May 3, 2025

Spring is definitey well on its way. All the trees and hedges have a good set of leaves on them. They seem to be able to grow inside the plastic tube protectors; the leaves are a bit squashed but the light seems to get through. Some are already poking out the top; hopefully by the end of the summer they’ll all have grown out the tubes. 

There has been very little rain still, but the trees aren’t suffering yet. Even so, my biggest priority now is water access. It’s proving to be a tricky problem to solve. I’ve done a few iterations of putting up a tarp over a water butt to catch rainwater, but so far I’ve failed. The tarp structure blows in the wind and ends up falling over quite quickly. I need a sturdier structure to withstand the elements for longer. 

My field neighbour claims that you can’t catch enough water anyway with a tarp - you need a much larger surface area. This is probably true if: it’s not raining much, you lose it again through evaporation, and you need a lot of it. But, I think it’s worth it, at least in part. My other option is dig a trench at the bottom of the field, at the bottom of the slope, coat the trench in plastic and collect the rain run off. This might also evaoprate if I leave it in the trench. I would need a pump to get it all the way back up the field, and a very long hose… About 200 metres. But how much will a trench fill up naturally?

If not rain water, digging my own bore hole would cost a few thousand. Or my neighbour has a bore hole, and he has offered to give me water if I need. In fact, he’s filled up all my butts this week because of the dry weather. Very kind of him, but also time consuming for him as he needs to turn on his generator and connect a 100m long hose from his field to mine. It worked, but didn’t feel like a regular solution, only in emergenices. Maybe emergency is all I need, as the forest should be self sustainable. A little water here and there should be all I need. Hence capturing some rain. I’m currently attempting to weave something like a large upside down tree skirt, which could give stability to a tarp. If this idea doesn’t work, then the trench will be my next move. 

The other priority at the moment is the grass… I’ve been trying to suppress the grass and weeds around each tree with cardboard and woodchip. That has gone well, at least where I’ve put cardboard down. But now that it’s Spring, grass and weeds are growing long and quick, making it difficult to walk around. I knew I’d have to mow the grass at some point - that time is now.  I’m in favour of manual tools over machines whereever possible, I don’t really want the noise and petrol smell for hours as I mow and prune. I do appreciate machine power and efficiency, but will always first try the manual way. I’ve bought a push mower, no electricity, which I have yet to try. I’m hoping this will do the trick and be able to cut knee high grass, large weeds and roll over rocks… Maybe I’m asking too much. If I restrict it to just around the trees and a path from tree to tree the it might be a more reasonable effort to payoff ratio. 

If a push mower won’t cut it, option two is an electric mower, either battery or petrol powered. If that’s still too inefficient, then a mini tractor / seated lawnmower. The downside of a mini tractor is that I’m planting densely, including many small shrubs, which I worry will get chopped if I don’t see them when mowing. 

A long way of saying, my next tasks are a system for collecting water, and method for mowing the grass.

New stick chairs for chilling

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