Chipped

 Chipped.

Well it has happened. The piles of Aspen and Alder brash have gone. There is still plenty around the site, but there is now room to move it about. The main stems are likely to go, for the most part they can currently be dragged about. Those that need cutting up to load onto a trailer can be sectioned. They can also start being moved out of the planting area.

My only previous experience with a chipper taught me what to expect. Then the chipper wouldn't start, having arrived an hour late, the battery of the towing Land Rover had to be removed to get it off the trailer and started. I also found two people feeding it from organised piles can get through a huge amount of material.  It actually took a lot less time than I had expected. The chip was going on the ground in mounds, which I then used  as a mulch. 

This time the idea was to fill a trailer, the chipper arrived late and the trailer even later. We did not use everything as efficiently as hoped and still finished everything that had to go by mid afternoon. Not that it really mattered to me the amount of chip produced did seem disappointingly small! It will probably join other chip and go off to a power station. With the current concern about energy or the lack of it I think it justifiable.

About 4 cubic meters of chip in the trailer.

The chip will hopefully pay for the chipper. Not the reason for sending it off site. Most trees and wild flowers evolved to grow on what farmers would regard as nutrient poor soils. This field although free draining, unless the Trent is very high, was an "improved" meadow and fairly nutrient rich. I think this because the trees grow fast, as do the weeds none of which are typical woodland flowers. Stinging and dead nettle dominate much of the wood. Alder had been planted partly because it adds nitrogen to the soil, but this is not needed, another reason to remove it. By removing the chip the nutrients it contains are removed. The open space will be replanted, with timber trees and some wild flower seeds will be scattered in the hope that some will take.