Trees - Year 1

It seems the most simple thing in the world. We need more trees we plant some. We get our land and let it grow back into a forest.

It wasn’t that simple. We wanted to do it right. What was right was hard to establish.

It is tempting to go straight to doing, especially when we moved in very close to tree planting season (winter). It was still a COVID year and second lockdown. It was hard to get trees anyway and for the best suppliers we missed the pre-order season.

So we satisfied ourselves by planting trees anywhere other than the re-wilding zone.

Self-seeded oak in year 2.

We then proceeded to observe and learn. We took our time to establish what trees flourished in the hedges around the fields and could potentially self-seed now that sheep were no longer on the land.

We found oak, goat willow, pussy willow, rowan, ash, holly, hawthorn, privet, hazel, beech and birch. For a moment the sinking feeling of a field of rushes grazed to an inch of its biodiversity felt rich and abundant.

We took down some giant ivy from the largest of oaks. Later we learned from reading ‘Atlantic Rain Forest’ that ivy has an important role in a forest setting and is kept in check by the forest ecosystem. But is it true for hedges? Turns out, yes. Managing ivy is no longer considered necessary by default. It is not harmful to trees and has an important function for wildlife. Managing it is a thoughtful process considering the hedge’s purpose and state.

We learn to first do no harm and consider every destructive activity very carefully.