Celandines Make the Sun Come Out!

Celandines are common on banks and in woodland in February and March.  They grow from small white tubers and the whole upper parts of the plants vanish from sight, shortly after they finish flowering.

A member to the Ranunculus or Buttercup family.

When the Sun is shining; the Celandine flowers are forced to open.  In the same way; open flowers will force the sun to shine.

On a cloudy day, pick some closed flowers and place them on a window sill, where the Sun would normally shine.  As they start to dry, they will open and therefore the Sun will come out and the clouds will evaporate away.

If only all things in life could be that simple.

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Gaps in the Beech

Planting the Gaps in a Beech Plantation

Too Many Beeches

Beeches are beautiful native trees, beneficial to many forms of wildlife.  But all too often they are planted in these hideous monocultures, where little grows under them, due to their acidic leaf mould.  In a mixed deciduous woodland, which includes the right natural balance of Beech; wild flowers thrive, but under just Beech very little will grow.  Wild Daffodils certainly will not.

On Dartmoor there are many of these Beech Plantations, they have little extra plant life in them than a conifer plantation.  There are few examples of mature native trees up here and the Beech have grown into Bonsai versions of what they would have been, if they were growing in the lowlands.  These trees seldom get above60 feet/20 metres due to the high altitude and poor acidic soil conditions.

Falling Trees

The pictures here show the Beech tree plantation, which is situated in the middle of one of my woods.  The ground here is semi boggy and often the great trees topple over in the soft wet ground, under their own weight.  Very often they can regenerate, but nothing like as well as Willows can.

These trees are very old and each occupies quite a large chunk of the canopy.  Each time one of them falls down it provides a new area for me to plant, with a more balanced next generation of small trees.

Preferred Tree Types

I find that most species of shrub tree have difficulty growing on a site, where Beech has the only major in-put into the available leaf mould.  Most shrub trees remain stumpy for years and Birch really does not do well either.

What I call ‘the main sequence trees’, such as Oak, Ash, Lime, Alder, Sweet Chestnut, Elm and Beech all seem to grow very well, in these gaps and don’t seem at all bothered by any harshness of conditions brought on by any toxic qualities in the leaf mould from the Beech, so they are what I have planted in here.

My Woods on Dartmoor

11 Years of Treeplanting on Dartmoor

Many of the trees I have planted over the past decade are getting quite big now.  It has been amazing, that I have been left alone, to get on with it.  Although never given any kind of official permission.  A whole 11 years, where nobody has ever bothered me, despite my many controversial tree and wild flower planting activities.

The photos, which I have chosen for this post, are from the last two growing seasons.  They show different parts of the woods, but are generally of some of the most established parts.

History

I moved up here in 2000 and really started planting trees here in that following Winter, which began in the Autumn of 2000 and ended in the Spring of 20001, so I refer to this year as 'year 1'.

For the first five years,my only form of transport was a bicycle and for those five years most of the trees I collected were collected by me cycling off miles and attaching a bag of trees to the rack, which sat over the back wheel of my bicycle.  I lived at least 5 miles from the nearest places, where I could collect trees from, but more often ten or even twenty miles, added to which my home for the past 11 years has sat at 413 metres above sea level in the UK's highest village, up on Dartmoor; so getting back home, laden with trees in mist, hail, lashing rain, thunder and even blizzards; has often been extremely challenging.

For year 6 I had got a motorbike and this totally revolutionised tree collecting.  I could travel much grater distances, go much faster and collect much larger trees.  After never having had motorised transport before; it felt like I had just got a spaceship and every time I zoomed off on it anywhere; I felt like I was travelling off at warp-speed to far off distant worlds.

One clear disadvantage with having the motorbike, over the bicycle was that it was more of a performance to stop and start it.  With the bicycle; I could lean it against a hedge or wall, when ever I spotted something interesting, such as a Hazel rooted into the side of the road, which wasn't part of the hedge and needed to be removed and transplanted somewhere safe.  With the motorbike I could only stop in car parks and could no longer transfer onto the pavement, when the lights were red, but over all by far; the motorbike increased the amount of trees I could and did collect ten-fold. 

 

The Sites

Most of my attentions over the past decade have be concentrated in the Black brook valley, which is a tributary of the River Dart.  The Black brook begins deep in the moor and flows through artificial field systems, as it passes by the village of Princetown.  After that it goes through another 4 miles of open moorland, before joining the Dart.  Only two road bridges cross this river and only farm track.  It is a truly wild river and quite rapid in many parts.  It is about 7/10 miles downstream to where the Dart valley becomes proper forest, but a long way untill it hits any sembelance of real civilization.

The section of the Black brook, which goes through this field system around Princetown; had been partially planted with many of the wrong sort of trees, seemingly at a few times throughout the past 200 years.  The majority of the area between the river and its adjoining system of ancient water-leats was left ungrazed.

