Devon Wildlife

Celandines Make the Sun Come Out!

2012-03-14T15:32:00.001-07:00

Celandines are common on banks and in woodland in February and March. They grow from small white tubers and the whole upper parts of the plants vanish from sight, shortly after they finish flowering.

A member to the Ranunculus or Buttercup family.

When the Sun is shining; the Celandine flowers are forced to open. In the same way; open flowers will force the sun to shine.

On a cloudy day, pick some closed flowers and place them on a window sill, where the Sun would normally shine. As they start to dry, they will open and therefore the Sun will come out and the clouds will evaporate away.

If only all things in life could be that simple.

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Gaps in the Beech

2012-02-03T14:26:00.001-08:00

Planting the Gaps in a Beech Plantation

Too Many Beeches

Beeches are beautiful native trees, beneficial to many forms of wildlife. But all too often they are planted in these hideous monocultures, where little grows under them, due to their acidic leaf mould. In a mixed deciduous woodland, which includes the right natural balance of Beech; wild flowers thrive, but under just Beech very little will grow. Wild Daffodils certainly will not.

On Dartmoor there are many of these Beech Plantations, they have little extra plant life in them than a conifer plantation. There are few examples of mature native trees up here and the Beech have grown into Bonsai versions of what they would have been, if they were growing in the lowlands. These trees seldom get above60 feet/20 metres due to the high altitude and poor acidic soil conditions.

Falling Trees

The pictures here show the Beech tree plantation, which is situated in the middle of one of my woods. The ground here is semi boggy and often the great trees topple over in the soft wet ground, under their own weight. Very often they can regenerate, but nothing like as well as Willows can.

These trees are very old and each occupies quite a large chunk of the canopy. Each time one of them falls down it provides a new area for me to plant, with a more balanced next generation of small trees.

Preferred Tree Types

I find that most species of shrub tree have difficulty growing on a site, where Beech has the only major in-put into the available leaf mould. Most shrub trees remain stumpy for years and Birch really does not do well either.

What I call ‘the main sequence trees’, such as Oak, Ash, Lime, Alder, Sweet Chestnut, Elm and Beech all seem to grow very well, in these gaps and don’t seem at all bothered by any harshness of conditions brought on by any toxic qualities in the leaf mould from the Beech, so they are what I have planted in here.

My Woods on Dartmoor

2012-02-01T14:56:00.001-08:00

11 Years of Treeplanting on Dartmoor

Many of the trees I have planted over the past decade are getting quite big now. It has been amazing, that I have been left alone, to get on with it. Although never given any kind of official permission. A whole 11 years, where nobody has ever bothered me, despite my many controversial tree and wild flower planting activities.

The photos, which I have chosen for this post, are from the last two growing seasons. They show different parts of the woods, but are generally of some of the most established parts.

History

I moved up here in 2000 and really started planting trees here in that following Winter, which began in the Autumn of 2000 and ended in the Spring of 20001, so I refer to this year as 'year 1'.

For the first five years,my only form of transport was a bicycle and for those five years most of the trees I collected were collected by me cycling off miles and attaching a bag of trees to the rack, which sat over the back wheel of my bicycle. I lived at least 5 miles from the nearest places, where I could collect trees from, but more often ten or even twenty miles, added to which my home for the past 11 years has sat at 413 metres above sea level in the UK's highest village, up on Dartmoor; so getting back home, laden with trees in mist, hail, lashing rain, thunder and even blizzards; has often been extremely challenging.

For year 6 I had got a motorbike and this totally revolutionised tree collecting. I could travel much grater distances, go much faster and collect much larger trees. After never having had motorised transport before; it felt like I had just got a spaceship and every time I zoomed off on it anywhere; I felt like I was travelling off at warp-speed to far off distant worlds.

One clear disadvantage with having the motorbike, over the bicycle was that it was more of a performance to stop and start it. With the bicycle; I could lean it against a hedge or wall, when ever I spotted something interesting, such as a Hazel rooted into the side of the road, which wasn't part of the hedge and needed to be removed and transplanted somewhere safe. With the motorbike I could only stop in car parks and could no longer transfer onto the pavement, when the lights were red, but over all by far; the motorbike increased the amount of trees I could and did collect ten-fold.

