Home Page
   Articles
       links
About Us    
Traders        
Recipes            
Latest Articles
my little forest
Page Previous  1, 2
 
Post new topic   Reply to topic    Downsizer Forum Index -> Conservation and Environment
Author 
 Message
sgt.colon



Joined: 27 Jul 2009
Posts: 7380
Location: Just south of north.
PostPosted: Thu Nov 17, 22 8:38 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

It is sounding wonderful DPack and it's good to read that you are a happy bunny. Which you should be, all that work and you are now reaping the rewards of it all.

Were you aware of climate change back in the 70's when you started your forest and was that the reason you started it?

Mistress Rose



Joined: 21 Jul 2011
Posts: 15539

PostPosted: Thu Nov 17, 22 10:40 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

Well done. I agree about taking out the rhodi in the areas of trees, and perhaps more as it inhibits other plant growth. The only way I know of getting rid of it is to set Guides and Scouts on it for years; very effective. And it does burn as we used to use it on our camp fires once dead. I wouldn't recommend it though.

Is that a Harts Tongue Fern? Hard to see from the picture.

dpack



Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 45376
Location: yes
PostPosted: Thu Nov 17, 22 1:09 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

sgt.colon wrote:
It is sounding wonderful DPack and it's good to read that you are a happy bunny. Which you should be, all that work and you are now reaping the rewards of it all.

Were you aware of climate change back in the 70's when you started your forest and was that the reason you started it?


i became aware of pollution and legacy chemicals early 70's , and human climate change by the late 70's

not the reason i started this, i was testing a catapault with acorns, ten years later there were a few oaks, it sort of grew from there

it has got more technical over the decades and over the last 20 yrs i have tried to build in genetic resilience to climate change and diseases

that a few bits are back to temperate rain forest(it rains a lot, it was about 90" a year when i was a kid, it still rains a lot)is wonderful

there are some exotics as well as more local things(no such thing as a uk native plant, they all arrived post ice age) for diversity in a changing world

some have come further and faster than others

dpack



Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 45376
Location: yes
PostPosted: Thu Nov 17, 22 1:31 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

Mistress Rose wrote:
Well done. I agree about taking out the rhodi in the areas of trees, and perhaps more as it inhibits other plant growth. The only way I know of getting rid of it is to set Guides and Scouts on it for years; very effective. And it does burn as we used to use it on our camp fires once dead. I wouldn't recommend it though.

Is that a Harts Tongue Fern? Hard to see from the picture.


it is the option used in some places , iirc it took about 20 volunteers and 3 rangers a day to remove one about the size of the big one that must go, i can murder it in under an hour, i has a few stems big enough to drill, fill and plug, after that it will die and rot(eventually), there are trees around it that will shade out any seedlings it has dropped as they are at the growth spurt stage

i will try ninja first, the suitable poison is in the post and will be filed in the shed until spring, timing matters with assassinations

i cannot decide about the R. in a couple of open areas, it has shown initiative where others feared to root

re the fern i have idea, i can tell ferns from mosses and liverworts and maybe name less than a handful

dpack



Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 45376
Location: yes
PostPosted: Thu Nov 17, 22 2:15 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

definately not harts tongue having looked at snaps

i will go seek

dpack



Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 45376
Location: yes
PostPosted: Thu Nov 17, 22 2:36 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

Hard fern
Blechnum spicant

dpack



Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 45376
Location: yes
PostPosted: Thu Nov 17, 22 4:03 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

oops the photo i posted was the reject rather than the crisp one that looks like the one in the id guide:lol:

hey ho, i have learnt how to name a fern

hard does make sense as the edges of the leaflet things are smooth rather than feathery

fern guide was helpful

Mistress Rose



Joined: 21 Jul 2011
Posts: 15539

PostPosted: Fri Nov 18, 22 10:26 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

Thanks for that guide Dpack. We have Harts Tongue Fern, Broad buckler fern, and a variation of it, Intermediate Polypody, Male fern, and bracken in the woods.

sgt.colon



Joined: 27 Jul 2009
Posts: 7380
Location: Just south of north.
PostPosted: Fri Nov 18, 22 11:09 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

Thanks DPack.

It's a shame it wasn't more in the public eye back in the 70's, we might have been in a better position now. I think I only really knew about it sometime in the late 90's.

