Bog Myrtle & Peat

Work on the pine strip has ground to a halt over the past ten days after I disturbed a pair of woodcock who seem to be thinking of nesting there. I had been in the process of brashing a path directly through the centre of the long narrow pine wood, clearing patches here and there to allow light in to encourage the undergrowth, but it is far more important that I leave this pair to their own devices and don’t disturb them.

The ride I cut through a wet area of wood is shaping up nicely, and the storms over the past few days have pushed over a big douglas fir tree, ripping up the soil and exposing a huge pool of mud and pine needles. This sort of natural chaos is precisely what I was hoping for, and the more the ride collapses in on itself, the more likely it is to attract and hold visiting woodcock over the winter months.

A gamekeeper friend pointed out the fact that rotting pine needles lower the pH of the soil, making it unattractive to earthworms and insects. These being the main source of food for woodcock, I am now trying, at the last minute, to install some deciduous plant life to replace the old order before spring unfolds completely and it will be too late for planting.

Willow is the obvious choice for a wet area of moorland, and cutting off thirty budding whips from a nearby willow tree, I jammed them into the ground at various intervals all around the brash heaps and into the soil beneath the thick moss on the westerly boundary of the strip. I am assured that willow is sufficiently robust to handle this mistreatment, and cuttings will often put roots down and grow happily as if nothing had ever happened. I don’t expect thirty trees to appear, but a tangle of whispy willow scrub would suit my purposes perfectly. After a few years, scrub should start to take over, shedding leaves which will rot down into worm-rich compost: perfect for woodcock.