Introducing... MicroMulch!

As I was keen not to use chemicals when growing my trees, the only other option to control weeds was mulching. Unfortunately, the membrane used was a bit flimsy and although it might have been OK with woodchip on top, the amount needed and the difficulty in carrying to where it was needed, meant that most of the trees didn't get mulched as much as they should have been.

What's the purpose of mulch? Weed control and keeping moisture in the soil. The latter isn't a problem, in many places there is too much moisture and I'm worried the trees are going to drown, but the sheltered conditions inside the tree tubes is also ideal for many weeds, mainly grass but also docks, sorrels and rushes.

Lifting the tubes to remove the weeds is quite therapeutic, especially on a sunny day like today, but I got the feeling that I was only delaying the problem and that the weeds would soon grow up again. A parcel that arrived was wrapped in cardboard and it gave me an idea:

A few minutes work with scissors gave me a handful of postcard sized mulch mats that could be put around the trees in the bottom of the tubes. Easy to make and carry (again, to carry full sized pieces for mulching would not be practical and also sheet cardboard tends to make ideal habitat for voles, which have already destroyed a number of trees. Applying the mats is easy and gives a light proof barrier that should help suppress weeds for a few months, before the cardboard rots away. Hopefully in that time, the trees should be well enough established that they won't need further care

The tube is just pushed on top of the cardboard, holding it securely in place:

In about 30 minutes I'd mulched about 40, which is a lot quicker than conventional mulching would have taken. As predicted, the trees that had dropped enough leaves down inside the tube had made conditions too difficult for weeds (self mulching) - if only they were all like that.

I'm not sure how much affect weeds have when the trees are out of the tubes but it certainly looks neater when inspecting them - satisfying to see how thick some of the stems have grown - roll on spring!

 

Pesky wabbits!

One of the areas I've planted in is called "Fairy Grove" - it was initially planted by my wife and daughter as a circle of trees with a few surrounding it. As a surprise with some of the osier I'd cut back, I'd planted a little arch as an entrance way. In time we'll add to it so I'd put a few sticks in the ground nearby that should grow and could be woven in eventually. I made a template from cardboard which would be used to mulch them (we'd cover it in woodchip):

However, in these food scarce winter months, the rabbits are looking for things to eat and they stumbled across my willow. This was the result:

 

It's pretty tough stuff so it might survive but I quickly put spirals around the longer lengths which had also been attacked and they're already putting out catkins:

 

With the extra trees that I'd ordered the little Fairy Grove now has 62 planted in it - a veritable little forest!

 

A spot of coppicing

Along the side of the barn there is a row of willow trees. From what I can tell they are grey willow and frankly, they're not of a great deal of use. I'd coppiced a few of them last year and aside from some material to make dead hedges with and a small amount of thin firewood, it was a lot of work for little result.

They have grown back, though, not as vigorously as I might have expected but they put out about 8 feet of growth in a year. I was comparing them to osier, though, which is one of the fastest growers.

Anyway, the willows are underneath a power line and getting fairly close to it. Thought I'd neaten things up a bit so set to with the chainsaw and billhook:

 

 

The plan is to remove the new shoots from around the base of the trunks and end up with neatly pollarded trees. The regrowth from when they've been cut in the past is quite twisty and tangled in places plus it makes access down the side of the barn awkward when they come out low.

The poles were stacked up in my saw horse and cut to length. It's not big diameter stuff but burns really hot (when dry) and is good to get a fire going:

The saw horse (Oregon) makes it easy to cut lots of long bits to length at once:

 

With a bit of the leylandii thrown in for good measure that we had trimmed last week, it came to a reasonable volume and saves having to burn them on a bonfire:

Still not convinced it was worth the work but they needed doing and waste not want not!

 

See you next year!