The Sites

Most of my attentions over the past decade have be concentrated in the Black brook valley, which is a tributary of the River Dart. The Black brook begins deep in the moor and flows through artificial field systems, as it passes by the village of Princetown. After that it goes through another 4 miles of open moorland, before joining the Dart. Only two road bridges cross this river and only farm track. It is a truly wild river and quite rapid in many parts. It is about 7/10 miles downstream to where the Dart valley becomes proper forest, but a long way untill it hits any sembelance of real civilization.

The section of the Black brook, which goes through this field system around Princetown; had been partially planted with many of the wrong sort of trees, seemingly at a few times throughout the past 200 years. The majority of the area between the river and its adjoining system of ancient water-leats was left ungrazed.

What I have done over the past decade is to plant the right balance of native trees, collected locally, from natural woodlands and forests, around the edges of the moor. I have basically filled in the gaps between the patches of Beech and Conifer, to create a balanced natural woodland, which could be the highest in the country, possibly.

Because of the high altitude; the trees grow much smaller and more slowly, than they do elsewhere. This is due to the poorer soil quality, with the very boggy and acidic soil up here on this granite plateau and because of the much shorter growing season.

A fully grown tree here is only a third the size of one of the same species that had been growing in some lowland fertile valley.

History of Dartmoor's Forests

Before sheep farming became big business in the middle ages Dartmoor was covered in forest, at least up to a height of 400 metres. Preserved tree roots and branches in the peat that forms up here, are a testament to this.

I imagine that unique species of plants and animals probably lived here, as do in most upland areas. these were most likely driven to extinction, during the brutal and swift clearance of the forest, with most of these species; probably vanishing without ever having been recorded.

My Aims
I want to plant the right ingredients of trees and wild flowers so that the natural forest can regenerate its self and so restoring the natural vegetation to it's former state. By planting a massive woods high up on the Black brook valley; I have created a sink for wildlife, attracting creatures from miles around to come into the woods and feed, and so dispersing seeds out to other nearby areas.

I have also planted many other smaller and some roadside areas, with the intention of speeding up this natural process.

Having the big main woods; means that there is a large pollen count in the air, from all native wind-pollinated trees and also a large bank of diverse genetic material, so that trees and plants, growing up here in isolation from the lowlands; will not become in bread.

Help from friends, neighbours and customers
Various people have helped me. Sometimes friends would turn up with vans full of trees, other times neighbours and customers would allow me to rescue trees, which had seeded themselves in their gardens. This helped the cause enormously and meant that allot more land was able to be completed.

I am soon to move to a new area. I have asked various dog walkers, etc to keep an eye on my trees here, but really; my work is done here and it is time for me to move on, to begin planting trees in another deserving area.

Bryony

2012-01-29T04:09:00.001-08:00

White Bryony Bryonia Dioica

There are various members of this group of plants growing in Europe and Asia, but this one is native to the UK. A distant relative of the Cucumber; it likes to climb through hedges or small trees, quite common in south East England, but also being present in Chalky or Lime stone areas.

The Flowers and vine-like climbing stems, which continue to flower throughout much of the Summer; usually go unnoticed, as they are fairly undramatic and blend in with their surroundings. But it is in the Winter when this plant suddenly becomes the centre of attention, with these dramatic orange/red berries, draped through tree branches and bare Winter hedges.

The Berries are extremely poisonous and cause asphyxia if eaten.

Primroses out in the Hedgerows around Ashburton

2012-01-18T04:32:00.001-08:00

A welcome Sign of Spring

The Primroses have been very early this year. They are one of our very long flowering season plants. Like many in the UK; which don't have to rush to flower prior to some impending dry-season. Here the climate is fairly similar for most of the year and our wild flowers are often in no rush to flower and many flower for months.

