neglected poplar plantation

[campanula]

Hello tree people

We bought just over 5 acres of neglected poplar wood in Norfolk (we are gardeners and wanted to make a woodland garden, do a bit of green woodwork and have a space for our children and grandchild). The plantation has been neglected since the late 70s and is more or less completely overgrown with bramble, nettle, silene and various umbellifers. We have spent the last year fitting out our horsebox and cutting a couple of rides and several looping paths - mostly using a brushcutter then our not very poky lawnmower. So far, we have cut 2 bisecting rides from through the tree rows (they are planted on 8m centres) and will be looking to start some felling this winter to open a couple of glades (and also, some of the poplar is looking a bit iffy, losing limbs etc. Across the site, there are a few gaps where poplar has fallen, and a couple of dead trees - with elder, hawthorn and a few pedunculate oaks, We have reseeded one of the rides - the canopy is high and light so grass will be fairly simple to establish once we have gotten on top of the bramble. So, we are very ignorant in the use of major plant but would be looking at buying a small tractor (not new, obvs, as we are now officially skint and since part-time jobbing gardeners are not traditionally minted, we are likely to have to do a lot of work by hand and simple drudgery.....which is why I am posting here - to hear advice from those with more experience than us....plus we are not young, fit striplings either.

Also, living in social housing (completew with sodding bedroom tax,) we are not averse to the future potential of permanently living in our woods, albeit in a converted horsebox - believe me, that is quite terrifying but the space, the soil......when greedy developers are circling around our allotments and our garden is minute - this was a fabulous use of a small inheritance for our whole family. Van-life (or houseboats) are options which my children are seriously considering, in common with many, so the woodland is, though tiny, something very precious and we want to do the best we can to restore diversity, create a garden and maybe even make some money doing so - at the very least, the nearby villagers (Postwick, Norfolk)will buy firewood or employ us in their gardens.

So, thoughts? suggestions? advice? - recieved in gratitude.

[woodyguy]

Fascinating project. I bought a neglected 7 acre wood a year ago, so have shared many of your issues and dilemmas. I run mine to provide firewood, increase the tree species diversity and hence insects, flowering plants and birds/mammals and enable it to cope with global warming. What are your priorities going to be? Do you have a use for felled trees?

[Jimbob87]

Chainsaw horizontal splitter for billets and saw bench cheapest set up for drying and selling firewood. Maybe compact tractor that you could also hire out for extra income would b a good investment. Carnt help alot with regards to managing ur woodland but theres some guys on here that realy know there stuff. Good luck

[campanula]

Mmmm, yep, that's an appropriately wide range of priorities, Woodyguy. Have to say, I feel ours change on a daily basis (well mine do but other family members are fairly clear (youngest immediately bought gigantic cargo net and is planning insane zip lines - the poplars are tall), while there has been much sharpening of chisels and such, sawhorses, pole-lathes et al (for which I have even less interest than I do in using a chainsaw). I confess to wanting to garden on a heroic scale although obviously, since the whole thing is being grown from seed(the garden budget consists of saved £2 coins in a teapot) it will be slow and stuttering. Nonetheless, 5 acres is 40times larger than our allotments as well as being 60miles from where we live so I will be adapting any gardening to this insane difference of scale. Have managed not to become overwhelmed, planted narcissi, bluebells, foxgloves, wood anemones - it has been helpful to go right through a season mainly just looking and thinking. I also suspect water deer are going to be somewhat problematic (since I hope to grow many wild rose species, and fruit - totally delicious treats for deer. and I do wrestle with the dilemma of native, naturalised or exotic. It is like a last adventure before we get too senile and decrepit....plus there is something quite dementedly epic about growing a whole new wood from tiny seeds to grow throughout our grandchild's life.

[Logrod]

Firstly congratulations.

 

I'd advise you to go slowly, but I suspect it's impossible not to! I bought a forest 10 years ago (after I got divorced but that's another story) with no real aim other than I love trees and wood and wanted somewhere for the kids and me to play at being lumberjacks etc. All my colleagues and friends have assumed it's a tax break of some kind (I wish there was the need but no point in explaining that to them), and different girlfriends have expected me to tear down trees to make more light....

I'd love to build there (and I know how/what I'd build) but a) it's on the edge of the Snowdonia national park, and b) I still live (and need to stay a few years longer) near Manchester. It's a long term project and I still get intense pleasure just from walking through the woods or lying under the trees. The investment was repaid years ago when my youngest asked me if he'd be able to bring his kids there (he's 17 now)

So my advice is to never forget your dreams but also to enjoy the now ... probably not a lot of help but first time I've ever said it to anyone:)

[campanula]

'The investment was repaid years ago when my youngest asked me if he'd be able to bring his kids there (he's 17 now) '

 

Absolutely - it seems such a fantastic thing to hand down to our younger ones (having bequeathed them a world of **** in so many directions). We seem to be on the same page, Logrod (I misread that and thought it said 'Longrod'). All my children garden and are capable woodworkers. Rowan, my eldest, has been working in greenwood and they all think we can earn a bit of money to reinvest through plant sales. The river Yare is just across a strip of water meadow and the location is heart-breakingly beautiful. Paddy, our nearby farmer, has been really helpful, offering us barn storage for our chipper and gennie, as well as a mains water source. All-in-all, this is the best thing we have done since having our kids.

[sandspider]

Congratulations indeed - I'm pretty jealous. Woodland is pretty expensive down here... Can't offer much advice (hopefully one day I'll have a wood too!) but this was a good and useful read:

 

http://www.woodlands.co.uk/owning-a-wood/badgers-beeches-and-blisters/badgers-beeches-and-blisters.pdf