Tree establishment, Ponds, Vegetables and Polytunnels

Approximately 20 people attended most recent "Any Size Landowners" event hosted by Justin Evens and Veronique Limon at their property near Ruan Minor. After introductions, we were shown around an impressive recently established orchard and vegetable garden. This included fan trained plums on every available wall, espalier pears surrounding the vegetable garden and half standard apples, all grafted onto rootstocks by Justin using material from local varieties of known vigour and productivity. Elsewhere Justin showed us a recently planted nut orchard, a thriving raspberry patch, grapevines in the polytunnel laden with fruit and an area of gooseberries and blackcurrants protected from marauding blackbirds with a net which itself had to be protected from badger damage with an electric fence. 

Nest boxes for tawny owls have been installed on trees but are currently occupied by jackdaws ! Waste woody material and tree branches are not burned on a bonfire as is normal practice, instead these are just piled up into an enormous "habitat heap" and allowed to rot down slowly in order to provide a niche for invertebrates and small mammals such as hedgehogs.

After a pleasant stop for lunch we continued with a walk through fields planted with oak, ash, birch, alder and yew five years ago. Justin stressed the importance of eliminating weed competition around newly planted trees and routinely expects medium-fast growing species to achieve height growth of 1m per year. Justin propagated all the trees himself using locally collected seed in order to ensure compatibility with local soil and climate. Browsing deer are discouraged by a combination of perimeter electric fencing and twice-daily dog walks.

At this young stage the trees provide a nicely mixed plant habitat: variable heights and light levels encourage diverse understory species. Native bluebells were introduced using seed collected from a nearby woodland last year and ramsons seed will be broadcast under the trees this year. A large pond dug on the site of a spring in the 70's provides habitat for toads, newts and various invertebrates including the dragonflies and damsel flies which could be seen skimming the water surface. The pond originally contained many hundreds of very small crucian carp but these were deliberately removed in 2022 in order to favour invertebrates.