My husband and I bought Lighthouse Meadow in 2022 from woodlands.co.uk.   I’d always wanted to plant my own woodland and see the wildlife changes as the land evolved from grazed grassland to biodiverse woodland.  Our preference was to avoid using plastic tree guards due to the environmental waste. The site is also windy so we wanted to encourage wind-induced root development to have stronger, more wind resistant trees: tree guards can limit strong root development, resulting in weak, top-heavy trees which are more prone to damage in strong winds. The protect the young trees from predation by deer and rabbits, we installed a deer fence with rabbit mesh. Featured image is a male fallow deer peering through our fence wishing he could eat one of my hazel saplings.  We used mulch mats around the base of each young tree, held down with five bamboo pegs. Over two years we have planted 3000 trees using this method. I won’t lie, it is hard work! We used mulch mats made from jute, a 100% biodegradable natural fibre. Their purpose is to suppress the growth of grass around the young tree. They are permeable, allowing air, nutrients and water to pass through them which also helps in reducing moisture loss. In the above photo, Tim has secured a mulch mat around a hazel sapling using a bamboo peg at each corner and a fifth peg to fix the flap of the mulch mat in place. NB : we found that a rubber mallet was kinder on knuckles than a metal one! We are now 18 months on from planting our first trees so I’ve had a chance to assess how well the mulch mats have performed. Last year (2024) had a wet summer and the grass grew very tall. We found that many of the mulch mats had started to biodegrade around the one year point. Our field is steeply sloping which meant that tall grass at the top end of the mulch mats tended to flop over, swamping the shorter saplings like wild plum and oak. So we needed to do quite a bit of maintenance, uncovering some of the trees and trimming the grass. The mulch mats had worked very effectively to suppress the grass immediately around the sapling. The  photo below shows a hornbeam sapling we planted 18 months ago. I’ve pulled back the grass which had flopped over. Although the mulch mat has completely biodegraded, you can still clearly see the square shape where it once was and the grass growth immediately around the sapling continues to be suppressed. The tree is healthy and now tall enough to be above the grass. We planted our second lot of trees in November 2024. However, we have had to reaffix and replace some of the mulch mats we used then because they were damaged during Storm Darragh. We found that the extra strong storm winds were able to rip up some of the mulch mats, despite being pegged down with five bamboo pegs. However, we weren’t the only ones needing to do some maintenance following the storm. Our neighbour has been planting trees using tall plastic tree guards and stakes. His trees also suffered during the storm and he had to re-stake and re-affix many tree guards. So although we found ourselves doing a fair bit of extra work to reattach the mulch mats, other tree protection methods had also suffered and required maintenance. The above photo of a young oak we planted Autumn 2024 shows how the strong Storm Darragh winds have torn up the mulch mat. So, would I use mulch mats again in future? Yes, because after 18 months I can see that the impact of using mulch mats is still benefitting the trees, despite the mulch mat having degraded. However, we have learnt a lot in the last year and we’ve bought a petrol mower (with a ‘drive’ function) and have regularly mowed strips across the field trimming the grass along the top end of the mulch mats to reduce the risk of tall grass flopping over the saplings. We have also learnt that our field has a very substantial population of field voles and the mulch mats don’t protect the saplings from voles gnawing the bark. We have lost around 5% of the trees to vole damage. Tree guards also wouldn’t protect a sapling as the voles can still easily get up inside the tree guards. We are therefore adopting a nature-based solution and will be erecting tall perches for birds of prey. We wish to encourage tawny and barn owls, buzzards and other raptors to the field to feed on the voles. For more information on our use of mulch mats, we made a film for WoodlandsTV, Plastic Free Tree Planting. We are also going to follow the recent WoodlandsTV film by Jack D’Gama and George Hassall on Birds of Prey Perches: one way to reduce rodent damage to young trees as inspiration for our owl and buzzard perches to manage the vole population.

