough to grow and process most of our own. Even then, in season we at least buy all our apples and plums locally from the farm gate (or scrump them from Don's, whose orchard is six years further down the line than mine!) I have written previously about keeping seasonal tastes special, something to look forward to.

Funny then that we should find ourselves this evening feasting on Jerusalem artichokes (more on this wonderful-to-grow veg at a later date), fennel bulbs, blanched baby beetroot leaves and beetroot. This following the celeriac and Hamburg parsley of the other day. Exotic ingredients all from the garden and harvested in the middle of winter.

Some of these you can buy year-round from the supermarket, bigger, cleaner, more uniform versions flown in from god knows where, though lacking the freshness and so the flavour of those straight from the garden. Some of these you'll never find in a supermarket, or you'll have to pay a fortune for. Either they are too knobbly to be convenient or they just don't store well enough for the supermarkets. Some would just never make it onto the shelves because of minor imperfections, or being the wrong size. Yet others are not commercially viable on  a large scale.

It infuriates me! If only we had to pay for all the hidden costs of our food we might make some far better and healthier choices.

A New Bird For The Farm List!!!

All day I planted trees with my binoculars hung on a fencepost nearby. The only times I stopped briefly were to scan through the gulls which flew to and fro all day. A few of those northern white-winged gulls which recently flooded into the Northwest of the country have begun appearing down south, but none yet over the farm. Still, a good excuse to stop and take in a small piece of the countryside every now and again.

With an hour left before dark, I decided to move the twenty bags of animal food down to the bins by the chickens and pigs. Typical... No sooner do I abandon my binoculars than low toward me and straight over my head flies a large grey goose. Unusually it was not honking loudly, but it was clearly a Greylag Goose. Not a spectacular bird for the list, but a long overdue one for the farm. It continued in the direction of Peterborough, doubtless in a hurry to reach its intended roost site.

Name That Copse

Monday 23rd January 2012
A promising sunrise.

Sunset over our new copse. OK so it doesn't look that picturesque yet, but just imagine in a few years time. Any ideas for what to call our new woodland? We already have a Weasel Ridge and Blackberry Alley, so a nice cottage-style name is what we're after.

A Copse of our Own

Sunday 22nd January 2012

 For the briefest moment the rising sun peeked through a slither of a gap in the clouds this morning. The sky was a mix of ominous clouds sweeping quickly by interspersed with sky blue glimpses through.



Chilled Chickens

The chickens were strangely chilled out this morning. Unconcerned by my offers of food, they mooched around happily in their luxury enclosure. Perhaps they've accepted that for the moment they are to live within the very spacious confines of their fence. The wing-clipping seems to have worked, with only the guinea fowl and Chick of Elvis wandering. They never go far though without the back-up of the cockerel and the elder chickens. Since they started their worming treatment, their eggs are stronger shelled. We were finding a broken egg most days for a while. Although not of too much concern, it's not a good idea to let the chickens get a taste for egg!

A Woodland is Born

With the help of my wonderful Sue, we managed to plant a mixed copse of 175 trees today, complete with stakes and tree guards. Quite an achievement. This copse is designed to be more suitable to a slightly wetter area of land, so it is a mix of mainly birch with alder and rowan (also known as mountain ash, but doesn't actually need mountains!) All these species do well in wetter ground. This copse is the nearest to the farmhouse and orchard. The rowans will provide their berries and the birches can eventually be tapped for their sap. They are also decorative species, and I have interspersed them with other attractive shrubs and trees, such as crab apples, dogwood, dog rose and a couple of hollies. Alders and birches produce huge quantities of seed and are a favourite food of avian winter visitors such as siskins and redpolls.

At the moment it looks as if I've planted a forest of plastic tubes.

Should be more impressive in a few years time.

We finished protecting the last few trees under a glorious red sunset. When we got in, I realised just how much of a battering my poor hands had taken. It was as if they had been sandpapered... with an electric sander.

Wind in the Willows, Birches, Rowans, Alders...

Saturday 21st January 2012

The sun still did not show itself as it broke the horizon, but the sky was more promising for the day ahead.

Wind in the Willows, Birches, Rowans, Alders, Hazels, Crab Apples, Field Maples, Guelder Roses, Dog Roses, Ash trees, Dogwoods, Blackthorns...

We know when it's a windy day here. The sun comes up! Well, that's how it seems sometimes. A Westerly wind especially announces itself. The front door howls and whistles. Today was a breezy one - not unusual out here on The Fens. There's nothing to stop the airflow and it's better to embrace it rather than try to fight it. Important to remember that when ahead lies a weekend planting trees out on the most exposed parts of the farm. Today the wind swung round to a Northwesterly, bringing with it several squally showeres of decidedly chilly rain. So it was that I found myself huddled up in the lee of what remains of the haystack. But today's task was a "whatever the weather" task. The 430 trees which arrived too late to begin planting on Thursday now needed my attention.

What they'd look like in two years, five years or twenty years time is hard to imagine, so I like to drive stakes in where the trees are to go to get some sort of picture.

Since moving in to Swallow Farm, I have been keen to preserve the views across the surrounding farmland to the horizon. At the same time, there is a definite need to provide some element of shelter from the winds. The prevailing wind sweeps in from the Southwest, which is why whenever I stake a tree the stake goes on that side of the tree. So I have come up with a policy of breaking the airflow with a series of short hedgerows which still preserve the views as far as possible. I have planned the same for the new woodland areas, to allow breaks in the woodland through which to admire the openness of the landsape. Not only that, but I still need to be able to scan all around to look at the birds!

