One man went to mow…
…went to mow a meadow! At the moment in my case, it is one man and his cat to follow on. We have around two hectares to mow…. that’s around five acres in English money… and the grass needs to be removed to lower the fertility and allow the weaker species to grow more successfully … Read more
2010 & 11… Almost caught up!
As mentioned at the end of the last post we started off the willow plantation. I purchased and collected the willows from Yorkshire Willow… they came as 10″ cuttings… well, lengths… of one year old stem with about six to ten buds. The idea is to plant each length of willow stem where it is … Read more
A Bit of Fencing…. 2009
We had a break from the felling routine in 2009 and did some planting [as before] and some fencing. The fencing was needed to define the boundary between our property and the neighbouring field… the original fence was very ‘tired’ and in places… completely missing [having, in our absence, been driven straight through by a … Read more
Five old Saules… part four of the saga – 2008
The routine continued… but this year we had my wife with us, so Stuart and I were able to crack on much quicker, leaving Pauline to cook and clean up after us! Well, not really, the third pair of hands actually meant that some of the more difficult tasks were “three head, six hand” jobs. … Read more
Five old Saules… part the third. 2007 and the heat is on!!
By this point Stuart and I had got into a routine. Cut the ‘trees’ off the top of the old pollard, deal with the usable timber, plant trees, cut rods and refill the cattle splash. Why ‘trees’… mainly because that is what they were… pollarding usually takes place between ten and twenty five years after … Read more
Five old Saules… the second part. 2006.
2006 saw us ‘armed’ with a chainsaw. That meant that we were able to tidy up the wreckage of the first attempt and finish the tree off properly. The cut timber was then processed and we took some of it up to the hangar [dutch bar/open barn] to dry out for use as firewood. The … Read more
Ooooo! 2011…what a busy year!
A Klimt image of our Norway Maples Well, I must apologise for my absence… we have had a lot to do this year and time seems to have just slipped by. We now have an internet connection over here, in the Laiterie, and it will be a lot easier to write of an evening. We … Read more
The Original Five Old Saules
These are the original five willows that formed part of the boundary of the bief. The five old pollards The rotted out stumps of some of the rest remain… a hazard as one walks the bank. As you can see, these were in desperate need of conservation. Already, branches had rotted and fallen, trunks split … Read more
Welcome to Art en Saule
With two hectares of land… five huge old willows…. where does one start? You put your “Art ‘n’ Soul” into it…. of course! This is an occasional blog of what we are doing [and why we are doing it] in the way of land management here at La Forge