The colours found in the flowers and leaves of flowering plants [Angiosperms] can be ascribed to four major 'families' of pigments; the chlorophylls, carotenoids, flavonoids and betalains.  The chlorophylls are perhaps the most familiar as they are the main photosynthetic pigments, absorbing blue and red wavelengths of light. Chlorophyll in flowers is relatively unusual.  Indeed, green flowers are quite rare and often associated with wind pollination. Examples of green flowers include some species of Euphorbia, Hedera and Fritillaria. Green flowers, despite their less conspicuous nature, can still attract insect pollinators.  This is due partly to differences in light scattering and brightness (achromatic contrast) as revealed recently by researchers at the Univeristy of Seville. The carotenoids are pigments belonging to the isoprenoid group of chemicals.  They are commonly present in flowers, absorbing mainly blue wavelengths of light. They lend yellow, orange and very occasionally red colour to flowers.  Carotenoids are the petal pigments of many yellow-flowered plants of the Daisy (Asteraceae) and Bean (Fabaceae) families.  The flavonoids offer the most diverse range of pigments.  They are water-soluble polyphenols found in nearly all vascular plants. They are located in the vacuoles of cells.  Certain flavonoid groups, such as, the catechins, flavonols, flavones, isoflavones absorb in the ultraviolet region of the spectrum.  They are invisible to humans but can be recognised by many bees, flies, butterflies and most birds.  The anthocyanins, also part of the flavonoid group, absorb green light and reflect shades of purple, blue, and red. They occur in many tissues of flowering plants, including leaves, roots, and fruits (think blueberries and raspberries). The last group are the betalains. The name derives from the beetroot (Beta vulgaris).  They are nitrogen containing compounds, derived from the amino acid tyrosine. Betalains give rise to yellow to pink and red colours. The deep red-purple colour of beets, bougainvillea, amaranth, and many cacti comes from certain betalain pigments. Interestingly, plants that produce betalain pigments do not form anthocyanins.   Apart from these four major pigment types, other rarer pigments do exist. For example, the xanthones found in some species of irises.  Flower colours may be generated from one specific pigment or through the combination of different pigments. Thus, red petals may be result of red anthocyanins, or red betalains, red carotenoids, or even by the combination of orange carotenoids with purple anthocyanins.  The carotenoids and chlorophylls are stored in chromoplasts and chloroplasts of the petals respectively. Chromoplasts are membrane-bound, fluid filled  vesicles in which pigments may be stored.  Flavonoids and betalains, which are water-soluble compounds, are found in the vacuoles of cells. White petals result from the absence of coloured pigments and thus reflect all wavelengths of visible light, though UV light may be absorbed.  Most plants have a distinctive flower colour that is stable, despite the vagaries of climate.  Sometimes the flower colour can darken or even change.  For example, the colour may deepen over time or even alter.  The Purple Mistress [Moricandia arvensis, found in the mediterranean region] has lilac coloured flowers in spring, but these change to white flowers in the summer. [caption id="attachment_42267" align="aligncenter" width="675"] Iris[/caption]  

I was born in the 1950s, a time when black smudges began to appear mysteriously on the trunks of sycamores in Britain. The culprit: sooty bark disease, a fungal infection caused by Cryptostroma corticale. Back then, I had no idea my life would unfold alongside a slow but steady parade of arboreal afflictions. But looking back now, I can measure the years not just in milestones and birthdays—but in the trees we lost along the way. Sooty bark disease doesn’t get the headlines these days, but it was a grim marker of post-war environmental change. Sycamores, long naturalised in Britain, would suddenly wilt and die, the bark flaking away to reveal a sinister black fungus. We didn’t yet understand how much stress—particularly from the hot, dry summers of the 1950s—played into its spread. It was an early sign: a warning that trees are far more vulnerable than they seem. Then came the true giant of tree diseases: Dutch elm disease. It began making headlines in Britain in the late 1960s and ravaged the landscape through the 1970s and '80s. Caused by a fungus (Ophiostoma novo-ulmi) spread by elm bark beetles, this pandemic decimated the native elm population. It’s estimated that over 25 million elms were killed in the UK alone. I remember the shift in the landscape. Once-common elm-lined avenues and hedgerows simply disappeared. As a child, I’d climbed elms in the park; as a young adult, I watched them vanish almost overnight. Dutch elm disease wasn’t just a biological tragedy—it was a cultural one. It marked a turning point, an awakening to the vulnerability of our treescapes. The decades ticked by. Chestnut trees became a familiar sight in my children’s drawings. But by the 2000s, I noticed the conkers looked smaller, sadder. Bleeding canker of horse chestnut, caused by Pseudomonas syringae pv. aesculi, began spreading rapidly across the UK. It causes a sticky, rust-coloured ooze from the bark and often leads to dieback and death. The disease didn't just affect the health of the trees; it diminished a cultural icon—conker tournaments and autumn walks lost something in its slow assault. Around the same time, sudden oak death (Phytophthora ramorum) emerged, though it affects more than just oaks. First identified in the US in the 1990s, it