Sept. 23, 2025

How have I gone this long without a forest update? Woops. I have been away for quite a few weeks of the summer. I'll do an entire summer recap... Or at least the highlights...

I had a number of learnings over the summer - my first summer on the field. I learnt that grass grows long! Waist height grass and weeds grew quickly in June/July and hid all the trees had I planted from view. Initially I thought this was fine, but it started getting difficult to walk around and I didn't like the fact that I couldn't see the trees I'd planted - they were barely bigger than the weeds that came up. I also didn't want the grass to shade out the trees.

My solution was to trim around each tree; put cardboard down to suppress weeds and cover with woodchip (which I've been getting in steady supply from my tree guy). This at least gave a little buffer around each tree. I bought a few new power tools, like a strimmer (with nylon string), but found the string broke too easily with the thicker weeds. So then I bought a brush cutter, with a spinning blade, this worked much better and has been my main tool for cutting the grass. It's powered with two batteries, which I need to charge at home and gives me about 40 minutes of trimming time.

[brush cutter]

I quickly got overwhelmed with the amount of grass to cut. So I started creating winding paths, which is also important in the long run. The vision is to create nice walking paths that curve naturally around the trees and give access to each tree and bush for pruning and harvesting. So planning/designing the paths was an important step. I spent lots of time doing this over the summer; trimming grass, putting down cardboard, and pouring over woodchip. This has been the best way to suppress weeds, at least for a little while... 

I found a snake one day, hiding under a log, which isn't a bad thing, but freaked me out a bit. I realised they probably thrive in the long grass, as do mice etc. I don't want this long grass next year, its too annoying and overwhelming. Next year, I'm hoping to keep it more under control. I'm considering buy a lawn mower (which would only work on shorter grass, so more regular trimming); hopefully its quicker or a bit easier than the brush cutter. 

Grass and weeds were definitely a summer feature! 

It was a particularly hot and dry summer from the very beginning in early spring. It was difficult seeing the trees suffer without water. I did a little bit of spot watering when i managed to get water from my neighbour, but I realised I need my own water source... The risk is too great to not have it. So I go a company to drill a borehole. It cost about £10k, and took 3 days. I had a bit of drama with the oil pipe company, since it's close to their pipe that runs under my field. I won't get into that now, I explained it a bit more in my newsletter.

Borehole is complete, I have 1800 litres per hour available. My autumn task is to set up a sprinkler system to cover an initial area. I'm using commerical grade sprinklers with maximise the coverage since I need to cover such a large area. The max diameter I've found that sprinklers do (subject to flow rates), is about 20 metres. So I need at least 4 sprinklers in my intital area with planted trees. I've had to figure out what hose adapators to buy to go from a 32mm water pipe, to 12mm hose pipes and distribute it all around. That's coming in the next few weeks. 

I think I had a few casualities over the summer regarding plants. A lot of the raspberry bushes didn't make it due to lack of water. They will be easy to replace next year so I'm not too concerned. Most of the fruit trees survived though, even if they didn't 'thrive', Hoping next year I can keep them all happier and have them do a decent growth spurt.

I've been piling up logs from the tree guy, and haven't found a good use for them (other than harbouring snakes). They ended up getting buried in the long grass, and hindering my brush cutter. So I've finally come up with an idea to use the logs... Hugelmounds; piling up logs and woodchips and soil to create raised beds, and encourage the logs to decay / breakdown to enrich the soil. I'm exciting to implement this idea in autumn, and clear up the piles of logs. 

In summary... the majority of plants survived the summer, though nothing thrived. The borehole should enable me to better manage water next summer. I'm excited for the autumn / winter tasks to better organise the field. Maybe I'll build a few more structures like a storage box for the pump and generator, a structure to provide shade for me, and a chair and table to be a bit more comfortable during breaks and using a laptop.

I'm hoping for more growth spurts next year. I may plant more trees and expand the current coverage, or I may stick with what I have so I don't overwhelm too much. I'd like to continue using the stockpile of woodchips I have to suppress grass and create plantable areas for other cover crops like strawberries.

I've really enjoyed the journey so far and excited to keep going and keep improving! 

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