If conditions are right; mainly cool and mild, then Primroses can extend their flowering season, from their familiar March and April, and begin flowering in the Autumn. They usually only do this in gardens, but often the wild ones throw up the odd flowers, through out any extended mild periods of the winter.

To see wild Primroses flowering like this in a wild hedge in January is very exceptional. This many flowering all at once should be a scene from March, this is far too early for them to be doing this. It can only be the result of us having such a mild Winter. They certainly weren't doing this during the terribly cold conditions, we were having last year.

Mild Winter, or what?

2011-12-27T06:07:00.001-08:00

Last Winter, the daytime temperature seldom seemed to rise above -10C. This Winter, however, we are frequently experiencing tempretures of 15C.

As you can see; the Willows are Budding up and the Primroses are flowering.

The last three Winters, I had been trapped up here, by heavy snowfall and had to climb out of the window, as snow had blocked the door.

By contrast this winter is 25 degrees warmer.

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The Other Wistmans Woods

2011-12-25T13:23:00.001-08:00

Okery Bridge

On Dartmoor there are two little patches of Oak woodland, which are supposed to be the last remnants of the forest, which once covered Dartmoor. One is in the North, by Meldon reservoir & is called Blackator Copse & one is near me at Two Bridges. It is the most well known; called Wistmans woods.

These two woods are famous, they are both very protected. But not this one. Not Okery Bridge. This one is unknown and certainly not protected like the other two, even though it is at the same altitude, its in the same world heritage site and its comprised of the same (supposedly) ancient, bonzi twisted Oak trees.

At some point in time some joker has planted Beech trees in amongst the Oaks also some non-native species, including Pine and Spruce have been added and left unchecked. In the spring thousands of mixed garden Daffodils appear in big established clumps.

However, this site, as well as the adjoining horse field; was the only site in Princeton, where there were any Wild Bluebells, prior to my arrival here.

Hopefully one day, someone will come to the aid of this historic woodland. Before it is too late.

Livestock Problems

2011-12-20T05:03:00.001-08:00

UnwelcomeTree Munching Herbivores

Once again I am having problems, with the animals getting into the woods.

Here two sheep, have become tangled in Brambles. They have got in through a gap in the barbed wire fence, where a Beech tree has fallen down, and squashed the fence.
Sometimes I find them dead, however I got to these ones in time and untangled them and put them back over into the field where they belongs.

Grass Fungus

2011-12-18T04:36:00.001-08:00

A fungi, which seems to be semi-parasitic on the blades of living Grass.

As shown here, pointed to by my muddy hand.

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How to heard Sheep on a Motorbike

2011-12-14T09:08:00.001-08:00

Another driver flashed me today and then I had to break hard, as the road was full of Sheep.

This was a few miles from the moor and they had clearly escaped from a field, so I started circling them, slowly, to see if they knew where their home was.

They all started to make a run for it, down in an adjacent lane, with me in hot pursuit and they all ran back into a field over a collapsed gate.

I made sure they were all in, then I fixed the gate securely behind them.

I have never taken photos, whilst driving before, that was fun!

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Soil Erosion

2011-12-13T06:43:00.001-08:00

A Brief Demonstration of Soil Erosion

As you can see from the first two pictures; the roots of this Oak tree have been exposed, by about 5 feet/just over 1.5 meters. My arms mark where I reckon the original soil level was, when this tree was an acorn. Which, by the looks of the slender girth of this tree's trunk; was probably only about forty years ago.

That means that the soil here is eroding at a rate of 5cm/just over 1.5 inches per year. Which is pretty high.

On the next two pictures, a huge mud cave can be seen, gaping beneath another tree. Formed presumably as the soil and rocks crumble away from under it.

On the fith picture; none of the trees are growing straight, all are listing down the slope & not one tree is more than 30/40 years old + many roots are clearly visible.

On the final caption, a fallen tree. The inevitable consequence of this much soil erosion.

The rock here is a kind of Limestone. This is normally quite a tough rock, but there are old mines and sink holes, also the site slopes steeply, to a large river, so all these factors may have contributed to the extraordinary rate of erosion here.

