Getting the Hazels in

On Friday we planted the hazels. Our planting site at Loch Archie runs above a recently buried power cable and this certainly made for some interesting planting. The site is currently planted with (tubed) native broad-leafs (BL's) with the exception of the strip we were planting. Prior to the BL's being planted it had been a small commercial block of Sitka Spruce which was felled about 4 years ago. A number of rootplates from these spruce alongside woody debris from the harvesting operation had been incorporated into the soil of the strip we were planting. For those who have not had the experience of trying to plant trees in wood instead of soil, it basically involves a spade bouncing of buried wood and a new spot being found for the trees. It was only an infrequent problem, but it meant some bits were hard to plant and that some of our lines and spacings were a bit wonky.

Our planting site, looking to the West, then to the East.

We had a really enjoyable visit from some of the pupils and teachers at Glenlyon Primary School. The school is making great progress towards an Eco-Schools award and recently held a well attended and very pleasant  event aimed at creating vegetable growing areas in the schools grounds.The kids from the School are mostly well adapted to the glen weather which is just as well because not long after they started planting trees, we were blessed with some water to help them get established. I really think in this case the pictures mostly do the talking.

 
The intro bit- "This is a Hazel tree and we are planting them because......." Luckily no-one fell asleep.

Getting started with Screefs and T-notches for planting. Note various waterproofs hanging on the gate.

Headteachers and pupils get busy and the trees start going in.

Sometimes tree planting can be exciting.

Rain is good because it helps things to grow.

Mixed emotions as time to return to school comes.

Eventually we got all the trees in and Loch Archie now has a new hazel corridor along its north end.

All Done!
My thanks in particular to John and Jason who were so very helpful on the day and also to Victor Clements of Scottish Native Woods for organising the trees and to E-Forests for donating them.