Winter trim of the Willow Grove in Turnditch Orchard

Each year around November, we trim the willow grove in the orchard. In 2019 we were affected by the flooding in Derbyshire, so we had to postpone the trimming until January 2020. The job takes about two hours to trim approximately 70 willow stools (coppiced about chest high) to remove the year's growth. the thicker "wands" grow to 2 - 3 metres in length. We planted the willow to help dry a wet patch of the orchard where a historic drain route was in place before the nearby railway bridge embankment was built. We also use the wood to form willow spiling to reinforce the river bank. The salix viminalis strain grows too fast/thick to be of much use in basketry. We trim it each year to ensure we get single shaft wands with very little branching.  ach year we give cuttings away free to people who want to grow their own willow. It is very easy to propagate, just poke a willow wand/branch about 20cm in the ground and leave it alone until it grows too big. It thrives best in an unshaded location. The roots are highly tolerant of waterlogged ground.

The willow grove is well shaded and cool in the hot summer months. The plant is friendly to wildlife and insects. On the riverbank the roots of the spiled willow help to bind the soil together and reduce bank erosion.

River bank erosion at the Turnditch Orchard

We had a nice bright sunny, but cold, Winter's day in the orchard today. The focus of the work was using willow cuttings to undertake some spiling to reinforce the river bank. The willow cuttings will take root and quickly grow next and subsequent years. The root system will help to stabilize  the soft earth banks of the river as the willow grows larger. I was inspecting the river bank while standing in the river today. I could see that the recent river spate caused by the recent heavy rain is undercutting the river bank. In places there were some small collapses of soil into the river. If you look at the junction of the river and the bank in the picture below it is possible to see the dark under-cut area.

During the year part of the bank was damaged by overweight farm machinery trying to maneuver too close to the edge of the river bank. This caused a deep wheel gouge next to the river fence, damaged the fence, and also pushed some of the bank soil towards the river.  We've planted some willow spiling today which will strengthen the top of the river bank once it has grown for a few years. The deep roots will help bind the soil.

We cut the willow wands from the willow grove we'd planted a couple of years ago in the orchard. We're using a hybrid of Salix Verminalis willow which grow 2 - 3 metres in a year. Once the willow is established we'll cut and layer the branches to form a low hedge at the top of the river bank.

Some of the harvested willow wands

We pollarded the willow at roughly waist height to encourage new growth next year. It also allow the bark to thicken around the base while the tender new branches grow out of the reach of marauding sheep.

While inspecting the trees in the orchard, after completing the spiling, I found a rodent, probably a grey squirrel, had damaged the bark at the base of the Egremont Russet Apple tree. It is so annoying because the damage will stay with the tree for the rest of its life. It just goes to show the tree protectors we'd installed on most of the other trees help prevent such damage. We've already ordered some replacements to cover the trunks of all of the young trees.

Hedge extension planning and spiling

Some of the hedges in the orchard have been removed during previous ownership. It is our plan to restore the hedges by planting new bushes along the original line of hedgerow. In a few years, when the bushes have grown large enough we'll have them laid in a traditional Derbyshire /Staffordshire manner to restore the hedge.

The first step is to raise some young plants in a nursery area on the orchard. As soon as the leaves have fallen this autumn, we'll take some hardwood cuttings to grow the replacement trees. We're planning on using a mix of Hawthorn, Hazel, Blackthorn, Elm, Ash and Oak. For the boggier areas we'll also include some Alder. We'll propagate the cuttings in pots in the nursery area with a target of 250 saplings ready planting in the next two years. We may supplement the local plants with some native Hornbeam purchased from a nursery.

During the winter 2016/17 we'll be planting more willow (Salix Verminalis) on the river bank using cuttings from the willow grove we've created in the orchard. The spilings we planted last year on the river bank near the road have been reasonably successful. This winter's planting will be in the lower section of river bank which is prone to flooding. The bank in that area is quite soft and is prone to damage from heavy agricultural vehicles used by the neighbouring farmer. When it is established, the willow root mass will help to reinforce the bank. This will reduce future damage and erosion. We'll pollard cut the willow over the years at approximately head height to encourage reasonably thick trunks. We can pleach cut and layer the trunks on the river bank in future years to form a living wall at the top of the river bank.

Willow harvest at the Orchard

We harvested last year's growth of willow from the grove planted in the Turnditch Orchard. We planted the willow (100 wands) in 2013 shortly after purchasing the land to form the orchard. This year was the first time we've taken a crop.

We were able to take about a wheelbarrow load of willow branches or wands from the plants. We've coppiced them to waist height to encourage the development of a trunk with thicker tough bark and provide future resilience from rabbit or sheep attack.

The field is quite soggy at the moment following all the rain we have had recently, The base of the willow was under water in a large puddle. Fortunately willow is able to resist such wet conditions without damage. Over the past few weeks the river has come close to the flood levels on several occasions, but fortunately the rain lessened and we were not flooded.

