Cairn Wood Early History Part II

Cairn Wood Early History Part II 

The field at Cairn Wood had been planted with willow for basketry starting in 1995. It had only been occasionally cut and then only the best bits. The result was that much of it was very thick and some quite sparse. The areas that were easiest to clear were the first to be cleared. The first  area which had been cut and the regrowth spayed off was planted. 40 cells each of 5 different Eucalyptus species were put in the ground in May 2007. There was no ground preparation, the cells were planted with a trowel, and left to get on with it. Sheets of cardboard were put around the trees as a mulch. The cardboard can be seen in the photo, in the area marked 1d: Willow. The labels refer to later plantings.

Believing  Eucaypts were not troubled by herbivores they were not guarded. The summer of 2007 saw Hull and the Humber badly flooded in June and large parts Gloucestershire and Oxfordshire under water  in July. Cairn Wood is between the two in North Nottinghamshire and there was local flooding on both occasions. The ground was saturated for over 2 months before drying out and cracking. Unsurprisingly the trees did not do very well. 

The North End of Cairn Wood Autumn 2007. 
The labels actually refer to later planting patterns. The cardboard around the original Eucalyps can be 
seen in the area marked 1d: The green strip under the "llow" part of the label are  my seedlings

Unusually the Eucalypts came in cell trays, which were left due to the complicated logistics of returning them.  I had also bought seed of several Australian Eucalyptus species these were potted into the trays when they were emptied.  The small amount of the small remaining stock of cells, was bought off the importer. Much to his relief as he was not going to restock them, and did not have commercial quantities. The seedings then got planted out over the winter.  They went into the green strip in the photo next to the cardboard  squares. While this planting had been going on the original willow continued to be cleared and the clearer areas were sub soiled. The aerial photo is from after the subsoiling. 

Survival rates were not good, poor drainage and soil quality were blamed. Trenches were dug across a part of the sub soiled area over the winter of 2008. The soil piled in between and surviving but not thriving  Eucs were transplanted into the ridges, in the area marked 1e: old euc. These trees did very much better for a couple of years.

 

April 2010. On the left canes mark where seedlings will go. Ahead are bought in broadleaves and the previous years Eucalypts. 

               

May 2010 Eucalyptus nitens.
On the right are frosted E. globulus. 

Trenching the whole area was not considered feasible. Surviving seedlings were transplanted so their area could be subsoiled later and the seedlings were planted between already dug trenches next to the ones that had already been transplanted. 900 seedlings were planted in rows adjacent to the stream. The winter of 2009 saw quite a bit of snow and with nothing else to eat hares in particular helped themselves to the more palatable species. They bit off everything sticking out of the spirals and left most of it. E. gunnii was the only one they actually ate in quantity, most did not recover. The frost sensitive E. globulus much favoured in Portugal died, not unexpectedly. I always thought there would be some species I would lose to the cold. Looking at temperature records, most species would survive 20 years. 8-10 year rotation had been hoped for.  

2010 The missing Eucalypts were replaced with Alder, Hornbeam, Downey Birch and in particular Ash. Many of the ash were transplanted natural regeneration from across the site. A central strip was planted with a range of Eucalypts. Most of the original transplants were doing well.

Many will remember the severe winter of 2010/11 there were two occasions of -18C temperatures and two weeks when the surface temperature failed to get above Zero. Prolonged cold weather is very bad for Eucalypts they do not have a dormant period merely slowing down. By March 2011 it was obvious that no above soil eucalypt growth had survived. It was time for a rethink.