Woodland

jodles16

Hello everyone!

I am moving to the dream home hopefully within the next 7 days, it has just under an acre of land and Im so so excited/overwhelmed to go from a concrete patch to a field! It has a horse and pony on it at the moment, so is a big muddy field because of all the rain.

For financial reasons we are going to securely fence approx a third of the field into a garden which will be our main doggy safe area where I am hoping to build a small vege plot next year (another project!).

The rest will remain with horse fencing until we can make it safer for our dogs (surrounded by fields and animals one way and big road just up our shared drive). The bottom half leads to a stream which Im going to find out if we have any ownership of as I would love to clear access to it and start a woodland type area down there. Its very flat and has apple and pear tress that are already heavy with fruit (so exciting!!) and would love to add other trees etc to make it a private area which feels lovely and rural.

It is pretty flat and quite coastal, not sure about what soil is there. Just wondering about tough hard and easy to grow tress that will help to start the woodland, and what other pretty wild plants you may recommend?

I am honestly so excited to kick this whole project off but am also pretty new to plants and tree growing/ownership!

Thanks for reading, and any advice!!

Jodles :j

cyclonebri1

You simply can't do what you want without planting Silver Birch, it has to be your tree of choice and is not unruly.
Cork bark Maples etc, it really then depends if you want an open gladed type ares or a dense tree mass, former works best.

Oh trees usually work best in multiples of the same variety, 3 is a good number.
DH is in the last stages or purchasing about 14 acres of meadow land behind their house, that too is an open canvas but does have a small brook as a bottom boundary and some nicely wooded banks, bluebells etc. That could be a flower for you.

Davesnave

I'm a bit concerned that you don't know exactly what you have ownership of! Land Registry plans won't tell you who is responsible for maintaining which side of a boundary, but they should indicate clearly where the boundaries lie.

If the area is coastal, you will be looking for windbreak trees which can stand up to salt winds, so holm oak and some varieties of pine come to mind. Deciduous trees will be available from November as small bare root plants, which is more economic, and it's better to plant these than pot grown stuff. Somewhere like this will give you ideas:

http://www.hedging.co.uk/acatalog/index.html

If you have animals around your plot, you need to look at neighbour's fences/hedges too, as not everyone is careful about straying livestock, and a few sheep can trash an area of new planting very quickly!

For this reason, and because it's a long term project, I wouldn't rush intro anything, other than the veg plot, until you've been in residence a year. Land can spring some interesting surprises and until you know it well, your choices for it won't be the best.

If you want to get on with the trees soon, make a nursery bed and grow very small ones on for a year. I did that with yews for formal hedging, and later with hornbeam too. I had some failures with the bought-in small plants, but lost none when the two year olds were planted out, so no gaps and very cheap.

Finally forget wildflower meadows for now. It's a specialist thing and there are plenty of garden plants e.g. eupatorium, buddleia, geraniums etc, that sit well in a natural area, stand being strimmed down annually and give no hassle.

jodles16

Thank you for your replies! I love the look of birch trees so would be happy to try a few of these! And Bluebells are gorgeous!

I can find out where our boundary lies without too much problem but we haven't exchanged yet so dont have access to paper copy. The farmers fencing is nice and basic, only negative from a garden side of view is it has barbed wire so would want to put other fencing up eventually to make it safe-our side only would leave the other fencing. The stream is fenced off with basic fencing and barbed wire on both sides so I am just not 100% sure at the moment.

Going to a talk from a local organic gardener next week so will also check it out with them!

Again thanks for the replies!!

Jodles

Davesnave

jodles16 wrote: »

I can find out where our boundary lies without too much problem but we haven't exchanged yet so dont have access to paper copy.

Anyone has access to paper copy from the Land Registry for the princely sum of £3 upwards.

https://www.gov.uk/search-property-information-land-registry

And it's no bad thing getting copies of your neighbours' plans/titles too, if questions arise. This has helped me tremendously on more than one occasion.

Don't expect your solicitor to spot errors either. They will not see the property. There were 4 errors in my title, two of which my solicitor might have spotted, but she didn't. Got them all fixed before exchange.

You would not believe the fun you can have with neighbours in the countryside, but I'm sure yours will be lovely.

SallyG

you're so lucky - this is as close as I've got:
http://arbtalk.co.uk/forum/forestry-woodland-management/69371-first-post-planting-native-woodland-east-sussex-7.html

Mojisola

jodles16 wrote: »

I can find out where our boundary lies without too much problem but we haven't exchanged yet so dont have access to paper copy.

How can you get this far without knowing exactly what you're buying? Follow Dave's advice - much better to sort out any issues before you buy.

Don't rush into making big changes too quickly. I remember hearing about the woman who spent days planting daffodil bulbs in her new (very big) garden. She was just finishing and was looking over the area of the garden, imaging it in the Spring, when a neighbour came by and said "The garden looks lovely now but just wait til the Spring, there's hundreds of daffodils!"

jodles16

We made an offer on the house in April so have seen it through the whole of summer, its literally just a field used for cattle and sheep before horses! No plans on rushing though won't be able to afford to rush! Just thinking ahead as trees take a long time to grow so thought the sooner the better if that makes sense! The rest will be left as field/garden and will harvest the lovely fruit already growing.

Thanks all!

Jodles

jodles16

Just double checked boundary lines, looks like it is the stream edge, I have an eway file so just had to logon. That doesn't affect my idea just means the stream will lie over the boundary, will still make a lovely shaded woodland area and be good use of the space. Pinterest does make my imagination soar!

Jodles

olias

You do realise that you can't just fence off a bit of field to turn into a garden. You need to apply for planning permission for change of use and it is quite hard to come by as the planning departments quite rightly don't want to see fields given over to domestic planting. I suspect the same may be true of planting trees. You need to get advice as the las thing you want is to do iut d then have an enforcement to reinstate the land.

Olias

Davesnave

olias wrote: »

You do realise that you can't just fence off a bit of field to turn into a garden.

I suspect the same may be true of planting trees. You need to get advice as the las thing you want is to do iut d then have an enforcement to reinstate the land.Olias

You can have an allotment though, and an orchard.

Planting woodland is generally encouraged, especially on marginal agricultural land, though if this has had horses on it, it may be equestrian, because horses aren't 'agriculture.'

There again,at just under an acre, it may already have garden status.

Anyway, if you live in the wilds and don't get involved with DEFRA, government subsidies etc people generally don't notice what you're doing! :shhh: