Woodland in France

Our French woodland is in patches one bit at the bottom of the garden, one down the lane and the rest is the " wood that legend spake of "
( 1½ acres of pine trees thrown in free with the sale of the house) that we can not find as yet. Our next door neighbour's son has promised to help us look.

The patch of woodland at the bottom of the garden has been put into use to amuse the chickens. In the garden they quickly start destroying vegetable plants but we can lead them down to the woods and they will happily scratch about in the leaf litter for hours. A shake of their food dish brings them running back to be shut up for the night.

Coppice woodland in France

It is mainly, at least the bit we have found, sweet chestnut. This is common in the woodland in our area of France. It's good for, of course, the chestnuts, but also for use in fencing and as a building material. It can be coppiced which means the trees are cut down to a stump which then grows shoots which in turn can be cut after several years.

Some have been pollarded which is similar but the tree is cut back to about five feet off he ground. This is to stop deer eating the young shoots. We regularly see deer on our morning and evening walks with the dogs but we have not been quick enough to get a good photograph yet. Luckily the dogs always have their noses to the ground so have not seen them and set off in hot pursuit.

The possibilities are wide open here to use the woodland to provide heat in the form of logs or maybe even charcoal and as a source of food we can't wait to get started!

In addition there is the pure joy of being in the woods listening to the birdsong, smelling the earthy smells and poking about looking at weird fungi and beetles and wondering what if anything lives in the holes in the banks.

The Wood That legend Spake Of

Yes we have found it and it is mainly horizontal which will save a lot of work with the axe. It blew down in the great storms of somethingty nine (sorry sometimes our French is just rubbish). It's quite a sight to see with twenty foot of tree that has had it's top literally ripped off by the wind. We will get an excellent crop of blackberries.

Joel made good on his promise and marched us down the lane pointing out landmarks to help us locate it again while we hurried after him. The landmarks were repeated several times along with the ownership of each of the various patches of land. The French inheritance laws are such that everything is divided equally amongst all the children so people may have several relatively small patches spread over quite a wide area.

The land at the back of our woods belongs to Joel a patch in the middle to his father and another patch to one side to his mother. He marched us all around our boundaries then we had a fag to celebrate being neighbours.

 

The Woodland Way - A Permaculture Approach to Sustainable Woodland Management by Ben Law

We first became aware of Ben Law on the television programme Grand Designs, which showed Ben building his home. Most books on woodland seemed to be for people working in forestry and managing plantations.

This book has lots of useful information about woodland on a smaller scale. It goes into detail on tree species, what to do with them along with ideas on the practical use of woodland produce. Using the book we have managed to identify that most of the woodland is chestnut that has been coppiced at some time.

We will be cutting some in the winter of 2007 to provide some firewood for 2008. Judging by this book we don't have enough land to be self sufficient in firewood but with the information it gives we should be able to make the best of what we have got. The part about green woodworking has also got us fired up so look out for tales of bodging somewhere down the line.

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How to Make a Forest Garden by Patrick Whitefield                                               
 

We bought this book to help us decide what to do with the Orchard and because a forest garden sounds rather appealing.

There is a lot of information about permaculture design and it raises interesting questions about food production. I found the pros and cons of introducing animals into the equation the most interesting bit. We're not too sure at the moment that we'll go along this route with the Orchard it may be quite a time before we make changes there due to the amount of work needed in the garden and the house. If we do we'll update the review.

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The Ax Book - The lore and Science of the Woodcutter by D. Cook
 

More than any person could ever want to know about axes but at least having read the book we know the difference between a tree felling axe and a wood cutting axe. If you've stood looking at axes in the DIY store wondering what to get (or is it just us?) you can read this book and appear knowledgeable as you discuss weights and styles of axe.

Details on other tools such as saws and how to cut and stack wood and what kinds are best for burning albeit from an American perspective so some European species are not mentioned.

A must for budding lumberjacks. You can have no idea how many things can go wrong while cutting a tree down until you have read this book I'm sure we'll be safer for having read it.

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Tree Wisdom by Jacqueline Paterson

I love this book. What's the point of having woodland if you can't enjoy it on an emotional and spiritual level.

It has chapters on individual trees such as apple, hawthorne, elder and oak which describe the tree at all times of the year alongside drawings. These I find much more useful than photographs for identifying species.

Then there is the folklore for each tree and uses which include recipes for wines and such. I just keep going back to it and finding more all the time.

It's much more than just a collection of facts about trees it's like listening to someone you love and respect imparting their wisdom.

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Collins Tree Guide by Owen Johnson and David More
 

This is hugely useful for us townies with trees. It has illustrations not just of the trees but of their leaves, bark, flowers, buds, shoots and nuts. We never dreamed there were so many types of oak!

A very practical reference book for us we just have to remember to take it out when we go for walks as there are so many very similar (to our eyes) trees. Does what is says on the cover!

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