Heaps of new accommodation

When I was working as a teenager with the Sussex Wildlife Trust conservation corps in the coppiced woodlands of West Dean Woods we used to burn all of the cut trees that could not be used for either firewood or hurdle making. Currently in the woodland I am piling the 'brash' into heaps.

                                            

This is a bit more work as all the wood and twigs needs to be heaved on top of the piles, but it has the advantages of providing habitat and having areas of rotting wood which I hope will enrich the developing Mycorrhizal Fungal Network which I hope I am creating under the ground in the woodland.

 

Mycorrhizal Fungal Networks are the unseen powerhouse of a woodland and take many, many years to develop. They link the trees and plants together and move nutrients and water around - having at some time been called a 'communication system' between the trees in a wood. Just planting trees does not create a woodland - which is why Oliver Rackham was so dismissive of 'compensatory' planing of new woodland for the destruction of ancient woodland. Those new 'compensation' trees will take many hundreds of years to develop into what we loose every day under the shovel of development.

Rapidly developing an underground hyphal network may be a forlorn hope, but the wood heaps do provide a great habitat for birds nesting (especially robins and wrens), amphibians (toads, newts and frogs), and all manner of bugs as a secure over-wintering site.

As the wood rots a large number of different fungi appear and the heap decreases in size by about two thirds over the year. I plan to re-use the same sites within each compartment so that I am not putting the news heaps on top of the wildflowers that I am try ing to establish. As I move down each compartment of tree coppicing I  re-use the heaps in the previous year's compartment, so each heap has wood over 2 years on top of it, then a rotting phase of 5 years in the 7 year coppicing cycle. I think that in the next cycle each heap will just be a pile of rotten wood, which will be a great habitat when a whole new pile of branches is put on top.

Starting coppicing - late!

Starting coppicing of Compartment 5 today - a bit late in the year to be starting, but delayed by Covid and having to get the ducks and hens into bird flu secure accommodation.

Hazel is being cut at a 45 degree angle with the cuts facing out from the middle of the stool to take water away and prevent rot. About half of the birch are being cut down, as they have done their job as a 'pioneer species' protecting the slower growing trees from the wind. The tops of the blackthorn and hawthorn is being cut off and they are then being cut partway through at the base and pushed over. This will create new shoots at ground level rather than growing high. All of this is to create different layers in the canopy which gives a variety of different habitats. 

The tops of the trees (anything smaller than about 6cm across) is stacked as wood heaps which provide great habitats for amphibians, nesting sites for robins, over-wintering sites for insects and a hibernation place for hedgehogs.

The wood heaps also give extra insulation to the 'bug hotels' which have been made from the plastic tree tubes (see past posts on this).

Coppicing also lets light to the woodland floor to allow a succession  of woodland plants to grow. Unfortunately as this is new woodland there is not a seedbank in the woodland floor for flowers to grow in response to the extra light in the spring, so i will planting some flowers to get this process started. Some are already moving in on their own - but it will take a very long time! This is why planting new woodlands is never a good substitute for preserving old woodlands.

Last bulb planting

 It’s getting a bit late, but managed to get the last of the bulb planting done.

100 addition snakes head fritillary in the meadow. The bottom part is wet through the spring so should be a good area for them. It is difficult to see but there is a subtle dip running down the slope which is always damper than the rest of the field. This seems like a perfect place for fritillary, so I am putting lots in here.

Wood anemones are a great very early spring flower, which form a carpet in established woodlands. As I coppice each compartment I am putting in some rhizomes hoping that they will start the process of spreading. I put them in after coppicing as I then know where the wood piles are going to be (as I don't want to put in expensive bulbs and then cover them with a mountain of wood!). 