Were you trying to down a rabbit with the acorns?

dpack



Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 45376
Location: yes
PostPosted: Fri Nov 18, 22 1:47 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

no bunnies, the last hares and larks went when the dairy farm hay fields changed post 1968 FaM and rather than a traditional "by hand"hay cut in august a change to a for cash crop with a mower in early june

too many dogs for bunnies now, and there are few in the entire area, i cannot think of a rabbit rich place within 10 miles of my little forest
even "bunny wood" has no bunnies

thinking about it, it is one of the most bunnylite places i have known well with a history of at least a few bunnies in the past
there were a few, last one i saw, or saw sign of, was the one flushed by my foster greyhound about 30yrs ago

when i was a kid the pet hutch bunnies of pals did get visits from wild ones(more bunnyporn than watership down)
not seen any trace in a long time

not much sigh of grey squizzers either, 25 yrs ago there were quite a few at the top of the clough

plenty of scope for raptors and owls on the vertical bits

Mistress Rose



Joined: 21 Jul 2011
Posts: 15539

PostPosted: Sat Nov 19, 22 10:01 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

Rabbits have reduced a lot over the last 20 years since we had the woods. I think there have been several diseases; myxy and a hemorrhagic disease which has virtually wiped them out. We have seen a few this year after virtually no sightings for years. Raptors have increased over that time as well. We do get hares though. As for grey squirrels, we still have too many of them. They fight back with raptors, unlike rabbits.

dpack



Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 45376
Location: yes
PostPosted: Sat Nov 19, 22 12:31 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

the auger awaits a proper sharpening and the poison is made for the job, it even has it's own squirter to fill the holes

that will be a spring mission, if i plan it well i might do a couple of days with a sly hammock bivvy(slopes are fine if you have trees and a hammock)
moider a few misplaced things, make some notes and take some hi res snaps
as it seems to be working, recording how it was done and what stage it is at might help those with similar opportunities or problems

getting permissions to re wildwood "wasteland" is a nightmare and can be counterproductive if somebody realizes they "own" some bit of land that has a potential"value"

25 fruit trees 3 yrs or so and several hundred hours of diplomacy etc
another 3 acres of mixed forest, a few days planning and 3 hrs chucking stuff in the rain

vector for seeds is queen(so is poison if required)

Mistress Rose



Joined: 21 Jul 2011
Posts: 15539

PostPosted: Sun Mar 12, 23 8:16 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

Someone was asking about which trees to put in a similar bit of land they owned on a FB group I belong to, so suggested your seed lobbing Dpack. That way the trees grow where they are happy.

dpack



Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 45376
Location: yes
PostPosted: Sat May 20, 23 2:34 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

dont ask just do it

my little forest is heading for a bit over 10 acres, if i include the "groves" in random places, i have rather special maths skills but basics baffle me

would ten acres be about 2% of what they have managed?

if it is and one silly bloke can do it for no money etc

other inhabitants of the ds village have planted, restored and maintained more acres than me

if a few of us can manage that sort of thing as individuals, there must be reasons for "official" schemes being so incompetent

re the FB folk and their new planting, big pockets and handbags(maybe a 100 litre bergan centurion for planned collections) and keen eyes for collecting whatever, wherever and whenever you can to give diversity and genetic resilience.

boots on soil with a poking thing is a good way to know more about what might colonize each bit and if that bit needs nanny plants to give nurture to the next stage

what works might be surprising, diversity can be reinforced once you find out what is alive after the first decade or so

if you can get them to ask/show and tell, i am happy to answer about how this one has progressed and what might work for their patch

might work is better than might not work if they plan on doing it properly

it took me 2 decades to start to work out how to do it, maybe i can save them a bit of time after another 3 more

i recon it is similar to "rewilding" but at least a thousand times faster and it is likely to be more diverse and resilient than what grows from "legacy" flora alone
legacy flora was a survivor, so far, in a nearby place which might be quite different to the new place to be wooded and to future conditions

Mistress Rose



Joined: 21 Jul 2011
Posts: 15539

PostPosted: Sun May 21, 23 7:28 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

That article isn't completely true. I have found the Forestry Commission extremely helpful about natural regeneration. We use it almost exclusively in our wood; the only planting in the last 10 years has been transplants from our own garden (2 miles away) and our sons (15 miles away). I am hoping one day to get round to getting cuttings or seeds from a local wood (about 3 miles) of wild service trees, so ensure they have at least 2 local homes.

Over the 20 years we have been working our wood, the paperwork has become less and less about explaining what we will do/are doing and filling in columns of figures. There is a section for felling for natural regeneration now, but haven't filled in a grant application for management lately, so don't know how that is going to view it.

Post new topic   Reply to topic    Downsizer Forum Index -> Conservation and Environment All times are GMT
Page Previous  1, 2
Page 2 of 2
View Latest Posts View Latest Posts

 

Archive
Powered by php-BB © 2001, 2005 php-BB Group
Style by marsjupiter.com, released under GNU (GNU/GPL) license.
Copyright © 2004 marsjupiter.com