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Fly Agaric Mushrooms (Amanita Muscaria)

2011-10-07T17:53:00.000-07:00

Caution!
Today, my favourite Mushroom field had been plundered by someone else, before I got there; so I came home with very little for my tea.

I did spot these on the way though, but I'm not going to have these with my tea, not in less I fancied having tea with the fairies.

Fly Agaric Mushrooms are both Hallucinogenic and Deadly Poisonous! You have to remove the skin and the gills and grill them. The vikings used to filter them through rain deer, to ensure their safety.

They are quite common on Dartmoor doing well under both Confers and Deciduous trees. The most I have ever seen was two interlocking 3 meter diameter fairy rings, about 25 years ago, in a deciduous forest, on the edge of the Teign gorge, these few are humble by comparison

Moor wild life

2011-10-02T11:17:00.000-07:00

Breathing in a Horse's nose

Did you know that if you breath through your nose, into the nose of a Horse or Cow; that creature will always remember you?

I suppose it's like their version of Face book.

Many years ago, there was a lady on the telly called Barbra Woodhouse, she was a very Stern, don't mess with me, kind of animal training person, who,I think used to terrify the animals owners, more than she did the animals, but both would try their hardest to do exactly what she said. Anyway; I learnt this skill from her most enjoyable program. It defiantly works too, I mean; look for your self.

No, try it for you self.

Swamp Plants and things I have planted

Tormentil Potentilla Erecta

Many years ago, I think year 2 and year 4 mostly, I planted the odd thing out here on this part of the moor. The success rate was very low as so many tree munching creatures, like my friend the Horse, wonder about unsupervised, so I had concentrated my planting efforts on lands around the edges of the moor, with no or limited animal access, where I have enjoyed a far higher rate of success. With the theory being; those plants are then up here and they will hopefully then spread onto the moor gradually over time themselves.

Very few wild flowers grow on the moor, which is why the villages which are surrounded by the moor; are so short of biodiversity. But Tormentil, above right; is very common. It is a relative of a common garden shrub, also of Cinquefoil.

Now, I have come here today to look for some of the things I have planted here and I have spotted one of my year 2 Willows, but between me and it is deadly peat bog, which I must very carefully cross, because it is basically like quick sand and can suck you under in minutes.

You can tell where the very dangerous bits are, by the plant life. One of the most obvious signs is Sphagnum Moss, sown here, in the picture below. Step on this and you might sink rapidly, although if it's dry it's safe to walk on.

Crossing a Peat Bog

Another Moss, which is very common on the Moor and is generally safer to walk on and found more around the edges of bogs is Club moss, shown here, below, to the right.

I say 'safer' not 100-percent safe, so do be careful.

Reeds are another very common bog plant, they grow in thick clumps, so if you step on the actual clumps of reeds, as shown on the other picture below; you should be OK, but often; the whole land quivers, as it did today. That is quite scary and of-putting, but it works, just take your time, wear sensible shoes and don't panic.

Step on the clumps of reeds, so you don't sink.

Club Moss Lygopodium Clavatum

Willows from year 2

Made it at last.

Now, these Willow trees were taken mostly from cuttings. It is too boggy here for the animals to venture, so a few have survived, but are much smaller than the ones I have planted on ungrazed areas.

Here there are about 15 Willows in this immediate vicinity, a tiny percentage of what I planted in here, but thriving never the less.

As you can probably tell; they are quite nibbled, but alive and strong:

Another plant which grows quite well in bogs on the Moor is Wild Iris Iris Pseudacours, shown here, bellow, but not currently in flower. This particular clump, along with a few others was here, prior to my arrival, but I have planted many others, on and off the Moor, with much success, mainly on year 4.

Another plant, which seems to be doing well here is Broom. It grows on the Moor further down stream, so I have moved a few bits of it up here. It grows well, but doesn't seem to have seeded it's self yet, which is quite frustrating, as it is generally a quite short lived shrub. Broom like to grow around the edge of bogs and close to water courses, unlike it's tougher cousin Gorse, which seems to grow anywhere. But Gorse; I have observed, only seems to grow around the edges of the moor, in a ring, just above the current tree-line.

