Harrowing and Seeding

 Field harrowing is an important part of the natural cycle of the meadow. I have taken the opportunity to add in some seeds - ox eye daisy, bird’s foot trefoil, bedstraw and rattle.

Having about 20% bare earth allows seeds to germinate. This year we have been very late in harrowing so there may not be time for the seeds to germinate - 3 weeks ago would have been much better.

If there is a mild and damp spell over the next few weeks germination will still happen. As the grass is growing very quickly, so I am going to need to cut it to let the light into the seeds to allow them to grow.

I plan to put some more rattle in towards the end of the winter.

Pond digging results can be seen

The pond had almost totally silted up as it had been constructed with the flow of water entering from upstream (and hence bringing in all the silt). I dug it out last summer and created an upstream dam using the dug out silt. The pond now fills by backflow from the downstream end, which I hope will mean less silting up.

Across the downstream entrance I have planted Yellow Iris which have now grown up and I hope will provide a filter mechanism to further reduce the silt getting into the pond.

The water level is now regulated by a downstream dam and sluice.

I managed to identify the Marsh Marigold (Kingcup) roots as I was digging out, and replanted them (actually no planting needed - just divided the root balls and put them back into the dug out pond). This has been successful with a great display of yellow colour this spring.

Cuckoo Flower count

Cuckoo flower count this year is 517. It is very nice to see another big increase.

The Cuckoo Flower (Lady's Smock) is concentrated in the wetter areas of the field - the distribution coincides almost exactly the places in which the rush is starting to grow. Neither of these plants has been introduced, this is just the natural evolution of the wildflower meadow as we return it to poorer soil by cutting in early summer. 

There is also a change in the nature of the grass. In previous years there has been an obvious difference between the area that was ploughed and reseeded and the area that originally had finer grass and so was left intact. The seeded area has always had a greater growth of grass, probably due to the nutrients stirred up by the plough. This year there is no very much distinction between the areas, so I hope that this is the result of taking off the grass each year, which over 15 years has decreased the nutrient content of the sward.

More luxury bug hotels

I used plastic tubes when the trees in the woodland were planted. We were not so plastic aware in those days - so now that the trees have grown the plastic tubes have come off and I wondered what to do with them.

So cut in half with four sections put inside on another, stacked with a recycled wood backing and old chicken wire wrapped around to keep them in place.

I will cover this with branches later in the summer when I cut the hedges and will then finish it off with swept up leaves in the autumn. This will provide a nice warm and snug over-wintering place for bugs, mice and frogs.

Growing Ox-eye daisy

A series of winter storms have stopped work over the last few weeks.
However I have been plating out some Ox-Eye Daisy. There was quite a bit of Ox-Eye Daisy in the wildflower meadow when I first seeded it in 2005, but it has gradually dies out - probably because I have not been harrowing hard enough to make lots of bare earth after cutting the hay, and not cutting short enough in the autumn.
So I have been creating patches of red grass with Roundup in the autumn. I am then planting these areas up with plug ox-eye daisy that I grew from seed last autumn. This area was planted up this weekend.

It is best to plant in January or February as the root systems grow during the cold weather even if the tops only show static green shoots. The plugs grow roots up to 20cm long!

This is one of the areas that I planted out last year. As you can see there is a vigorous growth of daisy, which had good flowers last year. I am hoping that the new mowing regime with harrowing and autumn cuts with the ride on mower will enable these patches to survive, and even spread.

Many uses for cut wood

When I was working with the Sussex Conservation Corps managing the coppice woodland at West Dean Woods we always used to burn all of the branches and wood that we were not going to sell as firewood. This is usual woodland management practice as it keeps the woodland floor clear and means that the rotting wood cannot act as a reservoir for disease in the woodland trees.

However burning the wood is not very natural (although a big bonfire is great fun!), so now in the woodland I am taking a more natural approach to try and maximise the habitats that a small copse can provide.

The larger pieces of wood that have knots in them so are not suitable for firewood I am making into piles dotted around the woodland. These will gradually rot down and I hope provide a great habitat for wood boring insects as well as a damp dark place for amphibians such as frogs, toads and newts.

The smaller branches (the brash) are being piled in high mounds running down the hill within the woodland. These piles provide a great over-wintering place for insects and somewhere for the hedgehogs to hibernate that is secluded and dry. They break up the woodland floor to give shelter, although I am not sure that I want to encourage the muntjac deer as over-grazing is such a problem in woodlands now (I read that there are now more deer in England than at any time sine the medieval).

The branch piles are a great place for robins and other low nesting birds to live. Over time they will rot down to provide a good invertebrate habitat.

