Necessity is the mother of invention. A large batch of trees had been ordered for the park in March, but the world had other ideas for what would happen this month. So what to do with the trees? Temporarily at least, our very own Tiny Forest has been created in an area the size of a tennis court.
In due course the tiny forest will be replanted in a less dense pattern around the park. Meanwhile, just like Witney (the village), for the time being at least we have our own version.
And just to recapitulate the 480 trees planted below.
30 Acer campestre 20 Acer platanoides 30 Alnus cordata 30 Alnus glutinosa 30 Betula pendula 10 Betula utilis jacquemontii 35 Carpinus betulus 5 Fagus syl. 'Purpurea' 20 Fagus sylvatica 10ltr 10 Juglans regia 10 Liquidambar styraciflua 10 Liriodendron tulipifera 10 Malus 'John Downie' 20 Prunus avium 10 Quercus robur 20 Salix sepulcralis 'Chrysocoma' 10 Sorbus aria 'Lutescens' 30 Sorbus aucuparia 30 Taxus baccata 30 Tilia cordata
I was surprised when we visited on Thursday to see some small trees had been planted by the new ponds near the Costons Stream. It seems counter productive to me to have trees here as they will suck water out of the ponds as they get larger not to mention shading the ponds & leaves in the autumn. Would have thought it would have been good to keep this area open?
Did notice the mini- tree nursery & looked pretty healthy.
I think you mean the trees planted on the small island in the third pond (photo below). The water level in this pond in particular has fallen dramatically these last two weeks. Then, it was still spilling over into the river Brent. Now I would say the level has fallen at least 20 cm, perhaps more. These ponds were not lined and clearly the water table level in the area is low enough that the porous bottom of these ponds (part gravel, part clay) is causing significant water loss.
At the current rate of loss + evaporation, I think the water is likely to be gone perhaps by May if not earlier.
We also noted that the other small stream feeding the wetland ponds on the other side of the railway (the one with the marsh marigolds) is no longer running and the water levels in those ponds are also decreasing apace. It would be a surprise if they do not also dry up during the coming summer.
Yes those were the trees I meant. I’m sure it would be better without them,but maybe others disagree?
Well, given the apparent porosity of the pond, a few trees are unlikely to have a big impact. At least they might not need watering in summer. Just to the left of this photo are about 5 more mature trees planted 18 months ago or so and which due to lack of watering last summer now do appear to be dead.