Broom Sarothamnus Scoparius

Yarrow Achillea Millefolium

Finally; this is some kind of Hawk weed, but there are so many, I'm not sure which actual one this is or how it got here, but there is just the one isolated clump of it, growing right outside the fire station.

COVERT OPERATIONS IN THE DARK

2011-09-12T11:16:00.000-07:00

PLANTING AT NIGHT

Quite normal practice for me.

Just another day at the office.

Usually if I plant anything near civilisation; I do it at night. I fortunately have developed very good night vision. I never bring a torch with me, if I need to; I can use the light from my mobile phone to identify what something is, but more commonly I just hold it up and identify it by the invasively glaring lights of Dartmoor prison. What a waste of electricity. Whilst I am creating Oxygen; they're burning it up.

I love being out at night. The dark doesn't bother me at all. Most walks I go on are at night, and certainly most of my planting and sometimes collecting too. you see far more wild life and no people at all. Everyone who I have spoken to, when I have been out planting has been happy with what I'm doing, but I am concerned that one day someone might give me grief about it, so if it's next to any kind of human settlement, like this site is; then I basically feel much more comfortable doing it at night.

Manly today I am planting wild plants, which I have been breeding in my garden.

All along this road are stone walls, made of granite. Some of them are just holding up banks of soil, some of them are either filled with or topped with soil. On others, so much peat has built up over the decades or centuries from moss and other small plants, that now, there is enough to support some small rock loving plants, I would presume.

A wild Strawberry, on the same site, planted two weeks ago and clearly taken very well.
You should be able to clearly see it's many runners, going off in all directions;
producing many new little plants to colonised more of the wall.

Wild Strawberries

2011-09-11T09:43:00.000-07:00

Most of the Wild Strawberries (Fragaria Vesca) that I have planted, have come from my garden and before that; they came from gardens that I have worked in, right across this side of Dartmoor.

I planted them in wild and semi shaded parts of my garden, with a low rate of competition from other forest-floor type plants. They have flourished and now are beginning to be treated like a pest, although they produce fruit for far longer than the cultivated ones do.

Now of course; Strawberries famously spread, by producing many of these thread like runners, which grow outwards, from the parent plant; producing juvenile plantlets at intervals, as they creep across the ground.
The plantlets root quickly, once they touch something damp and the roots go reasonably deep for such a small plant.

When I first started to collect Wild Strawberries, from various people's gardens (with permission); I noticed that they were spreading from seed as well as from runners. A few years after planting them in the garden, I noticed that they had seeded them selves there too. But only within a few metres of existing clumps.

I thought this was odd, because I had always assumed that birds would have been the main things which fed on them and in turn dispersed the seed in their gwamo. But if birds dispersed the seed; surely Wild Strawberries would have already got here by themselves, like Elders, Blackberries and Holly.

Got me thinking about it, a bit. What if I was a bird? What obvious disadvantages are there to eating a Wild Strawberry?

There is nothing for a bird to grab hold of, like a twig, that they could grip hold of, whilst they peck at the fruit. Like they could with a Cherry or a Blackcurrant.
In less the plants were growing in a wall; the bird would have to be standing waist deep in foliage and if it was growing in a wall; then a bird might not be equipped at grabbing that like it could with the twig of a tree.
The bird would be much more venerable and at a much grater risk from predators. stoats and ferrets could easily crouch amongst the leaves.
It would be harder for the bird to take off as well, if it was waist deep in leaves.

So I presume that small vertebrates, such as rodents are what eats them and disperses the seeds. It would explain why the seed don't spread very far. Small Mammals could move, virtually unseen, through the camouflage foliage.

Last year I began to plant a few Wild Strawberries in differnt sites, to monitor their progress. They are quick to root and quick to spread.

This year it is very clear to me, that they like it up here, so I just want to get them planted up along walls, as quickly as possible and all with in a few mouse runs of each other, just in case, my theroy is correct.