reached the UK in the early 2000s, causing widespread concern in woodlands and nurseries. It targets a range of species including rhododendrons, larches, and beech. The name alone—sudden oak death—carried a dramatic finality. Then came perhaps the most alarming of all in my later years: ash dieback, or Hymenoscyphus fraxineus. First identified in Poland in the 1990s, it reached the UK in 2012. It’s a true scourge, expected to kill up to 80% of the UK’s ash trees. These aren’t just forest trees—they line our roads, dominate hedgerows, shade our back gardens. Their decline feels intimate. Walking in ash woodland today is like passing through a ghost forest. The signs are unmistakable: leaf loss, crown dieback, diamond-shaped lesions. I’ve watched entire copses hollow out over just a few seasons. The cost is measured not only in timber or beauty, but in ecological networks—over 1,000 species depend on ash. And let’s not forget the oak processionary moth, which first arrived in the UK via imported oak trees in 2005. While not a disease in the fungal sense, it’s a threat nonetheless. Its caterpillars strip leaves and their tiny hairs can trigger allergic reactions in humans and animals. Forestry teams now issue warnings during their seasonal outbreaks. Oaks have stood proud for centuries, but even they are not safe anymore. There are others: sweet chestnut blight, plane wilt, the pine processionary moth, and new strains of Phytophthora that attack multiple species. The list gets longer, not shorter. So what’s going on? Part of the answer is globalisation. Trees, soil, and ornamental plants now travel easily between continents, bringing pathogens with them. Climate change plays its role too—stressed trees are more vulnerable, and warmer conditions allow pests and diseases to thrive. And while tree diseases aren’t new, our ecosystems today are more fragmented and less resilient. [caption id="attachment_8120" align="alignleft" width="400"] Leaf miner in Horse Chestnut[/caption]   What strikes me most, looking back, is how predictable this pattern has become. Every decade or so, a new name enters our vocabulary. Each time, we scramble to learn its symptoms, its vectors, its likely victims. And each time, the outcome is similar: loss, adaptation, then a wary lull before the next wave. Measuring my life in tree diseases might sound grim—but it’s also grounding. Trees are long-lived beings; their suffering unfolds slowly, deliberately. Watching them struggle is a reminder that the natural world is neither invincible nor immune to human action. The next great tree crisis is likely already on its way. But perhaps with better biosecurity, international cooperation, and public awareness, we can at least slow the tide. For me, though, the trees I’ve known—and the diseases that marked their passing—will always be a living calendar. A record of change, and of resilience.    

Many woodland owners build a cabin. As long as this isn’t a permanent dwelling there is often no problem with neighbours or planners. It can be used as a storeroom, a shelter from the rain or a place to stay overnight. In some regions of the UK, such as central Scotland, these structures have been positively encouraged by authorities and lobbied for by enthusiasts, such as those running the 1,000 huts campaign: https://thousandhuts.org/ The position of your cabin When siting your cabin there are many considerations: you may want a good view from a big window but not an unsightly view of the cabin itself - an eyesore on the landscape is unlikely to make you popular with neighbours and will encourage authorities to question its legitimacy. You may like being near a stream or you may want to avoid a spot near water because it risks too many unwelcome visits from mosquitoes. Even when you have established your location you may well want to camouflage your cabin or at least make it discreet - perhaps by painting it dark green or by planting climbers to grow over it. Most people build their own cabin but it is possible to buy ready-made woodland huts or portable shepherd’s huts. Another approach, if access is good enough, is to buy a shipping container and convert and camouflage that. These typically cost about £2,000 new but are much cheaper second-hand. They have the advantage of being secure and, should you change your mind, they can easily be removed or relocated. Off-grid living How you use your cabin will also be seasonal - in the winter you might want to hunker down inside but in the summer when it’s warmer you can use the space in front as an outdoors retreat - it can be a spot for outdoor cooking, for chopping wood or just sitting and contemplating life. Most cabins are off-grid in not having power or water or sewerage but you might want to put in a solar panel and a battery so that you have a light in the evenings. For lots of cabin-owners being off-grid is a big part of the attraction - getting away from it all, from screens and being closer to nature.  Security and protection Cabin owners protect their cabins very differently.  Some just close the door, lock it, and hope for the best while others protect their cabin by putting shutters over the windows - usually wooden and sometimes even metal.  Much depends on how exposed your woodland is to unwanted intrusion. Headaches can come from vandalism or planners and in both cases a “good neighbour policy” is recommended - so that neighbours don’t feel threatened and understand what you are trying to do. Good neighbours are often willing to keep an eye on your cabin when you are not there and they will be supportive if the planners ever challenge the existence of your cabin. Handled thoughtfully, your woodland cabin will be a little slice of paradise — not a headache.

