this land wants to be rainforest. The question is – how do support that while also seeing to our needs? Samhain 2016 we inherited 3.85h of deforested hill with a couple of old oaks and a line of scraggly holly, rowan, ash and willow up the burn towerin ower a […]
the edge effect
we neighbour a stretch of semi ancient oak woodland or temperate rainforest that’s been underplanted with sitka. There’s an old stone dyke boundary that runs between us, across the croft land and over into middle innens. It’s a place of wonder! For the last 9 years we’ve worked at reclaiming […]
polycrub capers
After one of the named storms lifted the legs of the crub out of the earth we decided to move it to safer ground in the forest garden site.
learning exchange
We enjoyed a learning exchange from the ACT team in March. It was fun creating an updated watercolour map of the croft to share.
fruit tree grafting and croft walk
As part of the Scotland wide farmer led cluster project that aims to share knowledge and experience of regenerative farming through local networks, we had Kilfinan Community Forest crofters visit for a bit of fruit tree grafting and crack about tending ex sitka landscapes, stumps, growing food and trees and […]
girdling
photo by Arlo on the north east part of the croft we’ve got around 100 sitka regen around 7 years old. on that thin strip they’re about the only thing providing any structure to the place – besides an understory of thigh high reeds, knee deep deer grass ruts, calf […]
nesting
got immersed in a long holy moment of being with the people who came before us while tending alder and scotspine across the burn this is the danger of being in relationship with the “deep dark woods” – it creates a frame of mind entirely opposed to coming back to […]
cycling
to joyful chorus from a flock of willow tits and the merry thwump of the pick axe, the stumps and forestry trenches transform – 5 out of the 6 stumps in this wee area crumbled. it’s a big vision but going through this human pig process shows us it’s entirely […]