To plant them; I find a bit of mud within the wall, maybe add to it a little bit more, with some mud from the road, whiich I scrape up with my boot. I make sure the roots are couverd from above and below, finaly I train any runners in different directions and push them into soil or moss, if and where any is available.

Re-cycling Tree Gaurds

2011-09-10T08:34:00.000-07:00

Re-using redundant plastic tree gaurds

In officially planted woods, like this one, near Exeter; far too many trees are planted, far too close together and all have an expensive tree guard to protect them, regardless of whether they actually need one or not.

This woods was planted approximately 20 years ago, in fact I remember it being planted. As you can see; only the biggest, toughest trees are still living, all the others have been smothered out by the faster growing trees, in the race for canopy supremacy. As can be seen here; the woodland floor is randomly littered with redundant tree guards, lying where their trees used to be, before they died and rotted away. Some are propped up by the last remains of their trees, most just lie, as if they are fallen branches.
There are thousands here.

I have learnt that certain trees, like Oak and hawthorn are very resistant to having their bark eaten and seldom need a guard. The trees I have found the most vulnerable are Beech and Birch.
2 ways I combat this problem, with out having to use a tree guard; are to plant the trees in something Spiky, such as Gorse, Bramble or Reeds. Or plant something spiky with them, when you plant them, like a Dog rose.
So, I only use tree guards, where no natural protection exists in their new environment, or if a tree begins to be attacked, by some unknown bark eating creature, but I prefer to use natural methods, where I can.

Cycle Journey from Okehampton

2011-09-08T14:33:00.000-07:00

Collecting Seeds and Plants
My bike and my computer broke.
Rather than have to try my luck with public transport; my friends let me use their spare bicycle.
Now, I used to cycle everywhere, when that was my only form of transport. I often cycled to Bristol, Cardiff (and Scotland once). But that was 6 years ago.

On year 5, I had my last bicycle stolen, from the hollow, where I had stashed it, whilst I was out planting trees in the Meavy valley. Then I got the motorbike and I haven't pedaled a non motorised cycle since.
Trouble was; my friends live some 20 miles away, the far side of Okehampton.

Betony grows along the roadside, enough to collect a bit and a few seeds.

Roadside Plants

From the beginning; feelings of exhaustion were suppressed, by many wondrous discoveries, beside the road, which I could not have possibly noticed or collected, if I was on the motorbike, simply because I was travelling much more slowly and much more able to stop. In fact much of the time I was pushing up massive Dartmoor hills and more than able to collect some seeds, from a variety of different habitats, like grassland, bog or under trees.

Wild Mustard

Betony and Wild Mustard, both illustrated here are just two of the completely new introductions for the high moor, which today's cycle has made possible.

Betony, which I would say was more closely aligned to the Dead nettle family than of Wood Betony; is a plant I have been blissfully unaware of until recently. Today I found enough of it to take a little rooted bit and to collect a few seeds. not really enough to form a healthy colony, but enough to make a start.

Wild Mustard is usually a very common roadside annual plant, so all I have done is broken off a few dry seed pods from as many different plants as possible.

In all I got maybe 20 new species, mostly from seed, and from many of the uphill bits, most of the way home.
The last 8 miles, from Tavistock is across open moors and it was dark and misty and raining.

In all it took me about 8 hours, when it used to take me 4. But not bad after a 6 year gap.

Can't wait for my Motorbike to be fixed again, though.

Adding Diversity to the High Moor

2011-08-01T08:10:00.000-07:00

CAMPIONS
This year, due to past successes coming to light; It has been an 'All about Campions' year. I have been adding other plants too, but Campions have been 1st on the list for this year and I have tried to get a small colony started off on every high moor site, I can think of.
They are a good plant to introduce, as they have an extraordinarily long flowering period of May to September and so service the insect and bird populations well and so services the entire food chain.
Other native plant species I have had similar success with, that I have planted a bit this year and in past years; which I intend doing the same with are:

Wild Strawberries

Valerian (Valeriana, not cedranthus)

Jack by the hedge

Wood Sage

Wild Lettuce

Sow Thistle(various types)

Nipple Wort

Meadow Sweet

Collecting Campions

2011-07-31T19:22:00.000-07:00

Spreading the

Biodiversity!

