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Wasps and squirrels

I don’t think the summer holidays are going to be very good for this blog! Our feet have barely touched the ground during this first week, friends, family and play dates squeezed in between trips to Lego Land, Somerset and Windsor. Fabulous fun, but the kitchen garden is in need of some attention. I have promised myself a few hours to weed the dahlia bed, and to take a few pictures for my end of July kitchen garden round up.

Although we’ve been busy, I have made a few discoveries. I noticed something inside one of my children’s scary bird boxes that they built and painted earlier in the year. My initial excitement that a brave family of birds had plucked up the courage to raise their young in my children’s creation was soon quashed, on closer inspection I saw the distinctive paper like wall of a wasp nest and then regular trips in and out by its occupants.

wasps nesting in our bird boxIf you look carefully you can see a wasp and its nest through the bird box hole

Last year we had lots of white tailed bumble bees which we co-existed with happily, we barely noticed wasps. This year there are few bees and wasps have taken over, resulting in uncomfortable wasp stings, an angry nest being removed from above our back door and another nest discovered in the front eves of our house. I am not looking forward to the plum and apple harvest, I can envisage it becoming a perilous race to gather the ripe fruit before the wasps devour it.

The husband strided into the kitchen last week and handed me a green immature cobnut from one of our trees, he popped it on the window sill telling me it would be a reminder to crop the ripe cobnuts before the squirrels get to them. This seemed a good plan, until I discovered squirrels have a taste for green unripe and soft nuts. The debris from their feast lies under all five of our cobnut trees; it’s looking as though the dream of eating our own cobnuts on Christmas day is sadly farfetched. The nuts are an added bonus, the main purpose for the trees is to coppice their lovely long branches, which we use to build structures and supports in the kitchen garden.

Nibbled cobnutsStolen cobnut husks discarded by the squirrels

cobnuts discarded under treesCobnut husks littered under our cobnut trees

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A Sunday Job

We have five Kentish cobnut trees which have been coppiced over the years, some much longer ago than others. My plan is to coppice one a year, after 5 years I should be ready to coppice again from the first one. I use hazel or chestnut stakes as bean poles, plant labels/markers, staking and supporting dahlias and the frame for netting in the cutting garden, supporting the stems. I far prefer the rustic look of coppiced hazel to bamboo canes, I banish them from my veg plot several years ago. So I was thrilled to have my own supply of hazel poles in the garden.

Coppicing needs to be carried out in February/March, before any new growth/leaves emerge. Each branch needs to be cut 5cm from the ground. I persuaded the husband that this would be a nice easy Sunday job to help me with. I choose the largest tree with the thickest branches.

Cobnut treeThe chosen Cobnut tree for coppicing

My initial enthusiasm for this job started to quash whilst sawing the branches. I counted 20 rings (20 years of growth) on one branch which was getting on for 10-15m high. All the branches seemed to be tangled at the top so once I’d sawn through, it was impossible to pull away from the tree, held firm by a web of branches up above. Many of the branches overhung the pond, I was in real danger of a soaking, not palatable for a Sunday morning in March! After 20 minutes I retreated to the house, looking for the husband who had agreed to help. As you can see he took over, mumbling under his breath that this was a job for a chain saw (our cheap chain saw has given up working and sits in a puddle of oil in the garage!). coppicing

Coppicing underway!

The husband successfully finished the not as easy as I first thought task, he managed to stay dry as well, bonus! Some of the stumps are a little taller than the suggested 5 cm, but it will just have to do. I look forward to seeing the first years growth emerge this year.

The coppiced cobnut

Coppicing complete

A productive mornings work resulted in poles and peas sticks for the kitchen garden, a good load of logs ready to be seasoned for next year and label stakes. I saw this clever labelling idea on Pinterest, it’s perfect as my small plastic labels would be redistributed around the garden by my darling children, I would never remember what I’ve sown and where. The new labelled stakes look great and fit in with the rest of the kitchen garden.

hazel stakesThe produce!

Stake labels The stake labels

For those of you who have been thinking about the lovely cobnut harvest we must get, sadly last year we failed and I fear that will always be the case, the squirrels get there first. I do love the idea of nuts from the garden on the table at Christmas.