We were able to use the willow (Salix Verminalis) to start work on spiling the river bank. We were able to create a trial three metre section. We'll monitor progress during the year. If it regrows well we will repeat the process next winter.

The willow spiling is formed by pushing the thicker sticks into the ground (after using an iron bar to make a hole) in an upright position. The remaining thinner willow sticks (whips) are woven horizontally between the uprights to form a low wall. We also planted the butt end of most of the sticks in the soil. Most of the willow will take root and grow during the spring/summer forming a living green wall. The willow roots will penetrate down into the river bank in search of nutrients and water. The mass of willow roots will reinforce the river bank and protect against further erosion. The wall will collect sediment behind it during flooding and is not damaged by inundation. As the willow becomes established we'll have to periodically trim it back to stop it growing too tall.

Planting trees

We had a busy day in the orchard site yesterday planting most of the fruit trees. We'd planted the maiden bare root apple/cherry trees a couple of days ago. The first thing was to transport the trees in their pots from where they'd been overwintering in our garden. The buds were beginning to sprout so we had to transport them carefully two at a time in the back of our estate car from Belper. It took a total of five return trips. 

Next we visited Lester Lowe for a bundle of 50 hedging stakes which we'll use to provide to provide protective enclosures for the trees. They are about 20 mm square and 150 cm tall with tanelised sawn wood. They should last for the first few years of the tree's lives after which the trees should be tall enough and tough enough to resist the predations of any marauding sheep who sneak into the orchard. Hopefully by then our newly laid hedges will be providing some protection too.

We had a good three hours hard work, assisted by our German Shepherd Dog, digging holes and driving fencing stakes to provide the new home for the trees. The heavy post knocker we purchased last year has proved to be a great investment. The bottom of each pit was lined with a mix of coarse sand and manure compost to give the trees  a bit of a head start. We planted all but three of the fruit trees. We'll complete the tree planting today, then during the next week we'll build the protective enclosures for the trees. It is interesting to hear the comments of people walking by on the Ashbourne Road, clearly there is some interest in the progress of the  project from our neighbours.

Elka the GSD puppy discovered a mud wallow

We had a bonus in the shape of a walnut tree given to us by our neighbours in Belper. The tree is about four years old and about 2 metres tall. This also has been planted in the orchard. It took a rather large hole to accommodate the root ball! Our dog Rocky has been left to guard this tree.

It looks like all of the hundred willow wands we planted are sprouting new leaves in the grove we planted earlier this year. We should be able to harvest some of these for the spilling work on the river bank next  Autumn.

In many places we found clay and builders rubble which had been dumped on the land during previous ownership. Odd garden flowers such as crocus are appearing on the land. This is a clear sign of dumping which has effectively ruined the land for agricultural purposes. However the original alluvial soil is good and should be good for the trees of the orchard. I'm sure we'll build quite a large rubble heap over the years as we extract bricks from the soil.

Planting the Willow

Today we were hard at work planting 100 willow wands (1.5 Metres tall) on the Orchard site.  We've planted Salix Viminalis which is a fast growing native plant. It will grow about two metres higher in the first year. We'll prune it in the late autumn of 2014 to encourage side growth.

Planting willow wands

We planted the wands through metre wide woven textile membrane which you can see in the picture above. The membrane mat is laid on the ground and will suppress other plants which might compete with the willow as it establishes its root system in the ground. The edges of the membrane have been pinned down with special plastic pegs driven into the ground. Later we'll cover the membrane with wood chippings.

We're protecting the base of willow with clear plastic spiral tubes. This will help to prevent damage from rabbits nibbling the bark, We've planted the willow grove close to the line of the ditch which has been filled in during previous owners of the land. The wands are planted about 50 cms apart.

Aside from the usual mix of birds we saw a grey squirrel and a mouse (or vole?) on the land today.

Complete 100 wands planted

Early signs of spring

The river is still in spate today after the heavy rain over the past few weeks. The picture below shows the current level and some debris from a fallen tree.  This picture was taken from the road bridge. We're planing to clean the bank side and remove many of the failed trees. In their place we'll be planting some willow to consolidate the banks Their thick roots can withstand water logging in the soil and will dig down deeply binding the soil against flood erosion.

We noticed some snowdrop flowers on the field under the hedges and also in the open ground. You'd not normally find snowdrops in fields grazed by farm animals as they may be toxic. It is a further suggestion that some garden soil has been dumped on the field. I also noted some buds were beginning to swell on some of the twigs. Let's hope there not a cold spell in February to burn this sign of life.