The question remained of what to do with all the brash left over. It's very springy stuff and doesn't burn well when green as willow has one of the highest water contents but a few minutes with the saw horse and some sisal string made for some faggots. These can either be cut to length for burning in the log stove or used as the base of a future bonfire, maybe at the Summer solstice:

 

 

A friend of ours gave us an oil barrel that has been converted into a garden burner so we might burn the faggots in there to keep people warm for BBQs. Used a slip knot to secure the bundles so as they dry out I can tighten them up easily. I chose sisal as it's cheap and strong and safe to burn. Traditionally, they would have been tied with brambles and although we have plenty of those, I don't yet have a proper jig in which to make them with and bramble wouldn't take the strain. Some conservationists use them for reinforcing river banks but they take a long time to make (made 3 so far!) so not really a commercial proposition but I might make some enquiries if they fail to burn. There's still a large amount of brash left that needs dealing with - a tree surgeon would just chip it but I don't have a chipper and not worth hiring one in for such a relatively small amount.

 

Quite an industrious little setup!

 

Who needs flowers?

The yellow willow we'd salvaged from a weaving course last year was planted, alongside some osier, in a high density plantation to produce shoots for future weaving. It needs cutting back every year to encourage more shoots to grow so I trimmed it down. I was left with a bundle of about 20 sticks that weren't very straight and weren't of sufficient volume to be worth weaving with but rather that throw them away, I elected to put them in a vase as I thought they'd look "arty".

A few days later, they'd all sprouted leaves and a good network of roots. Once arranged in a slightly less haphazard style, they look beautiful and certainly last a lot longer than cut flowers:

 

The remaining stumps are getting ready to sprout again too but being colder outdoors (marginally!) they have some way to go:

 

Beating Up

As part of my agreement with the Woodland Trust, I am allowed to lose 20% of the trees I planted and if any more die, I must replace them. The Grand Tree Survey calculated a loss rate of just over 4% (64 trees) and as I had wanted to plant sweet chestnut and wild pear from the beginning, I decided to order enough to replace them.

Looking around, there are many nurseries that supply common trees like that but some of them had minimum order numbers and before I knew it, I'd ordered 137 trees!:

 

50 x sweet chestnut (sativa castanea)

25 x wild pear (pyrus communis)

25 x black locust (robinia pseudoacacia) - this is the first non-native I've ordered. With climate change ever present, not all of our Northern European species are going to survive. Ash is under threat and many other species are struggling too (sweet chestnut, poplar, larch etc.) so some hardy foreign species were proposed. Robinia is a nitrogen fixer, so doesn't mind poor soils, it grows quickly, coppices well, has beautiful blossom and produces some of the best firewood there is. The wood is also very rot resistant. It is quite thorny, though, so these will be planted around the boundaries

25 x black maul/almond willow (salix triandra) - the best weaving willow. We have plenty of osier (viminalis) but that's more suitable for structural work - fedges etc. We'd like to try weaving some baskets or decorations so although paying for willow went against my better nature, into the basket it goes!

10 x dogwood (cornus sanguinea) - there is a roundabout in a nearby town that has been planted with dogwood and the stems are amazing. It's also useful for weaving and will add a splash of winter colour!

1 x black mulberry (morus nigra) - a belated anniversary present for my wife. The 5 year anniversary is wood and I had promised to buy her a fruit tree

1 x almond (prunus dulcis) - I love almonds and this one promises to be a good nut producer. Impulse buy! The roots on this had been quite severely pruned - I hope it survives:

--o--

The trees duly arrived and it was a pleasure planting such small numbers, without having to lug tubes and stakes around. I had a supply of spirals for such an eventuality for the extra trees and they all went into the database. Bit disappointed that the dogwood weren't particularly red, but maybe they take a year or so to get going. I think they produce edible fruits eventually and some of them will help shield some fencing.

 

16/02/2015 - I was away from home, satisfied that all my trees were in the ground ready for spring. My wife texted to say "your trees have arrived and need paying for". After a brief discussion we discovered that one of the nurseries I'd initally made enquiries about (who couldn't supply the chestnut) had located some and delivered:

50 x sweet chestnut

10 x wild pear

10 x black locust

1 x black mulberry

I immediately contacted the nursery and after reaching an amicable agreement, once I got home again, I planted the extra trees. Losing them wasn't too difficult and for such a small number, it didn't take too long.

