As well as managing our wood, Chestnut Coppice, we are also managing Sweep Wood, which my parents have just bought, and is adjacent to ours. At the moment we're just keeping an eye on it, while a management plan is put together for it. Although it is predominantly chestnut coppice, with oak standards and some birch, it also has a variety of other trees that aren't present in our own wood. For example...
Pollarded Hornbeam, along the boundary with a field:
(see an earlier post on pollarding here)
Ash - here's one that fell over recently, and clearing it up will be one of the first jobs (no rush though, as it's pretty much on the ground and not causing any danger):
Yew, which can live for at least 2,000 years!
Freaky chestnut roots:
There's also Hazel and Poplar, and quite a bit of Holly, and a good range of other plants, such as these, which I think are Bluebells, and Lords & Ladies:
Domestic garden invaders (I think...) at one end:
Here you can see the new growth of bluebells just coming up amongst the Hazel and Poplar coppice:
All in all, an interesting and varied wood, which we're looking forward to being involved with.
Mike
p.s. we also spent most of today coppicing in our own wood, but that'll have to be posted tomorrow, as it's getting late...
Saturday, 26 January 2008
Sweep Wood
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2 comments:
The yew tree is amazing. Doesn't it make you want to fashion a longbow?
I'd not thought of that - perhaps that could be a project for the summer.... but I seem to remember that a longbow is cut so that it's half sapwood and half heartwood - so that would mean felling the tree, which would be a shame. Perhaps there's a thick enough branch on it though...
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