The final use for wood is the larger pieces, which I take out for firewood. This will season (dry) through the summer and provide our heating and hot water next winter. The log stacks are kept off the wet ground by cross timbers so that they do not rot, and a rough shelter of corrugated iron and tarpaulins keeps the rain off while letting plenty of breeze through to start the drying process.

Coppicing and Pollarding

Working in  the woodland I am using different techniques for the different types of tree:

1) Leave to grow
The future high canopy trees such as Oak,  Beech, and Ash are being left to grow, along with the slow growing trees such as Holly, Wayfaring tree, Crab Apple and Spindle.

2)  Cut down
The Birch trees have sheltered the woodland as it has grown. They are now 30 to 40 feet high and the tallest trees in the wood, so cutting them down gives space and light for the others to grow. This also gives excellent and easily split firewood for next winter. The Birch stumps will not regrow.

3) Coppice
The hazel is being coppiced. Each trunk, or ‘stool’ is being cut at about 6 inches off the ground and will regrow with multiple shoots to give a mid canopy in the woodland.

4) Pollarding
The willow, which is nearly as tall as the birch, is being pollarded - cut off at about 4 feet from the ground (ideally it should be a couple of feet higher, but I am nervous of using a chainsaw at this height). Pollarding evolved to prevent cattle eating the new shoots, and although this is not an issue in the woodland I thought that a combination of coppicing and pollarding would create variety.

5) Bending over
To create the lowest canopy level I am ‘bending over’ the thorn trees. This is the same technique as used when laying a hedge. The upper branches are cut off, and the branches on the side which will be on the ground are also removed. The trunk is then cut through about two-thirds at the base and the whole thorn bush is then pushed to the ground. The trunk still needs to slope slightly upwards for the tree to survive. The thorn trees are about 20 feet high so battling with the spikes is my least favourite job!

Coppicing in the Woodland - Compartment 3.

I am in compartment 3 of the woodland, thinning out the trees to create several different layers in the tree canopy. Coppicing is an old form of woodland management which used to be used to produce hazel wands for hurdle and peg making. There is more information about coppicing here. The Trust for Conservation Volunteers (TCV) has a 'how to do it' guide here. The cycle of cutting and growth creates a varied habitat and allows light onto the woodland floor so that plants can grow. The regrowth of the trees gives a diversity of habitats.

Coppicing involves cutting the hazel about 6 inches off the ground to form a stool in which each stem is cut at 45 degrees facing outwards, so that water runs away and does not rot the stump.

Last autumn I put woodland flower seed into the area that I was planning to cut this winter - to give them maximum light in the newly-cut area next spring. So it will be interesting to see if this establishes the plants for next summer, as putting seeds into shady woodland is not that successful.

Coppicing in progress (Compartment 1)

After 1 year (compartment 2) the shoots are about 5 or 6 feet tall.

Coppice 1 year after cutting (Compartment 2)

After 2 years the growth is 10 to 12 feet tall and the ideal height for a great habitat for insects and birds. There are going to be 8 compartments so this area will grow for another 6 years before being cut again.

Coppice 2 years after cutting (Compartment 1)

As well as coppicing I am cutting down about half of the silver birches that have been acting as the 'nursery trees', growing fast and tall which gives protection to the rest of the trees. Taking out these tall silver birch trees will enable the slower growing oak, ash and beech to have more light and space (as well as providing me with heating for next winter!). I am keeping half of the silver birch as they provide shape when looking at the woodland and give a variety of habitats - there seem to be a lot of nests in the silver birch branches, where the twins seem denser than in many of the other trees.

New Year's resolution 2020 - Reinstate the blog!

OK. So New Year's resolution 2020 is to reinstate the 'Woodland and Wildflower Meadow' blog.
The clearance around the pond mentioned in my last post was now some time ago, so I thought that this would be good place to start. In early 2018 I dug out the pond, which had become very silted up as the inlet from the stream (which is actually more of a farmland run-off ditch) is upstream of the pond - which means that debris and silt coming down the stream settles in the pond. So I used the diggings to create an upstream dam so that the water in the pond is now a back flow through a porous bank which I have planted with yellow iris (the porous bank is on the right of the photo). Hopefully this will act as a filter and mean that there is less sediment in the pond in future.

I have also raised the water level in the pond a few inches by putting in a dam. Although, as you may be able to see, there is water coming under the dam at present and I need to puddle in some clay to seal it.

The green in the pond is grass - which has gained a foothold as the last two summers have been so dry. I was hoping that once waterlogged it would die off - but it actually looks very healthy. Maybe I will have to get the waders on to pull it up, which does not sound like a very pleasant winter task!

The majority of the bank around the pond still has cover for animals and I have made log piles as shelter for frogs, toads and newts.