Behind our stables there is a patch of wasteland. A large leylandii tree fell down and shattered the fence and there are a few elder and privet trees there, indicating it's not brilliant land. Decided to start rebuilding the boundary with some of the black locust, which has been planted inside a dead hedge:

There's some way to go before it's completely dog proof but hopefully the spiky robinia will make it a secure hedge, if it can outcompete the willow which will probably start growing too. Getting the material to the site isn't easy and the ground is so full of rubble, old bits of fence wire and other rubbish, actually getting it in the ground is proving problematic.

 

 

Either by mistake or design, some of the nurseries had supplied more than the order (by one) so I eventually ended up with:

104 x sweet chestnut

38 x wild pear

36 x black locust

25 x black maul

11 x dogwood

2 x mulberry

At time of writing, there are 1,681 trees in my database - just hope I'm around to see them all grow! I haven't included most of the willow sets I stuck in the ground in various places. There are also hundreds of naturally seeded trees, mainly oaks, willow and birch which are excluded. The mature trees aren't currently recorded either but there's a future project.

 

Trees, trees and more trees

Hmmm...

I need 65 trees to replace the ones that have died in my plantation (a loss rate of about 4% which is OK), and I had 10 left over tubes for planting new ones. That's a total of 75 trees, I also owed my wife a tree for our anniversary.

However, partly because of minimum order quantities and partly because of lack of stock elsewhere, I've now ordered today:

50 x sweet chestnut, castanea sativa (I wanted these in my initial order but they were out of stock - great for coppicing and hopefully nut producing, although with chestnut blight that might not come to fruition)
25 x wild pear, pyrus communis (good on wet soil, which mine certainly is - pretty blossom and the fruit might be good for feeding pigs)
10 x common dogwood, cornus sanguinea (pretty red stems, for weaving)
25 x black locust, robinia pseudoacacia (excited about this one - it has amazing scented blossom, grows very quickly, coppices well, makes excellent firewood and is very rot resistant - not a native species, however, but with the climate changing as it is, I don't think that's such a bad thing. I only wanted 10 but there was a minimum order quantity - it's thorny so I was going to plant it around the outside but may relent and put a few standards in)
25 x black maul, salix triandra (the classic weaving willow, also known as almond willow)
1 x black mulberry, morus nigra (anniversary present - to go in our orchard. Will hopefully produce some edible fruits)
1 x almond, prunus dulcis (a present for me! Don't know if it will produce nuts in this country but I can but try!)

That's 137 trees that I have to plant... now I have to decide which get the tubes and which only get spirals (of which I have hundreds!). A less daunting task than before, especially as most of the tubes/stakes are already in position and don't need lugging up hill. Planting spirals is less time consuming too so I should be done in a couple of days, weather permitting. The latter two are larger, pot grown plants.

The plan is to get some old carpet from a local company (who are only too glad to get rid of it) so I can mulch each new planting. I'm hoping I can cover the carpet with woodchip as I have a few tonnes which will make it more visually appealing, but I'm sure the weeds will grow up pretty quickly anyway.

Tidying the hedge

One of the hawthorn hedges I'd planted was looking pretty messy:

Before

Although the whips had mostly grown well, the grass was growing out of the spirals and impeding them. A few hours work and many barrows of woodchip later and I think you'll agree, it looks much tidier:

 

After

It's getting a bit late as of time of writing to trim them - I think I'll let them grow for another year and then cut them back to encourage bushier growth at the bottom. If I understand correctly, the trimmings can be pushed into the ground as a "quickset" hedge to thicken things up even more.

 

Confused...

Wondering around my trees today I noticed a few that I didn't recognise. After some discussion with the good people at Arbtalk, they have been identified as downy birch, betula pubescens or silver birch, betula pendula. I didn't order any birch (because there are enough self seeding and it rots so quickly it has limited value for me) so there must have been a mix up at the nursery! As you can see, some are in tubes and some are in spirals, so it's not just one species that has been muddled up: