Willow Coppice Planted
Woo hoo! We have finished planting all of the Willows. In total there were 198!
In theory this means we should (in 5 years!) have our first seasoned wood to burn. Who knows, by then we might even have a wood burner or two to burn it in 
Willow Coppice Planting
At last after weeks of hard work and slog, and contending with snow and ice we can finally start planting up the Willow Coppice!
It was as ever a family affair and the kids loved pushing the willow ‘twigs’ into the holes and sinking in the cane beside it to hold up the rabbit guard. My Mum was also on hand to help dig and plant so we managed quite a production line, and got over half of the 200 trees planted.
Short Rotation Coppicing - Rows
We have always aspired to recycle as much as we can and ideally be self-sufficient. We seem to have made a slow start on the latter, but at last our plan to create our own coppice to sustain us with firewood has begun!
Today, following Tam’s careful plan, we marked out the 12 rows varying between 12 and 16 meters long. Not as easy as it sounds as we first had to shift tons of sand/soil etc which was in the way! Now the rows are marked out we need to get the turf/meadow cut so we can strip it off.
Do you want to be in the Guinness Book of World Records? Do you want to help improve the planet? Can you plant a tree somewhere? Then it must be Tree O’Clock!
To support and promote national tree week support a world record attempt to plant the most trees in one hour. You can find out all about it here on the BBC website.
We are going to pledge to plant one tree during the designated time slot, can you also support it? If you want some help in choosing the right tree for your garden drop us a comment and we’ll try and help you. (Or at least we have some great books to help us help you!)
The Roe Deer is the next culprit in our Wildlife Strikes Back series. Apparently the Buck’s (Males) are rutting and a response to this period is to rub their antlers (which can also be itchy) on trees or shrubs etc. This rubbing action strips the bark of young trees, and in our case, one of our Leylandi.