The wood anemone does not seem to have been very successful - I have been planting some for 5 years and not really seen any flowers - maybe it takes time to become established, but maybe either the badgers are digging up the tubers in the winter or the muntjac deer are nibbling off the spring shoots. To really develop a woodland flora I would need to have an animal proof fence all the way around - like the 'pale' which would surround an ancient woodland or the activity of gamekeepers int eh 18th and 19th centuries. However, this seems like a huge effort, and I am not sure that i want to exclude the animals (and I definitely don't want to kill them!).

The last type of bulb being planted is Wild Garlic. This plant likes damper shady areas so I am putting more into the dips in the ground within the wood. Again I am planting them in after coppicing to avoid the wood piles. This has been more successful and I am getting more spreading each year.

Wild Service Tree seeds

The pink of the wild service trees along the woodland edges is bright in autumn sunshine. In the recently coppiced areas the additional light has given a noticeable boost to growth and fruiting even in the first year..

The bright orange seeds are dropping out as the pink fruit open, so the seeds must now be ripe.

In previous years I have planted these seeds at this time of year (autumn), but they have not grown - I guess either rotted over winter, or one year apparently dug up and eaten by mice.

So this year I am storing the seeds until spring and will try planting them then to see if this is a bette way of growing a few more of these interesting trees.

More Bug Hotels

 Last years green tree tubes are being put to good use to make ‘bug hotels’. I have cut the tubes into two, and pushed four of the resulting tubes inside each other.

At the back of the tubes I have built a solid board to prevent a cold wind blowing through.

There is the a wrap of recycled chicken wire around the tubes.

This gives the final ‘hotel’ with the old tree posts forming a roof. 

Comfrey cuttings

 I have several comfrey plants which seem to do very well in damp semi shaded areas of rough grass and nettles. The flowers attract bees (when the neighbourhood farmers haven’t killed them all with spray - our colony of mason bees have all disappeared the day after a neighbouring field was sprayed. Same thing has happened two years in a row).  I love the way that comfrey competes with the grass and nettles by putting on an early autumn spurt of new leaf growth which then dies with the first frost and flops to the ground smothering the surrounding competition. The dead leaves are robust and form a ‘mulch mat’ around the plant in the spring.

However the few comfrey plants are not increasing in number so I am using the autumn growth spurt to take cuttings. To create genetic diversity I take cuttings from different plants.

A growing tip with the lower leaves cut off seems ideal.

These go in a jam jar on a sunny windowsill for 4 to 6 weeks.

They are ready to plant out when new roots have started to form. Don’t worry if the  leaves are looking grey or spotted with mold - as long as there are roots they will do OK.

As the roots are use to being submerged in water keep them that way by putting the pots into a container of standing water.

Once the roots show at the bottom of the pot the plant can be planted into a larger pot to overwinter.

You will soon see a little new growth. I have done this once before and put the pots in the greenhouse over the winter as I thought that the cuttings would not be very robust, having only just rooted. However I am not sure if this is necessary.

So as an experiment this year I have taken 8 cuttings so I will leave half outside and half in the greenhouse over the winter to see if it is necessary to keep them sheltered.

More grass cutting and planting

It’s certainly time for the summer flowering areas around the wildflower meadow to be cut short so that the seeds have the light and air to germinate. This is being done later than ideal - it would be better to have more time for seedlings to develop before the colder weather starts. Ideally the end of August would have been better than the end of September.

For a good article on the difference between spring meadow and summer meadow cutting regimes see https://sussexwildlifetrust.org.uk/discover/in-your-garden/article/124

The main meadow and woodland glade are being developed as a spring meadow - so they grow through the spring and early summer, are cut for hay in late July and the are continually cut short through the late summer and autumn. This give a good opportunity for early spring flowers.

The hedgerow bottoms shown here are cut on a summer meadow cycle - being cut in late September and then kept short in the first couple of months in the spring. Not cut from May onwards, then cut again late September.

The trusty front bar cutting mower (Allen Scythe) is ideal for cutting this long, coarse grass.

Cuttings are raked up an taken off into a grass heap to rot or used as a ‘roof’ on the branch piles in the wood to create a sheltered environment for over-wintering insects.