We gathered plenty of seed in 2023, in a very good year for flowers and fruit. Small trees that we were growing on have developed really well with an abundance of rain in 2024!
Again, all our young trees were sold to a variety of projects, by Christmas 2023. The new bench, by our pond, is proving to be a wonderful 'chill-out' area for volunteers... in between jobs. We still seem to have a steady stream of 'old-hands' and newcomers. The purchase of a gazebo this year was supposed to give us some sun- screening, but is now a very useful shelter from constant rain as the absence of a summer this year changes the behaviour of the trees and shrubs we grow and gather seed from.
Some seeds are germinating earlier this year. Some not at all. Our plants are now losing their leaves in November, instead of early October, when we started the nursery.
Despite the changes in climate, we continue to grow a good range of plants and, with the help of many volunteers, maintain the nursery.

After lots of seed gathering in Autumn 2022, the seeds took their time germinating this year. Germination was around 3 weeks later than normal. Consequently the seedlings were planted out later and have therefore put on less growth (pic a). A very poor, cold summer hasn't helped. Hopefully they will keep growing longer into Autumn. We are continuing to give them a seaweed feed fortnightly; until mid-September. Normally we stop feeding at the end of August. The weather (and climate?) have certainly changed over the last few years.

Pete and Martin are seen in pic b processing seed for this year. There is a bumper crop of berries, fruit and nuts to be gathered. Elder from seed is a new one for us to try.

Pic c shows the 'mature' bed, where our 2 year old+ trees are growing. They have all done splendidly this year. Regular additions of compost and a surface layer of woodchip are really making a difference to these beds. The trees are entering dormancy later and later. Our sales season for bare-rooted trees originally commenced in October. Now we wait till November before the plants lose their leaves.

In 2022 a combination of sales  and donations ensured that the nursery again cleared out of all sales stock before February. Advanced orders this year indicate this will probably happen again, despite specialbranch increasing our stock levels. With only half  a bed spare we are rapidly approaching our full capacity level. 

Sales season should be fun, with regular and new customers visiting us from Autumn onwards.

After another very successful year in 2021, where we again leared out of all our mature stock and were able to donate some plants to a variety of projects, 2022 began with lots of germinating seeds. Pic.3 shows the tables after they were all transplanted into the four beds now set aside for them, albeit up to three weeks behind schedule.
The more mature plants have already put on prodigous growth, but we now have to shade net them as this hot summer weather is more than they're used to. The seedlings, too, needed hoops and netting to stop them cooking in this heat! 

   

Despite the cold, mild, dry and wet extremities of the winter there has been a very good germination rate amongst our collected seeds from 2020.
The seeds have now all gone into trays and are putting on fresh growth. The growth has been so strong that we have filled one and a half beds full of seedlings that have been transplanted from the trays already.
They are growing on tenaciously, despite the vagaries of our Spring weather, including lately, a 50-60 mph wind which snapped a large bough from one of our field maple trees. The seedlings, well watered from ample downpours, continue to grow, even during the coldest May i can recall.
The nursery, although windblown, is looking very productive and lush with fresh Spring growth. Another month or so and all the beds will be full of young transplants...and the collecting will begin again.

Despite all the restrictions and problems associated with COVID we germinated, planted out and kept alive an increased amount of plantlets.
During Autumn we sold every available plant within two months of sending out our sales list. 
We have therefore grown more plants and sold/distributed  more plants than the previous two years. A very successful outcome in a challenging time.
In Winter hedges have been trimmed, areas tidied and Hazel coppiced in our annual clear-up, which is now coming to an end.

As can be seen from the photo, no weeding etc.. is possible while it is 3 degrees at the nursery. Lovely, crisp and white., but important to stay in the sunshine!
A new pond was built over the year, replacing an old leaky one. After a lot of hard work the frozen beginnings of a new wildlife area have emerged.

After final clearing, pruning and chopping was done this week, we are all now looking forward to new seeds germinating next month. The nursery, in its wider role as a therapeutic green-haven, continues to support wildlife, plants ...and now it's volunteers as well.

After successfully transferring all the germinated seeds to boxes between the three of us, some of our volunteers made a very welcome return after a safe routine was established. A very basic wash station is now in place and everyone keeps to separate pathways.
Having 4-5 extra pairs of hands enabled us to keep on top of the weeding and general maintenance. The germination rate of the seeds gathered was very impressive considering the lack of any real winter weather. We normally assume that between six-ten weeks of cold weather will vernalise the seeds. They certainly didn't get this, but it didn't impact on germination rates...rather the opposite!
We are still splitting our volunteers between tuesday and friday. The plants are getting double the attention they normally receive, which can only be a good thing.

