The Woodlands.co.uk Blog - September 2007
Holly – a fodder crop!
We are familiar with holly (Ilex aquifoloium) as part of Christmas decorations, as a hedging plant, and its many varieties (variegated golden and white forms) as ornamental shrubs, but its use as animal fodder is perhaps less well known.
Blackberries – brambles
This is your last chance to pick your blackberries. Michaelmas (29th September) is, by legend, the day the Devil spits on them, making them inedible. Another version of the story is that a bramble patch broke his fall from heaven. There is a lot of tannin in brambles and perhaps after the 29th, at the end of their season when they start to wither, they are too bitter. They are pretty much over, here in the south-east, but may have a week or two left further north. Read more…
The Wildwood
In geological terms, our woodlands, forests, indeed most of our landscapes, are very recent. Our present countryside began to form some twelve to thirteen thousand years ago when the last Ice Age (The Devensian) came to an end. This ice age, like all the others that had preceded it, locked up massive quantities of water in ice sheets and glaciers and these covered much of Britain. Read more…
Our Changing Weather
The press, the BBC and even the Woodlands.co.uk blog have recorded how extraordinary our weather has been so far this year. After a warm April, the weather went somewhat downhill: it has been one of the wettest summers on record, (which on a positive note has ensured that the reservoirs are topped up again). However, it has impacted negatively on many species. The flooding of meadows will have killed voles and shrews, and the swollen rivers may have been too much for many water voles. Bumblebee nests which are often underground will have been flooded or washed away. Read more…