Stake out!

IMPORTED POST FROM OLD BLOG. ORIGINAL DATE: 05/09/2007

No, we weren't lying in wait for the wild boar! We were making stakes and using them to mark young naturally seeded trees that we'd like to encourage over the coming years.

The stakes are made from thin chestnut poles, either dead ones we found, or fresh ones cut from coppice stools where there were much bigger poles growing. We used a side-axe to put a point on each stake, a knife to peel the bark from the other end, and then painted them so they'll stand out. Here's Tracy working on them:


And here's a young chestnut tree, marked with a stake:


The next step will be to buy some tree shelters to protect them from browsing animals and encourage them to grow straight and tall.

I took a few more wildlife photos too:








Tomorrow morning we are meeting a guy from the East Sussex Wood-Net, who will advise us on marketing produce from our wood. After that my parents are arriving for a week's holiday in Rye, so we'll be taking them up to the wood for a day.

Mike