Our land is very long and thin, running west to east, so I have also used the perspective as far as possible to plant as many trees as possible and still keep open the eastern horizon where the sun comes up. 

I managed to place 430 stakes in a morning. In the afternoon I began the daunting task of planting the trees. Each one is barely a slip, so they can go into a T-shaped slit in the ground made with the spade ... in theory. The bare root saplings need their roots protecting from drying out until just before planting, so I take about 25 out at a time and transport them around in a bucket of water, giving them one final dip before planting. Under no circumstances should they be stored with the roots submerged long term. They will drown.

I planted a single species area of hazels, planted fairly close together so that when I eventually coppice them they grow up nice and straight . If I had a larger area I would intersperse the occasional ash tree to grow above them as standard trees. Then a line of Scots Pines on the exposed side of the land to eventually provide a majestic windbelt. Finally 50 Sycamores, for quick growth and quick coppice. The only species in this woodland scheme which is non-native, sycamore has been quick to adapt to life in Britain, and our native buglife has been quick to learn to exploit sycamore in return. One of its main benefits is that it is reputedly immune from rabbit grazing. Ultimately though, sycamores on the coast seem to act as a magnet for warblers on migration, so maybe one day my small migrant trap might attract something unusual like a Yellow-browed Warbler. Everything I plant has at least one purpose, be it for a crop, visual attraction or for the wildlife.

Chickens and Carbon Offsetting.

Friday 6^th January 2012

Chicken talk
What a beautiful morning. The air was clear, a joy to breathe in. Most importantly, the air was still after endless gales. A pheasant strolled across the meadow, its rich rust and coppery tones beautifully lit by the early sun. There was a shooting party out yesterday, so this one was obviously either lucky or had outwitted them. A light frost touched the ground and a wafer thin layer of ice floated over the surface of the chicken drinkers. A light prod did the job of breaking it. I’m sure a thoughtful chicken could have done the same job with a hefty peck, but they never seem to think of it. Sorry if it’s too much detail, but this type of morning is perfect for picking over the grass in the chicken complex. Their valuable droppings, lightly frozen, are like plucking chicken nuggets from the carton (not that I ever do this). I only wish I could train them where to leave their deposits!

No eggs first thing today. Probably because one of the hutches from the chicken village has been removed for repair.

Part of the chicken village.

Chickens like to sort out their pecking order (who roosts in which hut, which perch, who goes in first, second, third...oh yes, they are certainly creatures of habit and they don’t like change. I’ve also noticed that they seem to lay a little later if the night is cold or wet. But in fairness to the girls, it has to be said they have laid brilliantly so far this winter. They seem to be the only chickens for miles around that have continued to lay. Not sure if they’re supposed to, but we’ve been getting between 5 and 8 eggs a day from 9 laying hens, which would not be bad in the height of summer. And now that the days are slowly getting longer, some of the eggs are huge. No wonder the chickens walk funny! I’d like to think this is because they have plenty of space and freedom and have been topping up their greens and protein intake in the veg garden. They certainly like the sorrel plants, which is surprising as the leaves are as sharp as a lemon.

To keep them healthy, they get a dash of cider vinegar in their water for the first week of every month. They seem to enjoy this liquid and it does seem to keep them in good condition. I wonder if there is a link with the acid content of the sorrel plants too. Anyway, next year I plan to grow them their own patch of favourite plants - sorrel, cabbage, chard, fat hen, as well as a lot of garlic since I’ve heard this is beneficial to their health. Every 6 months though, I like to treat them for internal parasites properly, so yesterday I ordered some Flubenvet for them. This sorts out any problems and their is no withdrawal period from eating the eggs. I am trying the stronger mix, normally reserved for bigger flocks, as it works out a lot cheaper. I just need to measure it carefully.

Carbon Offsetting
I received an e-mail last night to say that a consignment of trees will be delivered today, so that’s my weekend sorted out. 137 treees to plant. I have another order of 400 trees to come this winter, courtesy of Lincolnshire’s Hedgerow and Small Woodland Grant Scheme. This order is for the more ornamental and decorative species - still mostly native. I have small-leaved limes which I hope to coppice and harvest the leaves for salads. They will also eventually contribute greatly to tasty honey from the bees. I have a native edible hedgerow too, which will go along the edge of the forest garden - a mix known as “Elspeth Thompson’s Edible Hedging” - sounds like one of those Victorian quack doctor concoctions. Also a line of poplar trees, for shelter and because they make such a great landscape feature on the flat Fens. Some decorative dogwoods and willows too, which will be harvested for wood and for willow withies to make hurdles and simple baskets. Since each small offcut is easy to grow into a new tree, these may end up on my produce list. Then there’s the larches, pines, spruces and firs which I like to plant for variety. Who knows, maybe one day they’ll attract a coal tit into the garden. These trees will pay for themselves as soon as the first is big enough to be used as a Christmas tree.

Before these trees arrive, I am hoping to move the old haystack inside. The hay is a couple of years old now, so needs to be used, and the polythene covering is ugly and can be reused to cover a couple of compost heaps so they warm up. I have read that a hay mulch is much appreciated by asparagus, so I’ll give that a try too. Oh...and that chicken hutch needs mending.

Bird stuff
The feeders were more active this morning. Lots of house sparrows, chaffinches, blue and great tits in the hedge and at the feeders. On a national scale, the recent high winds have brought a glut of arctic gulls, into the West of the country. Hopefully some of these will gradually start to appear over on our side, so for the next couple of months I shall be paying more attention to the gulls which fly over the farm on their way to and from The Wash every morning and evening. I’d love to have a white-winger (Glaucous or Iceland Gull) on my garden list.