The grey—brown skeletal branches of trees are being cloaked in fresh green leaves as they unfurl from the buds that protected them through the winter months.  Their bright green colour is due to large amounts of chlorophyll.  The chlorophylls are pigments that can absorb many of the wavelengths of visible light, but not green.  Green wavelengths are reflected back into the environment, which is why our eyes perceive both young and mature leaves as green. Each leaf is made up of a variety of cells and tissues.  The top and bottom of the leaf are covered with a layer of cells  termed the epidermis.  It consists of many interlocking cells (rather like jigsaw pieces), sometimes called pavement cells.  Their function is to protect the underlying cells and also produce the waxy, waterproofing layer — the cuticle.   The lower epidermis is ‘pierced’ by the stomates.  These are the ‘breathing pores’ of the leaf, allowing the exchange of gases and water vapour.   The epidermis may also bear trichomes.  These are small ‘hair—like’ projections.  If there are many of them they can give the leaf a white or silvery appearance, helping to trap moist air near to the leaf surface to reduce water loss.  They  may also help to reflect sunlight, so that the leaf does not get too hot and on cold days can serve to protect the leaf from frost damage. Some trichomes have a protective function in that they may physically restrict the feeding of insects and other herbivores, and some contain a cocktail of toxic chemicals [e.g. nettles]. Under the upper epidermis and within the leaf, there is one or more layers of cells packed with chloroplasts - the palisade layer.  This is the principal site of photosynthesis within the leaf, where carbon dioxide is fixed into sugars and other vital nutrients.  The ‘by-product’ of photosynthesis is oxygen, which is not only essential for plant respiration but needed by the vast majority of animals on this planet.  It diffuses out of the leaf through the intercellular spaces of the next layer of the leaf - the mesophyll layer. The stomates allow gases in and out, but can close through the movement of their guard cells.  Stomates tend to close up at night or when the leaf experiences water stress.  Running throughout the body of the leaf is the xylem and phloem tissues, which conduct water, minerals and sugars etc around the plant. The sheer abundance of chlorophyll in many leaves masks the presence of other pigments, which only become visible when the leaf begins to senesce and the chlorophylls break down.  The leaf turns a yellow / orange colour due to the presence of carotenoid pigments.  Autumnal leaves can display a variety of colours due to other pigments such as the anthocyanins and xanthophylls.  Some leaves take protection very seriously   Curious fact : the leaf with the largest surface area is that of the Amazonian water lily, which can be 10 feet in diameter.

Leaves have three main parts:  The petiole, a stalk-like structure that connects the blade of the leaf to the stem of the plant. Some leaves don’t have petioles,  and are known as sessile leaves. The blade or lamina, usually the largest part of the leaf.  The edge of the leaf or the leaf margin may be described as entire, toothed, or lobed. The oak leaf, for example, is clearly lobed. The blade has many veins, forming a network, carrying water and nutrients, The base, the base is the region of the blade that attaches to the petiole. A leaf is said to be simple if its blade / lamina is undivided, if the ‘teeth’ or lobes do not reach down to the main vein of the leaf.  A compound leaf has several leaflets, which join up with a single leaf stalk or petiole. When identifying tree leaves, it is always important to look for the petiole,   as a single leaflet of a compound leaf can look like a simple leaf.  More details of leaf and tree structure can be found on this link on our website. Now for a challenge.  Can you or your children find a leaf (and name the tree it came from), that Has a serrated / toothed edge Has a lobed margin Has a smooth edge / margin Is a compound, palmate leaf Is a compound, pinnate leaf Is hairy Is not green, but red or a mixture of colours Is more or less circular Is fleshy / succulent Has spines on its edges Is needle shaped Has a thick (waxy?) cuticle or is very shiny Has net venation  is marcescent (might keep you hanging around) Go forage!

