by Meadowcopse » Fri Apr 04, 2014 9:42 am
2.06 acres / 0.96 ha.
Minimal tree cover (effectively a triangular field) - it was part of a meadow system cut off by a 1980s by-pass and now surrounded by modern agriculture.
I have mature / ageing / decaying hedgerow ash trees along 2 boundaries - half have been radically and successfully pollarded / repollarded. 3 hedgerows are on boundaries recorded on maps from 1690 (showing hand drawn mature trees back then, wood anemones, violets etc in the ditch banks).
The roadside boundary / embankment has 30 year old willow and ash, which I'm slowly coppicing / pollarding (1/5 a year) and adding a sparse hawthorn hedge higher up.
It would be inappropriate as a habitat to turn lowland grassland into woodland (unploughed in living memory / before WW2), but my growing collection of heritage fruit trees, now exists as a traditional orchard at 6 metre grid spacing of 110 trees (6 gallons of cider last year, hic...).
Not just apples, but pears, quince, mulberries, medlars, walnuts, hazelnuts, figs, plums, cherries.
Two corners have been planted with mainly local provenance broad leaf trees for future coppice / pollard management.
There is also a small collection of obscure whitebeam type Sorbus varieties and a row of 5 clonal variations of Elm planted as part of 'The Great British Elm Experiment'
There are also 2 female Black Poplars that I planted as young trees about 3 years ago - one will end up being pollarded, one will be left in its natural form, together with a couple of male trees going in along one boundary.