Collecting Campions Sustainably from the wild.
1)Getting a good root ball and 2)not diminishing the local population are probably the 2 most important factors to be considered before choosing a clump, that looks like it can be thinned out a bit.
Select a thriving, tangled clump of campion and carefully dig up some that are maybe congested, within the clump. I just use my fingers, but a trowl would be more frequently recommended.

There is always a small hole left within the clump, from where the selected plants were taken, so best to find a bit of spare soil, which has say; fallen off the bank or onto the road or a Mole earth and gently fill in any holes. It is not good to leave any mess, bad practice or holes.
Collecting a good number of specimens of a species and from many different local sites; makes for a healthy and diverse gene pool. Especially since their new home is surrounded by so much moor that pollinating insects would have a job to cross it, so the plants up there will most probably have to interbreed. So if I get a good mix to Begin with; their long term future won't get hampered by weaknesses caused by too much inbreeding.In short, I want to set up healthy breeding colonies of as many suitable native plants as possible.

As shown on the picture on the above; a good sized root ball had been dug up with the plant, so it had much more chance of survival when transplanted and will settle in much fasted to it's new home.

I immediately transfer young plants to a damp plastic bag, to keep them moist, until I can plant them, which should be done as soon as possible and in a similar kind of habitat to where they were found.

Campions are what I would call an edge of woodland plant. They like clearings of edges of woods, not minding conifers too much.

They will not occupy grassland, in less there are trees nearby and they thrive in hedges, since there, the get the best of both worlds; sun light and organic material.

Campions form clumps quite fast, but have difficulty dispersing their seed very far. Sometimes collecting seeds and sprinkling them on some hedge-side mole hills or bare earth is a more efficient way of doing it.

Discovering a new moorland plant

2011-07-31T17:51:00.000-07:00

New Plant

Today I broke down, because I put the wrong type of fuel in my bike.

I was naturally quite annoyed, because I had things to do and people to see, etc. But the right across the B3212, from where I had broken down; were these flowering plants, seen here to the right.

There were only 2 clumps of them, so there was no chance of me being able to justify transplanting any to other areas, until they had spread allot more, or in less I find a bigger clump somewhere else. But this site is about 300 metres above sea level, so they probably would survive and flourish further up, & in similar habitats. So perhaps I could collect some seed, when they form.

I cannot find my Keeble-Martin wild flower book, so identification will have to wait, but they have to be related to the dead nettles, I would say.

I like it when I see some plant that I have never seen before.

Incidentally; The AA took 5.5 hours to pick me up, so by that time my elation

from finding this plant had some what diminished.

In the shadow of Dartmoor Prison

2011-07-30T14:54:00.000-07:00

So much unused land

Much of the land and valley directly behind Dartmoor prison is ungrazed and full of all manner of odd little stone bridges, an aqueduct and much wildlife. There is no fishing here and few tourists ever find it.

On the caption shown here on the right; you can clearly see the giant Colditz style fence, separating the land directly around the prison from my little trees.

Dartmoor Prison was built as a concentration camp to imprison (mostly) sailors, which we grabbed, presumably when retreating from the newly independent United States, during the American revolution. Also for Napoleon's men. Both have cemeteries on the grounds. I often think of those poor souls locked up in there today and their families, who have great difficulty getting here if they have to rely on public transport. I feel very strongly that only really dangerous people should be locked up and all should be offered help to improve their lives, instead they separate them from their families and label them for life.

Anyway hopefully my trees and plants will help begin to change the energies of this very elegant Gothic structure. It would make a wonderful hotel and out door pursuits centre.

Over the past few years, the prison has planted quite allot of native trees as well, often along the other side of the fence from my trees, which is very reassuring.

They have always been a bit "we know what you're doing, we like it, but there's too much red tape to say so." They certainly have never interfered in any way with my work.