There are now over three beds bursting with life from our transplanted seedlings. The main job over summer has been to keep them alive and thriving. Regular watering and feeding, plus non-stop weeding have kept us very busy.
During the summer heatwave we shade netted everything and watered for hours at a time, twice per week, just to keep the seedlings alive. 
Regular applications of seaweed fertiliser on the seedling beds, plus nettle fertiliser on the more mature plants have certainly helped. A wood chip mulch on the sales beds inhibited a lot of weeds and thereby lessening the workload.

After hours of weeding etc.. it is always satisfying to lunch in a nice area. We moved our lunch spot to our new orchard/meadow area. This gave up to six people more space.
The meadow has only recently been strimmed. Prior to the strimming, at the height of summer, it was a 2-3 feet high swathe of summer flowers. Lovely to sit in this oasis of calm, listening to birdsound and surrounded by nature at its finest.
Seed gathering has been underway since July, with the bulk still to be gathered this Autumn. Our regular work continues during this extraordinary year.  

Obviously life at the nursery has changed somewhat dramatically in the past few weeks.
Just as we were finishing winter tidying and prun- ing tasks, lockdown restrictions were imposed.

As a consequence, all our volunteers, bar Chris and myself, now have to stay away from the nursery. Luckily we had almost finished tidying and pruning the nursery. The last week we all gathered saw all the fruit trees judiciously pruned and the willow area tidied up. Currently chris comes in on fridays and myself(+my partner Anne) turn up on monday. 
Principally, we check the stratification boxes and water/weed, plus various other jobs. This arrangement seems to just about work at present, as times are quieter now. Saying that, on monday Anne and i were rather surprised to find 15 bags of seeds germinating. As a result of processing these bags the tables(above) are groaning with germinating seeds and seedlings growing robustly. Only 18 bags now remain in two boxes.

The Guelder rose seedlings(pic. right) are looking exceptionally lively. Hopefully this means we will have plenty of seedlings to transplant in June, and therefore more sales stock in a year or two.
Hopefully the lockdown situation will have changed a little by then as the transplanting season represents a far busier time at the nursery. Chris and i may have to rethink the' two days a week with one person on each day' strategy. It is rather a cruel twist that all our volunteers have plenty of time to lend a hand, but an incapacity to actually turn up!
I do hope you are all keeping safe and well. I will  endeavour to provide more regular blog updates about the nursery. Feel free to comment on the blog. This can be also used as an open site to keep in touch with other volunteers and find out how each other are doing. Just use the comments option to let me know what you are up to and comment on each others comments!
​Stay safe and well

We have just started examining the seeds contained in the stratification box. Two weeks in and 10 bags of seed have germinated so far. Hopefully this is the beginning of a successful year of germination.
The germinated seeds are now in a seed tray and protected from predation by wired tops. 

After selling out of all our trees at the earliest period i can remember, we have now almost finished transplanting the junior stock into their new beds. Over two beds remain empty, showing the lack of junior stock coming through, despite increases in seed gathering recently.
It seems we can't keep pace with demand despite constantly increasing our stock!

We took over 30 small potted plants to the seedy sunday event this month. The plants were all sold before 14.00, which somewhat denuded the stall, while providing us with some extra cash. Just as importantly, we had many interesting conversations with members of the public. The event served to enhance our public profile and enable us to inform more people about how to grow trees from seed themselves.
As a result of these conversations we hope to see more micro-tree nurseries set up and more trees grown on in private gardens, school projects, allotments and nature reserves.
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Finally, the last cutting of old, damaged trees has been made, giving us a pile of timber, which will go into the dead hedging in the wood behind the nursery.

Most of our customers took the opportunity to pre-order their plants in September. By mid-October the long order bed was completely full as more and more orders came in. A very busy sales period ensued, from October until Christmas. This resulted in most of our sales stock being sold; leaving us with a very meagre selection of plants coming into 2020.

Another excellent sales season with an ever increasing loyal customer base demonstrates the quality of our plants and serves as a reward for the attention lavished on them by our volunteers during the growing season.

We are now entering that time of year when our general tidying up begins in earnest. Hazel coppicing has already been dealt with and the hedgerows are half way through their annual cut. Some more weeding around the beds, tree pruning and general repairs will hopefully finish this phase by February, when, hopefully, our seeds will start germinating.