Andrew Roberts » Up the Land

Tree Planting – Day 4

AndrewRoberts — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 17:33:42 +0000

Today was a good day. When is a day standing in a muddy field in the pouring rain not a good day? Well, today … I got in the zone!

I only found out on Saturday that Lisa had half-term this week and I would be able to get on with the trees so its been a bit stressful feeling I “had to” get all the trees in by the end of the week and I “had to” make sure I had enough trees for people to plant. Feeling under pressure from these obligations I was putting on myself and worrying about not having all of the trees detracted from the bigger picture and, to be honest, made it all a bit of a chore. Well I collected the last of the trees last night and I decided I didn’t really have to get all of the trees planted this week, and I even got a chance to check with Lisa that she was actually OK with me rushing off to the land for a week (I kind of missed that bit in my excitement, but luckily she was forgiving). So today all this allowed me to look up from the ground and look out over the whole ten acres of newly created woodland and just think … wow, this is just too cool! This combination of efforts from all sorts of directions has created and will nurture this amazing resource. And once the pressure was off I felt really energised, it stopped being such a chore (I’m probably a bit fitter after a couple of days too) and I could get back to loving being there on a hillside surrounding by sweeping vistas and working on such an exciting project.

Saying that the rain was spectacular today; it alternated between torrential downpours and sunshine. The rain came in from the same direction the slope faces over a ten mile wide bowl of ridges. So I’d be standing in the sun and able to watch these solid walls of rain as they slowly crept over the valley towards me. And it being the first time out in my waterproofs I didn’t realise the rubber had perished over the shoulders so the rain slowly seeped in and dribbled down my arms. I went and bought a new jacket at lunchtime and that allowed me to see it all a bit more poetically in the afternoon.

So roll on Day 4 of the tree-planting adventure. Another 120 oaks went in today, so 450 so far. That’s just 350 oaks, 100 hazels, 100 willows and 50 elder to go.

Trees and snow at dawn

AndrewRoberts — Fri, 26 Nov 2010 16:04:54 +0000

By getting up on the hill by sunrise, Lisa and I mananged to get 120 trees planted before we decided to retreat from the snow and get home while we could! That’s 2720 so far, 3280 to go.

Bryn Helyg Coed – Planting Plan

AndrewRoberts — Thu, 04 Nov 2010 21:53:49 +0000

After much paper work, book learning, investigations, converstations and “OMG, what am I taking on here!” Lisa and I are on the verge of planting up Bryn Helyg Coed!

I’ve just finished the planting plan:

Bryn Helyg Tree Planting Plan

6000 native broadleaves planted over 10 acres of SW facing welsh hillside.

I’ve got 5500 of the bamboo canes in marking out where the trees are going to go, and provide support for the spiral guards. So now I’m just waiting for trees to go dormant so I can start planting them. Although saying that I have already got 300 ash in and 240 hawthorns as the leaves had already dropped off them.

Willow season hotting up

AndrewRoberts — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 09:47:37 +0000

So it’s that time of year again – it’s autumn and it’s TREE TIME! The popularity of the living willow structures are continuing and we’re starting to get the first calls of the season from the schools. We’re also getting interest from fetes, fairs and schools about doing displays. This doesn’t really work with the living willow but as Lisa works on her weaving skills we’ll put together a dead-willow weaving workshop. I’m looking forward to seeing how all of the different structures that we planted last year are doing. We’re seeing a lot less growth on dryer slopes later in the season: 12 to 18 inches with 10% die off compared to no die-off and 5 foot of growth from some structures.

Before Xmas our non-willow seedlings will need transplanting ready for the BIG TREE PLANT in Autumn of 2010 (start planting 6000 trees over 8 acres).

We laid the hedge along the windy edge of the willow beds over the winter and it definitely seems to have had an impact on the amount of growth. But we’ll have to wait until harvest in January to see the actual effect.

So here’s to a good season for 2009/10!

More info at Living Willow Wales

Garlic Graves

AndrewRoberts — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 07:23:00 +0000

Summer is coming on afoot now and it looks like we’re in for another warm spring – hopefully not the wet summer’s we’ve been having the last couple of years. So what have we been up to – agriculturally?

Garlic – The garlic is coming up nicely in the “graves” we built up at the land. The music showed its head about a month ago and we’ve not got around to mulching yet, apart from some Lisa has done with some comfrey. We have a load of composted leaf mulch from last year’s willow that we could use instead of the grass cuttings we used from the graveyard last year – hmmm dead people compost ?-|. Again, the elephant is coming up a bit slower and is hardly coming up at all in the allotment. I don’t think the elephant likes the wetter bed we’ve put it into this year.

Living Willow Wales – We’ve got our first order for a willow structure for next year after last year’s success. So it’ll be good to get all of the organising out of the way before the season starts this year. Lisa is doing another (!) willow course in May, this time to learn how to do willow animals with Judy Macklin on life-long learning course through Aber university. She can then teach me and I love the idea of us then taking a herd of willow animals around the shows and festivals. Lisa got on really well with Judy, and she’s talking about using us for her willow next year.We’ve already had a couple of enquires about us doing workshops this summer which we’ve turned down as we’re not ready and have a lot to do this summer.

I’ve just been reading back through last years blog, and the sheep did eventually get into the pasture and eat a lot of our new basket willow. So although not much good for basketery it’ll was still good for cuttings.

Coed Bryn Helyg – As I’ve already mentioned we’ve got 500 hazel cuttings in which are coming on nicely. They are leafing but when I notice they not actually put any roots on yet. We’ve made a very impressive raised bed for the birch seeds, edged in woven willow. This is the kind of thing Lisa would like to do with all of the beds. After 4 months in the fridge the haws have still to germinate. They still look viable so I’ll probably bury them and try the slower stratification method. The oak seedlings have started to come into leaf so have survived the transplanting OK.

