A late May visit to see how things were progressing. A warm, sunny but blustery week. The air was filled with insects, swallows and the call of the cuckoo - a constant presence from dawn to dusk. Wildflowers such as vetch, trefoil and violets spread between the stumps and all sorts of beetles were scuttling around.
We inspected a good proportion of the trees we had planted last November. On the whole we were pleasantly surprised to find that most have survived the first winter - at a rough estimate more than 95%.
Some were thriving, particularly the alders and hazels. The sweet chestnuts planted lower down on the slope seem to be in a frost pocket, resulting in their first flush of leaves being scorched by a late freeze, but fortunately there were new buds sprouting lower down. We're reasonably confident the majority of those will bounce back.
A couple hundred Scots pine up towards the highest point of the land were looking slightly stressed, likely as they were a late addition not planted until March. But hopefully the week or two of rain showers forecast will help them pull through.
