Looking back

Looking back 5 years to a visit from Suffolk Traditional Orchard Group, STOG, and the planting of the new fruit trees. 

Sunday 3rd February 2019 - Work Party

A cold but sunny morning and a bit of a project in the woodland this month. We have been planning for sometime to increase the habitat diversity by having some water in the woodland. It would have been ideal to have a pond but this wasn't possible because of health and safety, and therefore, insurance issues with creating  a new pond.
Fortunately, there is an existing boundary ditch, which flows in the winter, and the
remains of a channel down the centre. The plan was to divert some of the water from the ditch into this channel, and here is how we got on.

 

First a trench was dug to connect the 2 ditches. We found lots of sticky Suffolk clay and the water started running straight away!

The pipes were laid alongside the trench and joined together, with a bit of a wiggle and a bit of brute force, and placed on struts over the trench. 

Once it was all joined together, the pipe was put in the bottom of the trench. After coffee it was filled back in and here we have it water flowing through the woodland.

The next day it rained and the you can just make out the pool it formed downhill. Not dug out by us! Unfortunately this has now overflowed and made rather a boggy area at the bottom of the woodland so some refinement will be necessary! The path at the top will also be redefined and seeded.

Many thanks to Holmes plant hire for lending the mini digger and Glenn for driving it so expertly.

While all this was going on, other team members were putting the tree guards on the den sallows and generally getting on with proper woodland maintenance.