On year 3 I was planting the valley behind the prison, when I noticed a prison warden in full get up, with 4 Alsatians. I stashed the trees and pertended to be looking at the river, as I normally do, but when he reached the nearest part of the footpath to where I was he asked me what I was doing. I gave my rehearsed blag. He said "We've been watching you for the past 3 years, we like what you're doing here!"

That's the only time I have ever really communicated with them. Since then the prison farm has closed and the Dutchy have rented the land, which surrounds my woods here, to this dreadful farmer (see pesky ponies).

CAMPIONS

2011-07-30T12:49:00.000-07:00

Some other successes

Campions are one common species of native wild flower, which hasn't been able to breach the Moors to be able to grow up here, although it's much rarer cousin the Ragged Robbin grows here abundantly in a few choice ungrazed boggy areas.

A few colonies of Campion did exist up here prior to my arrival, but only in and around gardens, where people had obviously planted them. But it was clear from the colonies they had formed that they were quite able to cope with the harsher conditions up here.

As with many new species, I tried them in the garden first and after a few years, they too started to form colonies, so I began to plant them around hedges and wood/field edges around Dartmoor.

Over the years I have planted many of them and success had seemed limited, however this incorrect observation has led me to discover many vulnerabilities about this plant, for instance it can take a number of years to flower from seed & the seeds seldom make it very far from the mother plant & whilst they're not as bad as the wild daffodils at dispersing their seeds; the clumps do seem to spread very slowly and I would presume that this plant would find it difficult to spread to new areas it's self, in less directly connected to some form of suitable habitat. Which is of course, why they are not up here, on the top of Dartmoor, because they can not grow on the grazed moor, which completely surrounds these places.

The Aqueduct

2011-07-29T02:14:00.000-07:00

The Aqueduct

There is a rickety old aqueduct running through the woods I call B woods, dividing middle B woods from Lower B woods.

In this area, as you can see; there are many existing Beech trees and between them are my trees. The clump of willow and birch to the left of the aqueduct, seen on the first picture, I planted on year 2.

Alongside the Aqueduct it's self is an equally rickety bridge, crossing over the fast flowing River Blackbrook, which joins the West Dart about 9 miles down stream. The leat it's self is 390 metres above sea level.

The aqueduct feeds water from the Blackbrook into an age old leat system, connecting other valleys and the leats themselves wind off for miles across the moors. They used to be used for transporting mined materials, before there were roads and railways.

Tree Planting Season, Year 10

2011-02-14T08:23:00.000-08:00

Well, there's at least another month left of tree planting season for year ten. As you can see, the trees are doing very well.

This area of woods is called 'Upper Bee woods'. It is one of the upper most bits, connected to the bulk of what is planted so far.

It is possible that it is (will be) the highest altitude deciduous woods in the UK.

All the trees are sourced from local wild trees, growing up to 250 metres above sea level. Upper Bee woods is about 400 metres up and it is fairly remote. Up here moss and ferns grow so thickly on the trunks and branches of the trees that primroses can flourish like tropical Orchids in the treetops (especially with a little help).

Most of the trees in this picture were planted in year 6, The Iris (bottom right) were planted in year 4.

My planting year starts in October and almost corresponds to the year. Year 10 started in October 2010.

Where I am now

2011-02-14T04:30:00.000-08:00

For the past 10 years, I have been living out in the wilds and making a concerted effort to restock the surrounding countryside, with many rare native plants, also with native broadleaved deciduous woodland.

This is now the tenth year, so much of my work has grown quite a bit and becomes more of a reward each year, as trees get bigger and clumps of plants become more established.

All my trees and plants are stocked from local and wild sources. For this I am unpaid and often plant in the dead of night. My day job is also Horticulture based, but with only comparatively little benefit to mother nature.

Where I find myself now, is at a crossroads in life. What do I really want to do?

The decision I have reached, is that; with a little bit of ingenuity, I should be able to make a living one way or another, from a website (& blog), to be able to fund me to plant trees and wild plants full time and to be able to stop my day job, meaning a projected tenfold increase in what I can feasibly achieve and with all the desired benefit that that should bring to our shattered Eco-systems and to our future generations.