Cover in a hardwood

[ColinF 2]

Lanisara? Never heard of that

 

Try Lonicera

[fiery brown 2]

Two conifers which grow well as an understory are western hemlock and western red cedar. I wouldn't plant them throughout the wood as they would spoil a nice hardwood environment. They would be ideal along edges to keep the wind down and to act as flushing points. Planted sympathetically, they should benefit a native woodland environment within. You would want to cut them down at 10 years or so before they get too big and replant in stages. I find bare leaf litter areas under mature hardwoods are favoured by pheasants for scratching in, especially if you scatter grain now and then.

 

I am in the process of making a small mixed plantation more game and deer friendly. So far I've just planted hazel for cover. I will thin heavily at the edges this year and plant above conifers.

 

I've been thinning for the last couple of years and I find a more complex structure to the wood helps keep the wind down. I have thinned a lot of overgrown larch as well as clearing 20 x 20 m coupes which are a real hit with pheasants, woodcock and deer. I am replanting these with ash protected by treeguards. The ground goes from bare to grass and bramble in a year. Ash is the best tree to let light in so there should be cover in these for a long number of years.

Edited May 8, 2012 by fiery brown

[killbilly 17]

Two conifers which grow well as an understory are western hemlock and western red cedar. I wouldn't plant them throughout the wood as they would spoil a nice hardwood environment. They would be ideal along edges to keep the wind down and to act as flushing points. Planted sympathetically, they should benefit a native woodland environment within. You would want to cut them down at 10 years or so before they get too big and replant in stages. I find bare leaf litter areas under mature hardwoods are favoured by pheasants for scratching in, especially if you scatter grain now and then.

 

I am in the process of making a small mixed plantation more game and deer friendly. So far I've just planted hazel for cover. I will thin heavily at the edges this year and plant above conifers.

 

I've been thinning for the last couple of years and I find a more complex structure to the wood helps keep the wind down. I have thinned a lot of overgrown larch as well as clearing 20 x 20 m coupes which are a real hit with pheasants, woodcock and deer. I am replanting these with ash protected by treeguards. The ground goes from bare to grass and bramble in a year. Ash is the best tree to let light in so there should be cover in these for a long number of years.

 

Sounds like a very nice project you got going there FB - what you say about regrowth after larch thinning is so true. We cleared a section near the Duck ponds to allow in some light and the speed in which natural cover reestaiblished itself was phenomenal.

[Blakloks 5]

I like the look of the red cedar could be a nice thick screening/cover there all I'm looking for is the last part of the wood thick with cover to hold birds when beating through