Muddy boots in the Orchard

The heavy rains of recent weeks have caused the land at the Turnditch Orchard Project to become rather water logged. It didn't help much having a herd of unwanted sheep feeding in the area. Their hooves have compacted the wet soil somewhat. On old maps I can see signs of an old water course across the land. This is is in addition to the River Ecclesbourne at one end of the field. This water course has been filled in at some point by a previous owner, but it hasn't removed the need for drainage. There's now a large puddle which traces the route of the water course.  The gentleman we have employed to re-lay the hedge also reports the ground is quite boggy as it sucks at his wellington boots.

Clearly we need to take some action to ensure the land is well drained if we want to grow fruit trees successfully. We've decided to fall back on an old technique used for hundreds of years to help de-water the land. We are going to plant willow in the affected area. Its roots can withstand waterlogged soil and in the summer it also transpires about 4 times as much water as other common trees. We've ordered 100 willow saplings (Salix Viminalis), some spiral tree guards, and some matting to cover the soils where we plant the willow. This  matting will suppress any weed growth while the willow sapling become established. We'll be planting these around the area of the watercourse in the next couple of weeks.

The Viminalis is native to the UK and will grow about two metres in the first year.  At the end of the year we'll pollard the willow at about chest height. This will encourage regrowth which we can harvest in later years for basket weaving supplies or firewood. We've decided on the use of pollarding rather than coppicing as a defence against sheep/rabbits attacking the bark, they are less likely to chew the older bark below one metre. We'll also use some of the willow we grow in spiling the river bank as mentioned earlier in this blog. This willow is also very conducive to insect life which in term attract a variety of birds, so there should be an increase in the natural diversity over that provided by hawthorn/blackthorn in that part of the field.

Preparing the security unit and river erosion

We were able to get on the orchard site today. We started to lay the base of the temporary security box. This unit will store materials and dangerous tools while we work on the site to clear the field, plant the orchard, install drainage and manage the woodland. 

The metal base frame is filled with steel fibre reinforced concrete mounted on a sheet of vapour barrier plastic. This plastic sheet will protect the soil from the concrete for when we come to remove the temporary store unit. Water for the concrete comes from the Ecclesbourne River. 

A toughened steel security chain is embedded in the very heavy concrete base and attached to ground anchors. The chain will be used to secure tools when they are not in use. Other hidden security measures may be in operation. ;-)

The petrol motor brush cutter we're using to clear the field is quite long at 2 metres. We had to chose a large security box to provide space for the brush cutter. The long-handled Stafford Billhook we'll be using for hedge laying is now literally razor sharp. At times we'll be using other power tools. The intent is to be able to safely lock away tools such as these and also angle-grinders and chain saws during the day when we are working at the other end of the field or in the woodland. Better safe than sorry, but if kids were to mess around with those forestry tools they could be become injured. It's unlikely, but the site is very close to the road with a public footpath running next to the river.

Nothing valuable will be stored overnight. We'll even release trespassers from the chains before we pack up for the night.

Update 31/10/13  I've discovered I have muscles involved on concrete mixing (by hand/shovel) which I've not used in a long time. 

We also noticed some exposed flower bulbs, snowdrop, on the river bank. There's probably been some soil erosion during recent years. We may need to consider some method of natural reinforcing to prevent the erosion extending. If we leave this the erosion will eat into the public footpath and endanger the farm access to adjoining fields.

Exposed flower bulbs (Snowdrop) on the bank of the Ecclesbourne

There's some useful information here. Obviously concrete is out of the question and geotextile or wire gabions always looks quite tatty after a couple of years. Tied brushwood bundles (fasces) and/or introducing some live Willow Spiling to replace the undercut elm and ash may be a suitable method of approach. Here's other willow supplier and locally. This requires soon winter work (to allow the live stakes time to take root for the summer), but as we have other more urgent work on the Orchard site the bank reinforcing will have to wait until the 2014 winter.

I suspect some of the erosion is caused by eddies from the road bridge piles when the river is in spate. Note to self: find a source of live native willow stakes

Update 3/11/2013: We've discovered any river bank erosion control scheme needs Flood Defence Consent Approval from the Environment Agency. This will definitely delay the Spiling works until next year. It also implies a £50 fee payment for us doing work to "improve" the river bank and the same forms as if we were constructing flood defences for Derby, ho-hum!. We've contacted the Environment Agency and we'll keep you posted on progress. We'll see if there's bureaucratic overload for the planting  a dozen live willow stakes in the bank and weaving twigs between them.

Update 6/11/2013: The environment Agency Help Desk gave us the wrong information. It looks like Derbyshire County Council look after this. Their documentation is here. Their guidance suggests we need no special permission, but we are in contact to with DCC to confirm.

Update 10.06/2015 We read in the Derby Telegraph newspaper today that volunteers for the Derbyshire Wildlife Trust that they've being undertaking some spiling on the Ecclesbourne river to protect the banks from erosion. Great minds think alike eh?! Here's DWT's report on their work.