Three rather beautiful wasps nests. It’s late summer so the wasps have nearly vacated them now and the last few are hanging round the raspberry patch eating the last of… Read More
Category: Wychmoss – the Project
What’s up in the woodland garden
The last few days of glorious March sunshine have boosted the growth in the woodland garden. This is in a corner of the land always the last to be reached… Read More
Willow bark medicine ~ natural Aspirin
All the willow that wasn’t coppiced back in February is now covered with pretty furry buds. Cut long stems and put them in a tall base for a dramatic Spring… Read More
Coltsfoot in March
Coltsfoot is one of the first spring flowers, after the snowdrops, with the flowers appearing first before the leaves. A wonderful herb for sore throats, it likes poor, dry, stony… Read More
Coppicing willow and hazel
Willow coppices Last weekend, mid February, I spent coppicing – cutting back my willow Salix spp. and hazel Corylus avellana. I have a large amount of willow, across several species,… Read More
Wychmoss update – Signs of Spring?
It may be mid-winter here at Wychmoss. with cold, crisp frosty days the norm, but Coltsfoot buds are appearing in warmer, sheltered spots on the edge of my woodland to… Read More
A weed is a plant that has mastered every survival skill except for learning how to grow in rows.
Lady’s Smock (Cardamine pratensis)
Quote by Doug Larson
Picture by Monica Wilde
The Recycled House Project
Hopefully, sometime in 2011, we might build our house at Gowanbank. The last miserable, recession years have taught me a few things. One is to try to get out of… Read More
Three acres at Gowanbank
This is an aerial view showing the extent of the land. Google must have taken this 20 years ago as it looks treeless. However, there are very established trees all… Read More
Lady’s Smock – Cardamine pratensis
This is Lady’s Smock also known as Cuckoo Flower. It is a meadow and riverside field plant that flowers in the late spring. It is fabulous in salads as it… Read More
Visit to Garth and a mushroom feast
We last visited Garth about a week before the leaves started to turn into Autumn. On the way back we stopped by the edge of a wood, south of Aberfeldy,… Read More
Early thoughts for life in the woodlands
Don’t you love the early stages of any project? All the research, playing with ideas, planning, dreaming and scheming. Next week we will all get together to share our ideas.… Read More
To thatch or not to thatch!
Well, we could have a live roof. Or we could have a thatched roof… A live roof would blend into the woodland and hide the buildings among the tree. The… Read More