Clearance around the pond completed

Clearing back the blackthorn and willow which had been shading out the pond is now completed. The  'before' photo is in the post of 3rd Feb - and here is what it looks like now:

It is more of a 'marshy area' rather than a pond, as it was dug in continuity with a drainage ditch (an on-stream pond). This is not necessarily a bad thing as a marshy area with different water levels is probably a much better wildlife habitat (see here or the  DEFRA website for more details). The run-off water in the ditch is from the fields of a dairy farm and is probably very rich in nutrients, so would probably not be good for an open water pond. So I shall just continue doing a bit of silt removal to maintain some variety in the water level in this marshy area. I have left the emergent vegetation on the bankside well alone as this is great habitat, and have concentrated on removing overhanging bushes and trees.

All the branch cuttings have been added to the 'branch heap' which you can see in the background of the photo above. This provides an excellent place for nesting birds (robin and wren among

the branches and mallard in the base) as well as an over-wintering site for insects.

Any bigger pieces of wood that were not suitable for fire logs have been stacked at intervals around

the marsh to act as frog, newt and toad homes - as well as adding some more rotting wood habitat.

Leaf fall - good or bad at present?

I have been pleased that each autumn more of the grass that was between the trees in the woodland is being shaded out and covered in leaves. Last autumn was the biggest leaf fall yet, with a good covering across the wood. however Have noticed that in the local mature woodlands all of the leaves have now gone, whereas in my woodland there is still a think carpet. I wonder if this is because the mycorrhizal fungi are not well established. I once read Oliver Rackham (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oliver_Rackham) saying that what was under the soil is much more important for the health of a wood than what we can see above the ground (this was his argument against planting new woodlands - he thought that there should be much more focus on conserving ancient woods).

I hope that the bulbs that I planted in the autumn will find their way up through the dry leaves, and I guess that as the leaves compost they will encourage fungi to grow.

Question of the day is whether ivy can be transplanted? I have a lot growing over a path near the garage, so as I cut it back I have transplanted some into the wood as it makes such a superb habitat for birds and insects. It has roots growing from the stems so I think that it will transplant well.

Moles at work

I have read that molehills are a sign of health grassland. If this is the case I have a very healthy field. I guess that you only get moles where there are lots of worms and a good worm population is the indicator of field health. The wildflower meadow is completely covered in molehills, which I am raking flat and then using as a seedbed to scatter some hay rattle and red clover seeds that I kept to one side during the autumn sowing.

I have read a lot about rattle needing to be frozen before germinating, but in previous years it has looked as if the seed scattered in late February has done pretty well even though it has probably only had one or two frosts.

I am just thinking about getting some more plug plants to go in during the next couple of weeks as the first of the warmer spring days. Trouble is that they have to get established before the grass really starts to grow, so need to be planted in the next week or so.

The Winter work continues

It is fantastic that for the first time this year we have a proper layer of fallen leaves among the new trees, which will hopefully keep the grass down and allow some of the woodland plants to start getting established. However this amount of leaf fall also created a new job - raking the path so that the grass on the footpath was not killed off by a covering of leaves. As these before and after pictures show it makes quite a difference.

Another large task has been to clear back some of the overgrown bushes and vegetation from the boggy area that we dignify with the name of a pond.

Overgrown 'pond' area before clearance

This is an area that was dug out about 20 years ago, but it was dug in line with a ditch/stream that has a lot of agricultural run-off, so it is very silted up and will never be a nice pond. However as a boggy area it is excellent with frogs, toads and lots of bog plants. (I read that if you are making a pond it ought not to be in continuity with the ditch, but have a back channel leading to the pond to prevent silting). Maybe one day we will get a digger to remake a better pond into a much larger feature - but in the meantime I will continue to hack back the blackthorn and pull up great hairy willow herb.

Final 'topping off' for the year

Using a ride on mower on the highest setting (5 - 10 cm from the ground) I have done (probably) the last 'topping off' for the year. Keeping the length of the grass down allows light to get through to the little wildflower seedings that are growing in the bare patches of earth created by the harrowing earlier in the summer.

I try and avoid cutting some of the 'adult' plants (such as meadow cranesbill) so the field has a rather lumpy look to it, but I think that having the autumn leaves as an extra bit of growth on these plants gives them some additional energy stores down in the roots for next year.

It has been such a warm autumn that the grass is growing well at least 3 weeks later than usual, so I guess that the 'topping off' is especially important this year.

Bulb planting in full swing

A little late in the year, but I am about half way through bulb planting. The ground in the wood is extraordinarily dry so I am worried that the bulbs will not do well, but I don't have much choice as I am away on holiday and will not be back until it is too late to plant bulbs. In the wood I am planting 500 bluebells, 100 Wood Anenome and 100 Wild garlic. In the field I am putting 500 Snake's Head Fritillary (all bulbs were from Meadowmania http://www.meadowmania.co.uk).

Bulbs have arrived - time for planting!

The dry and warm autumn means that there are still bees and insects around. However they will soon need a place to hibernate, so as well as the 'bug hotels' made from the plastic tree protectors (see post of 24/4/2016) I have also constructed 'hibernation heaps'. These are piles of branches that are then covered with a thick layer of grass and bramble cuttings.

The structure is open at one side, created by putting the butt ends of the branches in the same direction and not covering this with grass. This means that there is some air movement and the grass will stay dry and not just compost, remaining  good place to hide away through the winter.

End of the Planting Season

The last few weeks have concentrated on planting out all of the pots that I have been growing over the summer. Ideally this would have been done by the end of September - with planting out in the wildflower meadow being done just after cutting to give the plants a chance to establish themselves without too much competition from the grass. However I am much later than this work gets in the way of planting wildflowers! Still I have planted out about 50 pots over the last 4 weeks.

Planting has been mainly cowslip, common agrimony, meadow cranesbill and valerian.  I am now hoping for a good few days of wet and warm weather before the frosts set in in order for the new plantings to put down some roots. I have ben 'topping off' the grass in the part of the meadow where the grass is getting quite coarse to try and keep the coarse grass down and let the finer grasses and wild flowers come through a bit more.

About 3 weeks ago I also scattered oxeye daisy, wild carrot, yellow rattle, red clover and feverfew seeds on areas of the meadow where there was still bare earth. Bulb planting next - they are on order and I hope will arrive soon so that we can get them into the ground in the next couple of weeks.