Small Woodland Owners' Group

Brambles

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Re: Brambles

Postby oldclaypaws » Wed May 07, 2014 2:05 pm

Looks very pleasant Smojo.

Not sure how TPO's work in relation to your wood, it must allow for sensible forestry rather than 'thou shall not remove a twig'. I'd hope it permits a degree of thinning and encouraging biodiversity, thats just good practice.

As Dexter said, there'll be lots of advice but don't forget its now yours and its ultimately up to you what you want to do.

I started with aspirations of doing everything by hand, and have the bramble wounds to prove it, but I think in about 6 hours of brushcutting I cleared as much as took 6 months by hand. Love my Husky, but its currently rested until after the birds have finished nesting.

The FC and a private consultant, both of whom were pretty eco-aware both advised over aggressive brambles should be ruthlessly hacked back and either roots pulled up or treated with SBK to stop them coming back. Some are OK, but you can have too much of a good thing. Looking at the diversity and vigour of what we have regenerating I feel fully vindicated in the (minority) I've so far removed. I like the fruit, feeding butterflies and birds associated with bramble, but whats replacing them will be better and more diverse. We had 60% of the wood inaccessible from brambles and I've now cleared a quarter of them, its looking good and I'll do a post showing the regeneration, in season 2 it gets quite exciting.
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Re: Brambles

Postby Dexter's Shed » Wed May 07, 2014 3:00 pm

we have owned our woods for just over 14 months now, and same as you smojo we needed paths cut to just get into our wood, we bought it only having walked the boundary, as bramble had gone wild, in this time we have done quite a lot, getting a younger helper on board pays dividends, we have cut a pathway and a camping area, started a bit of dead hedging, planted fruit tree's along the pathway leading to the camp site etc, I too hoped for a bumper crop of blackberries, but that failed big time, we are now taking it easy, enjoying watching the wildlife, we have blue tits nesting and raising young in the boxes we installed, we have found a couple more areas where we want to clear paths and add benches under trees, along with a secluded area for some bee hives, looking forward to see more of yours, pictures and videos are a must
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Re: Brambles

Postby smojo » Wed May 07, 2014 5:39 pm

Dexter - your wood sounds fantastic and your thinking along similar lines to me. Love to plant some flowering/fruiting trees eventually, love to see more wildlife in there. When I went to view it I sat quietly with a mug of coffee and two little wrens kept bobbing around me. Normally shy birds but didn't seem fussed I was there. I spotted this odd tree. It's a sycamore that has split into two trunks. The lower half of one has gone rotten inside and something has made a home here. Looks like a woodpecker at work and I bet there's something nests in there. Further in one of the other plots is a magnificent peacock! No peahen though - shame would like to see some peababies.

Image
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Re: Brambles

Postby Dexter's Shed » Wed May 07, 2014 6:51 pm

being the forum's number one cheapskate, fruit trees from ALDI'S, cost around £5 each, apple,pear,cherry,plum we bought a mixture
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Re: Brambles

Postby Wendelspanswick » Thu May 08, 2014 6:39 am

Are you sure that the whole of your wood has a TPO, I was of the understanding that an individual tree can have a TPO, but not an area.
Are you confusing it with needing a felling licence as that applies to all woodlands.
Each of the ancient boundary Beech trees in our wood have TPO's, and they are marked individually on the planning map.
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Re: Brambles

Postby smojo » Thu May 08, 2014 8:22 am

Wendelspanswick wrote:Are you sure that the whole of your wood has a TPO, I was of the understanding that an individual tree can have a TPO, but not an area.
Are you confusing it with needing a felling licence as that applies to all woodlands.
Each of the ancient boundary Beech trees in our wood have TPO's, and they are marked individually on the planning map.


The website says the wood is the subject of a TPO and says it doesn't mean you can't fell but you require planning permission. I read somewhere you need to get a management plan together and submit to the local planning officer for approval. I know a guy in there who said he was about to fell 6 trees so I'm not concerned.
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Re: Brambles

Postby smojo » Fri May 23, 2014 4:07 pm

I seem to remember seeing on tv, a long machete with a curve on the end being used in some jungle somewhere to clear undergrowth. Seemed like a great tool for clearing brambles etc that would give a high degree of control around young trees, saplings etc. OK a lot harder work than a petrol brushcutter but a lot cheaper too. Maybe adequate for some gradual selective clearing rather than nuking them. Anyway a bit of googling found this. Might have to invest in one when I get my wood for some initial light clearing. Anyone got one/used one?

http://www.chillingtontoolsonline.co.uk/grass-slasherweeder-p13
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Re: Brambles

Postby Dexter's Shed » Fri May 23, 2014 6:12 pm

please,please,please remove that link before oldclaypaws see's it, we cant risk him loosing the use of his other hand..........come to think of it, with both hands bandaged, he won't be able to type, leave the link, leave it I say :lol:
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Re: Brambles

Postby oldclaypaws » Fri May 23, 2014 7:25 pm

You can go off people. :evil:

The tool you show interest in is far to light for brambles Smojo, seen them and they will just about take the bum-fluff off a hamster, but would bounce off a woody bramble. Just get a brushcutter, job done.

Brushcutter + mulching blade = shredded debris + no clearing up + 30 times as fast.

If you must go the manual route (the boys a fool !), I ended up with one of these. Flipping Aardvark, and you still have the problem of disposing of all the debris.

http://www.heinnie.com/condor-parang-machete#product-tabs
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Re: Brambles

Postby smojo » Sat May 24, 2014 1:03 pm

they will just about take the bum-fluff off a hamster


My hamster is sh*****g himself :?

OK message received - I did wonder if they were a bit lightweight.
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