Winching a tree

Thinning out the woodland is difficult as some of the large trees (such as the pollard willows) do not have enough space to fall and so get ‘hung up’ in neighbouring trees. These are called ‘widow makers’ by lumberjacks as they are inherently unstable and liable to fall uncontrolled if you try and cut them up while still hung up. I cut a reverse notch with the chain saw (sloping side pointing down) so that the cut trunk falls down off the stump even if the top branches get hung up.

The solution is to pull the base of the trunk away from the lean so that the top then falls to the ground, where it can be safely cut up, the firewood taken out and the brash stacked. However the trunks are way too heavy to move by hand.

The solution is to us a hand winch, which is secured to a tree.

A block  (pulley) is strapped to another tree which is chosen to give the steel cable a clear run between the coppice stools and to pull the trunk in the correct direction.

A strap is wrapped around the bottom of the cut trunk of the leaning tree.

Using the winch then enables the trunk to be easily pulled away from the direction of lean, which then eases the whole tree  to the ground very slowly and controlled (note the drag mark from the bottom of the trunk). The winch operator is a whole cable length away from the tree and absolutely safe.

Once the tree is on the ground it can easily and safely be cut up.

The winch is a great piece of kit for about £200.

Planting out Cowslips in January

For any gardener January is certainly not a time to be planting out seedlings. However the early spring wild flowers are just about to have their early year growth spurt, so now is the time to get the, into larger pots so they can establish.

The cowslips that I planted in seed trays last year are not in great condition. They have been sitting on a concrete surface and have been waterlogged by the recent weeks of rain, with some leaves going yellow. However there are also small new green leaves so I think that they will be fine. The plants have a dense mat of moss on the surface which will need to be removed so that there is no competition with the cowslips.

Some of the seedlings have been planted out into pots - a technique pretty much guaranteed to give a good plant to put out into the meadow in the autumn.

However, I am also trying something new. Last year I had success by planting out a seed tray that had many small foxgloves. This was just a tray that I did not have time to put into individual pots, so I just stuck it in the ground and surprisingly it formed a nice patch of flowers. So I wondered if the same thing would happen with cowslips. These trays have several small plants which I hope will grow together a form a nice clump which will be able to stand up to competition from the grass once planted out in the meadow.

There is a slight concern that the roots of the cowslips will grow sideways rather than down, and so when planted out will not be able to get below the grass roots in the competition for water and nutrient. However as they will be planted out into a shallow tray sized hole (using a spade to cut out an area of grass the same size as the tray) I am hoping that the grass roots will be far enough away for the cowslips to re-orientate and grow downwards. Time will tell - update coming later in the year.