What I have done over the past decade is to plant the right balance of native trees, collected locally, from natural woodlands and forests, around the edges of the moor.  I have basically filled in the gaps between the patches of Beech and Conifer, to create a balanced natural woodland, which could be the highest in the country, possibly.

Because of the high altitude; the trees grow much smaller and more slowly, than they do elsewhere.  This is due to the poorer soil quality, with the very boggy and acidic soil up here on this granite plateau and because of the much shorter growing season.

A fully grown tree here is only a third the size of one of the same species that had been growing in some lowland fertile valley.

History of Dartmoor's Forests

Before sheep farming became big business in the middle ages Dartmoor was covered in forest,  at least up to a height of 400 metres.  Preserved tree roots and branches in the peat that forms up here, are a testament to this.

I imagine that unique species of plants and animals probably lived here, as do in most upland areas.  these were most likely driven to extinction, during the brutal and swift clearance of the forest, with most of these species; probably vanishing without ever having been recorded.

My Aims
I want to plant the right ingredients of trees and wild flowers so that the natural forest can regenerate its self and so restoring the natural vegetation to it's former state.  By planting a massive woods high up on the Black brook valley; I have created a sink for wildlife, attracting creatures from miles around to come into the woods and feed, and so dispersing seeds out to other nearby areas.

I have also planted many other smaller and some roadside areas, with the intention of speeding up this natural process.

Having the big main woods; means that there is a large pollen count in the air, from all native wind-pollinated trees and also a large bank of diverse genetic material, so that trees and plants, growing up here in isolation from the lowlands; will not become in bread.

Help from friends, neighbours and customers
Various people have helped me.  Sometimes friends would turn up with vans full of trees, other times neighbours and customers would allow me to rescue trees, which had seeded themselves in their gardens.  This helped the cause enormously and meant that allot more land was able to be completed.

I am soon to move to a new area.  I have asked various dog walkers, etc to keep an eye on my trees here, but really; my work is done here and it is time for me to move on, to begin planting trees in another deserving area.

Bryony

White Bryony Bryonia Dioica

There are various members of this group of plants growing in Europe and Asia, but this one is native to the UK.  A distant relative of the Cucumber; it likes to climb through hedges or small trees, quite common in south East England, but also being present in Chalky or Lime stone areas.

The Flowers and vine-like climbing stems, which continue to flower throughout much of the Summer; usually go unnoticed, as they are fairly undramatic and blend in with their surroundings.  But it is in the Winter when this plant suddenly becomes the centre of attention, with these dramatic orange/red berries, draped through tree branches and bare Winter hedges.

The Berries are extremely poisonous and cause asphyxia if eaten.

Primroses out in the Hedgerows around Ashburton

A welcome Sign of Spring

The Primroses have been very early this year.  They are one of our very long flowering season plants.  Like many in the UK; which don't have to rush to flower prior to some impending dry-season.  Here the climate is fairly similar for most of the year and our wild flowers are often in no rush to flower and many flower for months.

If conditions are right; mainly cool and mild, then Primroses can extend their flowering season, from their familiar March and April, and begin flowering in the Autumn.  They usually only do this in gardens, but often the wild ones throw up the odd flowers, through out any extended mild periods of the winter.

To see wild Primroses flowering like this in a wild hedge in January is very exceptional.  This many flowering all at once should be a scene from March, this is far too early for them to be doing this.   It can only be the result of us having such a mild Winter.  They certainly weren't doing this during the terribly cold conditions, we were having last year.

Mild Winter, or what?

Last Winter, the daytime temperature seldom seemed to rise above -10C.  This Winter, however, we are frequently experiencing tempretures of 15C.

As you can see; the Willows are Budding up and the Primroses are flowering.

The last three Winters, I had been trapped up here, by heavy snowfall and had to climb out of the window, as snow had blocked the door.

By contrast this winter is 25 degrees warmer.

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The Other Wistmans Woods

Okery Bridge

On Dartmoor there are two little patches of Oak woodland, which are supposed to be the last remnants of the forest, which once covered Dartmoor.  One is in the North, by Meldon reservoir & is called Blackator Copse & one is near me at Two Bridges.  It is the most well known; called Wistmans woods.

These two woods are famous, they are both very protected.  But not this one.  Not Okery Bridge.  This one is unknown and certainly not protected like the other two, even though it is at the same altitude, its in the same world heritage site and its comprised of the same (supposedly) ancient, bonzi twisted Oak trees.

At some point in time some joker has planted Beech trees in amongst the Oaks also some non-native species, including Pine and Spruce have been added and left unchecked.  In the spring thousands of mixed garden Daffodils appear in big established clumps.

However, this site, as well as the adjoining horse field; was the only site in Princeton, where there were any Wild Bluebells, prior to my arrival here.

Hopefully one day, someone will come to the aid of this historic woodland.  Before it is too late.