Hawling

This was our fourth, and thankfully final, attempt to carry out ‘spring’ maintenance at this farm after a storm. excessive temperatures and school holidays had delayed previous attempts. Ten extremely hardy and enthusiastic corporate volunteers from Capsule Insurance Services in Cheltenham turned up to complete the work of straightening and replacing guards, weeding, spreading mulch and checking for dead trees to be replaced next season. They even brought cake!

We had planned an early start to avoid the possible excessive heat, but need not have worried. The weather forecast was a 50/50 chance of rain and of course it rained for most of the morning. Fortunately, our volunteers were well prepared and didn’t let the weather dampen their spirits. We were supposed to finish by 1pm, but we still had a little bit more to do. Our volunteers very kindly stayed for another 45 minutes to finish the work, and then headed off for a very late lunch.

They all seemed to have a great time and are very keen to come back to help us plant more trees here next winter.

We returned to Hawling in July 2026 to carry out a survival survey, and found around 86.6% of trees had survived. All the saplings were very healthy looking trees, and the rowan had plenty of berries. We also noted an additional amazing suckering of blackthorn spreading from a nearby thicket to join the party. Long grass and field bindweed are in evidence, but do not seem to be causing too much of a problem at the moment.

Their survival rate after this excessively hot, dry summer would suggest that these four-year-old saplings have managed to develop a good root system already.

This was our third attempt to carry out our spring maintenance at this property. Our two earlier attempts had been thwarted by the weather and unfortunately the corporate group who had planned to come were no longer available as we were now well into summer holiday season. Protect Earth took a team of four, and with the help of three local volunteers we got to work removing weeds and grass from inside the guards, straightening or replacing guards and stakes, and spreading mulch around the saplings. The landowner made the job infinitely easier by transporting all the mulch up to the planting site, then leaving it in convenient heaps for us. They also delivered a whole bunch of refreshments and lunch. Amazing support like this really keeps our volunteers going, especially when it’s so hot!

We had 3 out of 3 volunteers show up for the whole day, and one volunteer was a top-notch spotter of natural regeneration saplings! We guarded and mulched these additional saplings to protect them too. The landowners provided an excellent lunch and drinks throughout the day.

With the small number of volunteers we were only to get about about half of the job done, despite everyone working really hard. We have planned another session in September once the school holidays are over, and hopefully the weather is cooler.

Where the tree planting area was safely protected by fencing the saplings were performing quite well, despite the drought and long grass. Our spring maintenance day will have helped and we will be going back to complete that task in early September. Most of the surviving trees were well out of their guards. There was also some evidence of regeneration, especially blackthorn which is growing well on this chalky soil.

Unfortunately, sheep were allowed into the unfenced part of the site and they knocked over guards and grazed on a majority of the saplings. Despite this, the hardiest trees survived sheep, drought and heat stress and we found an impressive number of trees clinging to life by regenerating from their roots. This area is now also fenced off so we plan to return to restock this winter. We will be monitoring it’s progress closely, and likely returning to carry out more maintenance next summer.

It was also good to see thriving wildflowers next to the trees which were teeming with butterflies and bees.

This is a wonderful area for wildlife with corn buntings and skylarks in evidence and lots of exciting chalkland butterfly and plant species in the meadows.

However, the survival rate of our saplings is much lower that the other farm in this area because unfortunately sheep got into the young woodland due to insufficient fencing, which has lost us a fair few saplings. We calculated a survival rate of only 60%.

The landowners have agreed to get some proper fencing up, so we’ll be back to restock these saplings and straighten and weed those that are still with us as soon as possible.

We went to survey this farm, one of two so far in the area, in August. We were pleased to discover that the trees were doing reasonably well with a survival rate of 86%.

There were chiffchaffs still singing around the area of new planting when we visited, and red kites were noticed soaring overhead. Maybe these trees will provide nesting habitat for them in years to come. The landowner said he had noticed an increase in butterflies and other insects around the blackthorn and hawthorn during the summer.

Our site surveyor was very pleased when he visited Windrush Farm to measure the progress of the trees we planted last year. The young saplings are establishing well with a survival rate of around 86%. There were some losses, but the remainder look very healthy and are doing well. We may need to help the landowners carry out some maintenance on the farm in the future.

We came back to Hawling again, this time to plant another 880 trees. Adding these trees means our Hawling woodland has grown nicely, and the saplings are doing well, merging into planting on a third neighbour’s land to create a network effect for wildlife. The planting here was intended to increase the size and improve the quality of the hedge-line that runs through this farmland and meadow area.

Volunteers came from landowner’s son’s company, Capsule Cover, based in Cheltenham, who were keen to be involved in this event. We planted lots of species with berries which are eaten by winter thrushes, while in summer, bullfinches and linnets will use them as nesting habitat.

On a cold, rather overcast January day, we arrived at this sheep farm near Hawling to plant 500 trees on their land, in part to replace the Ash trees they had lost to ash dieback disease. Carefully avoiding some historic quarry sites, we planted a mix of native broadleaved trees including some hornbeam which serve the same wildlife as the ash had done previously.

The planting here was great fun. Half of the village came out to help, including neighbouring farmers. They cut back a huge patch of blackthorn to provide wood chip mulch, which we’ve spread around the saplings to keep back competition from the fast growing grass and weeds.

This farmer was very keen to plant trees on an unused field, but we had to be careful because there was an an archaeological site, and some underground electric cables running across the field. Once we were satisfied that we knew exactly where everything was we were able to mark out where the trees had to go.

This was our first planting of the season and we were raring to go. Fortunately, our volunteers were enthusiastic too, especially our younger volunteers, who had a wonderful time. Involving children in planting trees hopefully teaches them about about the importance of caring for our planet in a practical way. Their parents were already leading them in the right direction, of course, as most of our volunteers are very environmentally friendly.

We had a relatively small number of trees to plant so, along with the stakes and guards, we were able to complete the job in no time. Adding wood chippings provided by the farmer will help to keep the grass and weeds down, giving the young saplings an excellent chance of survival.