Tree Induction

Our day started with a call from the neighbour, sheep were in the front garden eating the lawn. Shortly after we had another neighbour, the owner of the sheep, call round to collect them.

Sheep in the garden

 After that we had a call with the designers of our heating system who are trying to help us tweak and optimise our system. This all left us late for the arrival of Malcolm from the Woodland Trust who was due first thing to help us mark-out ready for planting trees. After watching us scoff down a hearty breakfast of porridge and a mug of tea we set off to mark the three planting zones.

Zone 1: Major Trees - Oak (200), Sweet Chesnut (150), Ash (550), Alder (250)

Zone 2: Minor Trees - Crab Apple (50), Silver Birch (250), Rowan (150), Wild Cherry (100)

Zone 3: Woody Shrubs - Hazel (300), Willow (50), Blackthorne (50), Hawthorne (75), Spindle (75), Holly (25), Elder (25).

After marking planting zones a lorry timely arrived with four pallets containing guards, stakes, spirals, canes and trees.

 Malcolm took us down into the field with a pack of guards, some stakes and a handful of Oak trees to show us how best to plant the trees.

Initially we expect the trees to roughly double in size every year.

Sally with our first tree, an Oak

Safely guarded, planted using Grandad Virgin's old spade.

Our first cluster of Oak Trees

After an hour or so the woodland starts to form.