The vision behind Stone Circle Livery was the creation of a rural business that worked hand-in-hand with the environment. Part of this vision was the creation of new woodland to form natural wind breaks, habitat and interesting riding terrain as well as spray drift barriers to comply with our organic status.
We have planted thousands of trees at Stone Circle Livery and we are now old hands at getting the planting right but our first time around was a real learning curve. We did what we thought was best and we can honestly say that we got it right most of the time. We approached the Forestry Commission who offered a grant to purchase the trees to plant our new woodland under the Farm Woodland Premium scheme. The grant available just about covers the cost of the trees so any spiral guards, support canes, livestock protection and labour have to come out of your own funding. We took the view that the end result was worth the investment and committed our time and energy in a single planting season (December – February) to plant 3.5 hectares of native woodland species. That’s around 7,900 trees. The estimate we were given was working on a 30% failure rate. We are glad to report 3 years down the line that we have only lost 5%.
The Forestry Commission sugest a mixed and random spacing to an overall average density of 2250 plants per hectare, incorporating 10% open ground. We interpreted the 10% open ground in the form of new bridleways. Great for riding. The mix of trees was 30% Ash, 20% Oak, 10% Hornbeam, 15% Silver Birch 5% Wild Cherry (My favourite tree), 10% woody shrubs including hawthorn, buckthorn and hazel.
The pictures you see here are of the area we prepared for planting using a plough and power harrow and the resultant planting. Every spare minute we had went on planting trees but the results are really worth it. We’ll post some pictures of how the woods are taking shape in the summer. Some trees planted from small whips are already standing at 10ft tall.
www.forestry.gov.uk
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