(First post) Planting a native woodland, East Sussex

[hedgesparrow]

chucking my hat into ring. to plant the best time is january/early feb when plants are dorment. now sap is rising and may have a few fail due to being transplanted. i would wait untill next year.

as for species. hazel/ willow was two if wanting to coppice i would plant the willow on bogy ground and hazel in a clump next door you can then coppice rotate without the other trees in way. as hazel and willow you copice every 7 years for best material.

the rest i would mix plant as other posts with tracks going in for extraction when ready to fell.

as for blacthorn it wants planting as a hedge not a woodland tree as for hawthorn,buckthorn,spindleberry waythering.

you say hedge is thick. ask Digga to have a look near you and a good hedgelayer. he will bring hedge back to life. he also coppices chestnut so a good point of referance for planting chestnut.

hope this is of some help. but i know you want to crack on but i would wait. get all the groundwork done then ready to then plant next year.

[spandit]

Not sure which particular bit you're replying to but the trees were all planted in February and have started growing. The blackthorn has been planted in a hedge as suggested by someone earlier.

 

Can't remember if I mentioned my existing hedge but getting South of England hedgelaying society to come and look at it with a view to laying it later in the year/early next year.

[L W Woodlands]

Excellent job, you've done there. You may want to consider mowing/strimming between the trees for the first few years to suppress competition from docks/thistles etc. It also lessens the available habitat for voles. Keep a close eye out for vole damage, in my experience they love the tubex tubes, often building nests in the base of the tube and feasting happily on the tree inside!

Enjoy watching your woodland grow.

[spandit]

Thanks!

 

Unfortunately it's so wet where most of them are planted, including the access to the field, that getting our new mower up there is not doable (you'd struggle with anything, frankly) - not really prepared to strim that area either!

 

I'm hoping the membrane around the trees will help and some of them have already produced their own shade inside the tube which should stop weeds coming up

[spandit]

1st of May and had a good wander round with the dogs this evening.

 

Plenty of little wild oaks coming up, don't know whether these are from the acorns I scattered last year:

 

 

Also got some reasonable sized birch popping up too, one of the reasons I didn't plant any:

 

 

Finally, the aspen is making an appearance, although most of them are weedier than this:

 

 

Some of the hawthorn I planted in January and the hazel are sprouting out the top of the spirals already. Blackthorn is struggling, to be honest

 

 

[spandit]

The willow sticks I planted are beginning to accelerate now, this is osier viminalis:

 

[sandspider]

Looking healthy.

 

Is that just mulch around them, or are you going for some sort of willow filtration bed?

 

Any slug / rabbit / deer problems with them? I suppose slugs go for veggies over trees!

[spandit]

Looking healthy.

 

Is that just mulch around them, or are you going for some sort of willow filtration bed?

 

Any slug / rabbit / deer problems with them? I suppose slugs go for veggies over trees!

 

It's just mulch - more to weigh the weed membrane down as it was being pushed up by creeping buttercup and swamping the willow rods. We've just planted a little plantation of about 60 sticks at close spacings to try and get some nice straight rods for construction purposes. I am planning on making a "tree bog" at some stage, which will use willow for filtration.

 

Have had a bit of slug damage to the trees - each tube seems to be filled with them. I have seen signs of rabbits around the trees - piles of droppings on the membrane, for example, but the spirals and tubes are meant to protect against that. There has been some deer damage to some osier I planted elsewhere (at least, I presume it's deer) but hopefully I can grow so much of it, it won't be an issue if a bit gets eaten.

[spandit]

First alder spotted above tube height today and on closer inspection, there was another one