Spring has sprung. The equinox was at the weekend and I also had my first proper work visit since before the winter.

There’s not much management to do to the trees themselves at this time of year, they’re all a bit too small yet to need pruning or coppicing or pollarding. I’m deliberately waiting until there is a bit of coverage before I think about what to do with the undergrowth. I anticipate planting some woodland shrubs and flowers if I can legally and safely obtain some of local provenance (my granny lives reasonably locally and she has an overabundance of snowdrops and cowslips which I think I can transplant).

I was hoping to do some weed-killing on Saturday, but when I got up the grass hadn’t started growing enough to permit it. Probably for the best, my brother-in-law was with me to help and most of the family are vehemently anti-herbicides. I’ll end up doing it on my own in April and May (and again in August/September).

Our aim on Saturday was to straighten up a lot of the trees. The wood is on the Lagan flood plain, and I’m sure it was under water quite a lot during the winter. Lots of the trees had been pushed over, so we had to walk around them all straightening the tubes. It’s funny really, the top end of the wood is damaged by local children pulling up the bamboo canes and stamping on the plastic tubes, and the bottom of the wood is subject to the same damage but the offender is the river.

We also had to clear a lot of rubbish away, as you‘ll see from the photos below.

 

I finally got the “for sale” sign down, something I’d been meaning to do for a while.

I seem to be incapable of taking a photo that isn’t blurry…