Time is moving on, spring is around the corner and I haven’t done as much as I would have liked this winter. Last visit was positive, getting the oak saplings planted but the other pressing job was at the opposite corner of the wood where I have been coppicing the old hazel. I still had half of it to clear of the brash I left lying around but I also wanted to increase the density of hazel bushes there with some new plantings. Last year I found a pot of ten young plants at my local nursery so a trip there last week proved fruitful and I bought ten more. They were in bud and ready to open before long so it was crucial to get them in ASAP. Well Saturday was looking fine and I invited my eldest daughter Zoe along. She helped me with some planting last year and has been wanting to visit again for a while. We had a really busy day ahead but started out with a leisurely stroll around the wood to show her the progress so far. Then we set-to clearing the brash. Zoe, with branch pruners tookg off the small stuff and used it to make small rings around the new coppice as a deer deterrant while I sawed up the larger stuff and used it to extend the dead hedge. It took all morning and part of the afternoon. We had a lunch break and Zoe took a few photos. This old guy, looking like a woodland gnome with a cheeky grin, looks familiar!

The first wood anemones are starting to open

We started planting the new hazel but I ran out of the plastic tree shelters, so Zoe cut up pieces of plastic netting to wrap around them, secured with a stake. Actually they might be a better option than the green tubes. They are less obtrusive to the eye, let in more light and fresh air and won’t get bunged up with leaves. The tube ones do act like mini greenhouses though and might encourage faster, though weaker, growth. Interesting to see how they compare in a few years.

The afternoon was pretty hard graft for the both of us and I couldn’t have got it all done without my hardworking assistant, so a big thanks to her. I really wanted to get those plants in before we left and we did it. That corner is looking very good now, mostly clear of brash with just a few large branches to cut up and remove. The new plants have nicely filled a lot of the spaces between the old cut-back hazel stools, giving me a fairly dense area of about thirty trees in total, spaced roughly two metres apart. I can’t wait to see how it’s going to look in a few years time when they all start to fill out. It will be transformed. I’ll take some more photos next time.