Protecting regrowth

[tracy]

Our clearing looks really stunning right now with the chestnut regrowing, but the coppiced oak is being demolished by hungry critters.

We would love to support the oak while it is this young and let the tree have time to grow - any thoughts out there on protecting the regrowth?

Cheap and simple ideas please!

[Chris]

Try putting some rabbit net supported by stakes round the individual stools if there are not too many. Putting brash over the stool also sometimes helps, but the deer then eat it as it comes out of the brash and rabbits find it a well protected place to sit and nibble. If it is a large area, you might have to consider plastic deer fencing, although we have found that rabbits eat through the bottom of this.

Chris W

[Darren]

I use plastic deer as well, like Chris says the rabbits eat through it. I got around this by putting Spruce brash around the outside, about 100 metres of it! It\'s labour intensive, but the results are stunning. When I enclose the next patch in the autumn I\'m going to put chicken wire around the bottom of the deer fence. It\'s cheap on Ebay and the cheapest way I know of.

If you are only protecting individual trees I\'d go for chicken wire staked out and some brash over the top to keep the deer off. The deer don\'t like to tread on anything that is unsteady.

Good luck tell us how you get on.

[tracy]

Thanks Darren

This bit is for individual Oak trees, so we won\'t use fencing, but next year we may cut some hazel and that would need protecting. We shall have to look into this!