Successful survival rate of saplings from 2014 ‘Big Dig’ day.
Back in 2014 we held a community ‘Big Dig‘ day when 300 native trees, provided as part of The Woodland Trust Community Tree Pack, were planted in our front field by a band of over 50 volunteers.
The trees were native wildlife friendly varieties which take about 7 to 8 years to look established.
And here we are almost 6 years later. We’ve been delighted with the survival rate of the saplings. By staking them and keeping weeds at bay, we’ve seen these trees thrive. Some silver birches are now over 10 feet tall.
The ground between these trees is now criss-crossed with vole runs and burrows which is a happy side effect of leaving the trees and ground undisturbed. We now have regular sightings of barn owls hunting in this area for voles and other small mammals. As we are now in the middle of bare root planting season (November to March) we will soon be planting a mini copse of 15-20 trees on a little scruffy patch of spare ground.
This area will again be fenced off and left to nature. We’ve learnt that less intervention and scruffier patches encourage wildlife to thrive.
We welcome anyone who came along and helped with planting at our ‘Big Dig’ day to come and visit the trees. Do get in touch with us if you’d like to come and visit or come along on our pop-up Bee Shack shop days.
This is part of a much larger sustainability strategy here at our commercial gluten free bakery.
