Portmoak Community Woodland

In the pink?

It was touch and go for the apple blossom in Portmoak Community Orchard this spring, as the weather forecasters warned of possible frost in May. Luckily, the flowers survived though the blossom may have been slightly patchier than in previous years.

Now that it’s summertime the Portmoak Community Woodland Group’s latest job has been to thin out the young apples, so that the rest grow to a decent size. All being well, we’ll have a good crop in time for our annual Apple Day on Sunday October 4th.

While one display of pink blossom is welcome, another not so much!

It’s a pity that the pink Himalayan Balsam flower is rather pretty because the relentless spread of this invasive plant is not good news at all. Once again, members of PCWG will be keeping a good look out for any of the plants in and around Portmoak Moss - and pulling them out if we find them.  There’s nothing they like better than a damp ditch and a hidden corner where they can grow undisturbed and scatter their seeds, with tremendous force.

We keep waders and protective gloves ready for action, as the Himalayan Balsam is quick to displace and reduce the variety of our native flora. It’s horrible, messy work but at least the plant is fairly easy to remove - roots and all.

In the background to these summer tasks, gradual progress is being made on the future of Portmoak Moss.  Its owners, the Woodland Trust Scotland, have been trying to find a date for a site meeting with Peatland Action, who are the experts on peat bog restoration. At the end of a workshop in March, involving members of the woodland group and of the community, everyone felt that we needed to discuss various options on site. It's taken a long time to find a suitable date but at last there is one and the visit will be for the same people who attended the workshop.

Meanwhile, WTS are also commissioning various studies on the ecology and hydrology of the Moss, to give us as much information as possible.

The meetings of the woodland group continue as usual, every third Tuesday of the month at 6.30pm for 6.45pm in The Well Country Inn, Scotlandwell.  All are welcome.

Haircut for springtime

Any gardeners will know that this February has been a stop start time for getting things done outside: sudden sunshine, then snow, frost and rain. A lot of rain! So it has been quite difficult to complete the task of pruning apple and pear trees in Portmoak Community Orchard.

The trees have been planted in the big gully in Kilmagad Wood which is one of the most sheltered spots on the hill. But that doesn’t protect it from the rain and the slopes get very slippery. Unfortunately, there are some tasks you can’t postpone and pruning  apples and pears is one of them if you want healthy growth in the spring and summer.

So, we give the them a fairly severe ‘haircut’ to encourage lots of fruiting buds on the lower branches.

This project began at the start of the month and couldn't be finished until nearly the end of it, as frozen slush on the ground made the slopes too slidy.

It's a bit of a challenge, weilding loppers, saws and secateurs to prune back overhead branches, while also trying to stay upright!

We are not great experts but our simple aims are to cut out disease, let in plenty of light and make sure the trees don’t get so tall that we can’t reach the fruit. 

It’s hard to imagine we shall get another bumper crop like last year’s but as long as the blossoms are not hit by late frosts and we have a half decent summer, we should have enough fruit for our annual community apple day in the autumn. We enjoyed that prospect as we stopped, in surprisingly warm sunshine, to take a tea break.

That is a long way off and in the meantime we have plenty to do, getting our heads round the Woodland Trust Scotland’s plans for tree felling and peatland restoration in Portmoak Moss.  Members of the community talk to us all the time and we are well aware that everyone who goes to the Moss loves the place for a whole variety of reasons.

In early March, there is to be a workshop involving experts and invited participants, to look at all the issues. This will be followed by a public meeting, with a date tbc.

In the Moss, the business of pulling out birch saplings continues and also in March we are looking forward to welcoming employees from the Scottish Environment Protection Agency, who are allocated volunteering days, to help with projects like this. Removing the birch helps to protect the peat from drying out and allows the growth of sphagnum mosses. 

Our regular meetings continue, on every third Tuesday of the month, in The Well Inn and now start at the earlier time of 6.30pm for 6.45pm.