Willow harvest, garlic tops and hedge laying

AndrewRoberts — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 22:12:00 +0000

Just rediscovered this blog I was so keen about last year. Events of the moment:

first shoots of music garlic popping up;
40m of very sexy hedge laying completed which my dad very helpfully came and lent a hand with (phew! 5m a day);
harvested bundled and sold the entire willow harvest (primary schools love em – doing some great tunnel/dome designs) of about 1500 usable rods;
harvested basketery willow and replanted it all (120 black maul, 20 white, 20 curly, 20 black, 40 americana);
Lisa completed a basketery course and made a very professional looking log basket – we’ve already got orders for woven willow sheep;
started to plant the first trees for Coed Bryn Helyg (500 hazel cuttings, 200 oak cuttings, 150 elder cuttings, 1000 haws on ice in the fridge waiting to go out along with 2000 birch seeds).

Vegetable gate

AndrewRoberts — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 09:34:00 +0000

Weather: A nice mix of weather up there at the moment. It’s gone back to more normal sunshine and showers, quite close though.

Willow: The willow is coming on well; some shoots are up to two feet long now. The solar molar – or whatever – is still keeping the rabbits off the willow plots inside of the woodland garden (the field below the meadow). However it’s not helping the willow in plot D, all exposed as it is out in the field although right next to the solar molar. Some of the shoots have made it up to 2ft but now 50% have been stripped of leaves or chomped off. Looks like it’ll have to be rabbit wire, or moving up of the fence to protect this plot.

Thankfully the rabbits aren’t making it down to Plot E where the new babies are all doing very well; some up to a couple of feet long now. We’ve lost a couple of cuttings, but no more than one or two per type. The curly has recovered from the frost damage and is sending out new shoots. The purpurea (delicate basketry) looks amazing; it’s sending out very slender, dark purple shoots that are almost a couple of feet long now. It looks like it might almost inspire me to get into basketry!

Allotment: The potatoes I bought at the smallholders show are now in. As are some of the peas, runner beans, purple brocolli and cabbage. The bit of rain we have had has put a couple of inches of water into the pond. We have a few babies left over so we’ll take these up the land. The garlic is interesting. The early spurt that the year old garlic bulbs put on has faltered now and they are floundering about with only four or five leaves and these don’t look very healthy. The music is doing really well as is the highest new garlic plot. We’ve mulched all of the peas and brassicas with cut grass to try and distract the slugs. The slugs are escaping from the pond so I’m going to have to start crushing them like Lisa does!

Vegetables: We’ve made a small plot next on the land for the excess seedlings we had and planted a few potatoes, peas and beans. We’re planning to put in some carrots. The pumpkin plant has gone in by the camp willow dome, as we slowly fill in the bare soil I cleared of brambles down by the hedge with our first forest garden! Fruit trees, fruit bushes and a few veg underneath.

Misc: I’ve started selecting the wood from this years hedge trimmings to make a gate for the cottage.

Rabbits

AndrewRoberts — Fri, 23 May 2008 07:40:00 +0000

Another clear, warm day, chilly at night though.

I was up bright and early this morning and when I wondered down to the willow plots with my first cup of tea there were the rabbits, gamboling in the morning dew! Now where is my air-rifle. To be honest they weren’t in the willow but under the hedge in the far corner of the field scratching around in the buttercups and Ivy. They were about 20m away from the solar molar and hadn’t done any obvious damage to the willow, so I just blocked the holes they had been using under the fence.

Although I have wondered round the hill with the air-rifle, after a few pot shots I hadn’t got anything but then remembered that they could have young this time of year (the do qualify as a pest so there is no closed season). But they are free food – decisions, decisions. We did come put early in the year with a friends goshawk and bagged ourselves one for the pot.

First snapes and rabbits spotted

AndrewRoberts — Wed, 21 May 2008 07:32:00 +0000

I’ve seen my first snapes (the emerging flower stalks from the garlic)! Now we have to make the contentious decision about whether to pull them off or not: delicious they may be, or will it shock the garlic too much. The self-seeded garlic was the first, but the rounds we planted weren’t far behind.

Another gloriously sunny day – I remember May last year was very hot and dry, before summer was washed out. I cleared out the last couple of piles of brash in the nursery and Lisa got stuck into weeding the flower beds. A significant achievement for me was to get all of the willow bundled up and all of the harvest from three years ago pulled out of the grass. I didn’t get all of the willow away from the plots – 20 bundles was all I could face – but it is all stacked in one high pile now so it’s going to be easier to get at and it’ll keep most of it out of the grass.

Another job I finally got round to was mapping out exactly what kinds of willow we have where. Lisa never planted with the idea of selling the willow but more for burning in a bio-mass stove on site, so didn’t keep track of what was planted where. But I’m quite into the idea of building living willow sculptures. Her business partner in willow, Liz, had marked out the broad categories. We had four main types: Viminalis Gigantica, Q83 (a vim. triandra mix), a yellow one and a purple one, before we got in a load of fancy ones from West Wales Willow. Trouble is although the coloured ones are obvious you can’t really tell the difference between the Gigantica and the Q83 when they are mature. However, now they are younger the gigantica is very obviously darker at the tips and has a lot less shoots off the stool. So I’ve got the map on paper just got to get it electronic and Liz is going to be a happy bunny – we both appreciate this kind of thing!

Lisa’s Birthday

AndrewRoberts — Tue, 20 May 2008 07:31:00 +0000

Lisa’s birthday today so not much work done, just a few drinks around the first fire of the year. There was an amazing, almost full moon that came up about 1am, to see us off to bed.