Same farm, different field to last week. Again though, the work involved filling in gaps and replacing failures in a previously planted area.
Heidi and I got to drive up the narrow, vertiginous track to the farm in the car (with all the trees and tools). Dave, David and Philip followed on foot. Not a huge turn out of people, but still a lot of work got done, as I shall detail.
A nice site, good soil and not too hard to dig. Weather held out and was even sunny for quite some time. Nice action shot here of Philip toiling with his mattock.
The site is high and exposed, and windy even on a good day. Previously planted Birch seemed to be doing well. Oaks were doing less well, some seemed to have failed entirely, and others looked nibbled (by deer?). We stuck to planting amongst existing trees because we were wary of established paths and the route of a water pipe through the field. We planted 45 root trainer hazel near to struggling oaks, and 45 Italian Alder on the windy side of the field to try to bolster a windbreak. 15 Sitka Spruce got dotted in amongst the rest. We then planted a further 60 bare root hazel near to existing Oaks. 165 trees in total, not bad at all for five of us.
Todays cake was a delicious but rather heavy home made flapjack, which was so substantial it probably negated the health benefits of all the hard work we did.
