Update on My Planted Trees: Growth & Challenges

Hello there! It’s been some time now since my last post, but I thought that it would be appropriate to provide an update on how some of the trees I planted a couple of years ago are doing. Additionally, winter is approaching quickly and for there to be any chance to do the deciduous trees I planted justice, it should be done before they lose all of their foliage.

First are the Black Poplars, which I planted along a local brook, mainly because most textbooks would suggest wetland areas to be their primary habitat. These trees have done pretty well overall, albeit one is much larger than the rest; but none have died out of the original 4 planted, which is quite positive. The large one I would guess now stands about 3.5 metres (11.5 feet) tall and the rest about half of that. The tree guards seem to have worked well, and curiously, the fast-growing poplar mentioned above, happens to also be the one in the cattle pasture; and there a signs of browsing where the shoots have grown beyond the metal netting. Speaking of the metal netting, it seems that large branches that grow out of the steel mesh, receive friction from wires, wearing off the bark, which could prove problematic as they grow further but for now it doesn’t seem to be significantly hampering their growth at present.

The second set of trees (which really were the first to be planted), surrounding my house and the adjacent farmyard, have had far more mixed results. A few of the trees, from neglect on my part, were swamped by grasses in the first year or two and have subsequently died and needed their plastic guards removed. Some, still persist among the taller vegetation, but seem to grow stunted and slowly, clearly having to compete constantly with the surrounding plants, and could likely do with some attention. Others, now having cleared the grasses by some sort of important threshold, have grown exponentially, a few now are above 2 metres (6.5 feet) in height; however none are as large as the Black Poplar mentioned above. Of these trees closer to home, the species which seems to have done best of the mixture planted is probably the Wild Apple, with an approximate survival rate of 85%.

This concludes this post, while I am keen to make some of these more regularly, and on a more interesting topic also, for now I am lacking much time and space for thought and planning, as it’s currently relatively busy.