Following the stormy weather last week, the garden team have been busy at work, with the help of tree surgeons, repairing and clearing damaged trees. We experienced gusts of over 55mph resulting in the loss of some of our special (and rather old) trees. (Some pictures below)
A large Sweet Chestnut tree, over 200 years old, fell down in Bell’s Piece (next to the estate office), bringing with it a large part of a nearby Larch. The remaining stem of the 100 year old Larch was dangerously weak and had to be felled yesterday.
The garden also lost an Oak tree and large limbs from a Douglas Fir and Macedonian Pine. Up near the Obelisk a large Beech tree fell down and Kim (our Estate Ranger) has said that there’s more damage further out on the estate as well.
If you visit Stourhead over the coming weeks you might notice a lot of wood chips down the zig-zag path – this is from the larger limbs of fallen trees which have been shredded and used as mulch in the garden, to prevent any wastage – good to know that something positive could come out of it!
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- Tree surgeon on the Larch tree
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- Felling of the Larch
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- The damage to the Larch tree
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- The fallen Sweet Chestnut with it’s huge roots
Fantastic job you’re doing with the blog Lauren. Really appreciate all the news and updates of whats going on in the garden from you and Em. Especially good as at the moment we are not coming to Stourhead to do walks and talks, so keeps us in the picture on winter work. Love the pics of work on the Iron Bridge.
Julia
By: Julia Mottershaw on January 15, 2012
at 12:31
Hi Julia – thank you for your message. It’s really lovely to hear that this blog is of use! Particularly at a time when I was feeling conscious of writing too much about the Iron Bridge and tree damage. Hopefully we’ll soon have some interesting news about the Pantheon to throw into the mix as well. Many thanks, Lauren
By: Lauren on January 16, 2012
at 11:03