Blog

Already over a week ticked off from February and the longer days are emerging at last! Whilst it now seems an age ago, the lead up to Christmas was a busy time at the tree nursery. The most time intensive task for the team was the potting of the plants grown in root trainer cells. These had to be transferred into larger pots to eventually be offered for sale from our retail area later this year as containerised trees, or to give them their more common term trees in pots! The benefit of these...

As we enter 2021 a blanket of snow still covers everything here at Codsall Wood. At present, the weather conditions are slightly slowing down the speed we can send out orders but with a bit of luck we should meet nearly all our delivery target dates on time. 2020 was an excellent growing year for all of our hedging and tree plants. They have thrived really well using our wonderful natural production system. It clearly shows again to me that a nil chemical production system can be a viable...

Our trees are enjoying a wonderful growth period after the deluge of rain in late August and the near perfect growing temperatures of early September. The online shopping element of the website will be updated over the next couple of weeks to accurately reflect our increased stock. Unfortunately my teenage technical support team (grandchildren) have returned to school which has left me worrying that I might have to learn the intricacies of data entry! Over the last few weeks the team have been...

Since my last blog, July has come and gone in record speed and in record temperatures! We have been incredibly busy. Our retail outlet is now open at the Ledene Golf Centre, and whilst small has over twenty different species of trees and shrubs. Our plan is to gradually build on the number of species available and whilst we have larger trees on offer for bigger gardens we want to concentrate on adding to our small to medium species to suit everyone. All of the species are grown from trees and...

June brought an abrupt end to the Spring heat wave. I definitely thought the hot dry weather would come back and settle in again yet so far this has not been the case. The first couple of weeks of July have been fairly typical of an English summer, thankfully the tree nursery has really benefited from these dull wet days. There is something magical about rain water for all crops in comparison to irrigation water. The big news we have is that we have decided to open a small retail outlet for...

Over 12 months ago we decided to grow some Walnut trees. Fortunately, we have a small field which is suitable for use so long as the tractor sizes don’t reduce going forward. This also fit into the new agriculture policy meaning the area was perfect. We entered the field up with the Soil Association for conversion to Organic; in line with our production from our Organic tree nursery. We also had plenty of one year old bare rooted stock available to use to establish the wood. We got the trees...

Sizzling May is certainly giving flaming June a run for its money. Over the last few weeks we've all enjoyed fabulous sunny weather which has lifted our spirits during lockdown and made the queuing outside the supermarket almost bearable (so I'm told - heartfelt thanks to all of those involved in doing my shopping!) Nevertheless, it isn't ideal for tiny tree seedlings. For instance, the temperature dropped to freezing on two mornings which can be expected in May but what has been very unusual...

For those of us who love the English countryside and the English way of life the important and necessary restrictions imposed because of COVID-19 has prevented us from truly experiencing the beauty of Spring.  Being limited to just one hour of outdoor exercise has meant that we are broadly limited to our garden – if indeed we are fortunate to have a garden.  Nevertheless, nature waits for nobody and to this end we have continued with our work at the tree nursery and keeping on top of the...

Luckily for us it is very easy to continue working whilst keeping our distance in the nursery. It is incredible how superior nature is. Us mere humans must keep up or miss out and to this end the sowing of the new season crop is picking up speed thankfully. However, we are slightly behind with transplanting our own whips out into the field nursery so some may have to be composted, we are short of just a little more help. Today the sun shines gloriously and we are lucky to able to spend a good...

As we approach the end of our bareroot season, we have been busy shipping the last orders until Autumn – although we will still be processing and dispatching up until the end of March. We are planning a small retail area on the edge of the Ledene Golf Centre car park which neighbours our tree nursery. There will be a staggering variety of very reasonably priced potted trees and some shrubs for sale. These can of course be transplanted throughout the Spring and Summer. Last week I attended the...