The terms ghosts and zombies often feature in films or TV programmes, but across the country the terms can also be applied to many hundreds, possibly thousands of lost and abandoned ponds.  Ponds have featured in the landscape for centuries or millennia.  Pingos -  formed in the depressions left after the last ice age. The middle of the C20th saw not only the destruction of many hedgerows, but the removal of many ponds.  This was particularly true in farming areas like East Anglia.  The strategy was to increase field size and allow access of complex machinery that was becoming available at that time; for example large combine harvesters.  Whilst the loss of the hedgerows and associated wildlife is well documented, the loss of ponds has not attracted so much attention.  Many hundred of ponds were filled in (often using the debris and material from the destruction of the hedgerows), to give a few more metres of arable land, and with machinery replacing horses the need for ‘watering holes’ diminished.  The infilled ponds are sometimes referred to as ghost ponds.  The location of these 'ponds' can sometimes be found  By studying old ordnance survey (or tithe) maps or  They may be visible using aerial photography / drones and picking up a different colour or shade of the crop growing in a field Noticing the accumulation of water after heavy rain in a slight depression, or a mist hovering over a particular part of a field A zombie pond is somewhat different.  It is a pond or very wet, marsh area which is shadowed by a tree canopy.  The pond has filled over many, many years with dead leaves, so that it has a deep layer of decomposing organic material.  The pond margins is generally overgrown, with willow and other vegetation where have begun to ‘invade’.  The pond is half dead / half alive, hence the term 'zombie'.  The area / water becomes anaerobic / anoxic, as the dead leaves rot and use up oxygen. Few life forms call it home - perhaps midge larvae or the occasional beetle. Indeed, such ponds may release not only carbon dioxide but also methane; the latter is a particularly potent greenhouse gas.  Zombie ponds may be found in woodlands, particularly where active management has fallen by the wayside. However, not all is lost, both ghost and zombie ponds can be resurrected.  In the case of ghost ponds, the infilling material / soil is dug out until the original base layer is reached.   This may be recognised by the dark, fine silt layer / sediment, which may contain the remnants of water snail shells.  Ideally, the excavation should mirror the original outline of the pond.  This may be determined in part by digging two trenches at right angles to each other. Details of the restoration procedure may be found here.   Freshly excavated ghost ponds should be left to fill with rainwater through the winter months, and left for plants and animal to colonise naturally.  Amazingly, several pond restoration projects have demonstrated that the original silt layer of the pond is a valuable seedbed of many aquatic and emergent plant species, even though the seeds may have lain there dormant for decades , possibly centuries.  The refreshed pond should also have a surrounding margin of land to separate it from any adjacent farmland activities - to prevent nutrient run off / pesticide application etc.  Further details of the restoration of lost ponds can be found at:- https://norfolkponds.org/ https://www.ucl.ac.uk/geography/news/2023/nov/bringing-ghost-ponds-back-life https://www.essexwt.org.uk/recovering-lost-ponds In the case of zombie ponds, there is a similar approach to restoration but it begins with the cutting back and / or removal of trees from around the pond to let light in.  Then the layers of rotting leaves / organic materials are scooped out, so that the original sediments of the pond are exposed.  The depth of the decomposing material may be quite significant.  However, with light pouring in and the rotting material removing the pond can soon develop a diverse community of plants (from the seedbed and pond 'visitors' e.g water-crowfoot, stoneworts, and animals).  The restoration / renewal of ponds in fields, meadows or woodlands makes a significant contribution to the biodiversity of an area. There is an excellent video about the restoration of ghost and zombie ponds on YouTube, featuring Professor Carl Sayer (UCL). Professor Sayer grew up in Norfolk, where many of these ‘hidden’ / lost ponds are to be found.  Visit the Razor Science Show “Bringing 'ghost' and 'zombie' ponds back from the dead”. [https://youtu.be/SYkbDdaUMBY?si=gd2jbfxk4iXLSFL5]  

Climate change is introducing disease to new areas as it favours the spread of disease vectors, such as mosquitoes.  Usutu is a virus disease that originated in South Africa, it is spread by mosquitos and affects birds, particularly blackbirds and owls.  Whilst birds are the primary hosts to the virus, it can infect ‘incidental hosts’ such as bats and humans, through insect bites. The virus has been found in a number of mosquito species in Africa and Europe.  In the U.K,  and Europe the main vector is Culex pipiens - the common house mosquito or northern house mosquito.  The virus has probably spread through the movement of migratory birds between Africa and Europe, and is now present in many European countries. The virus was first detected in the London area in summer 2020 and was associated with a decline in Blackbird numbers. Blackbird numbers have declined by approximately 40% since 2018. The virus was then detected in Cambridgeshire in 2023.  It seems that most Usutu infections in humans do not cause disease and so the risk to human health is considered ‘low’.  There is no evidence to date that the consuming poultry poses a risk to our health.  However, the detection of Usutu in the UK marks the first time that a mosquito-borne virus capable of passing  from animal hosts to humans has emerged in this country.  Its speed and spread are being monitored as it may model how other mosquito borne disease arrive here. A virus that may be a particular cause for concern is the West Nile virus.  This virus spreads in a similar way to Usutu and needs similar climatic conditions.  West Nile virus, also transmitted through mosquito bite, can cause fever, vomiting and diarrhoea.  At present, there is no vaccine available.  West Nile virus was detected in the Netherlands in 2020, and there is concern that the changing climate could facilitate its spread in Europe.