As part of our efforts to reduce the environmental impacts of our operations, Nicholsons are currently trialling an battery-powered hedgecutter from Pellenc. Supplied by Etesia UK Ltd., the hedgecutter runs from a backpack-mounted rechargeable lithium battery pack that the manufacturers claim will provide a full day of use without needing re-charging. As well as a hedgecutting attachment, the batterypack can also be used to power electric chainsaws, pruners and polesaws.
If the trial is successful and we go ahead and buy one of the machines the benefits for our clients would be a significant reduction in noise and fumes when our teams are trimming hedges in their gardens. For our teams there is also the added benefit of a reduction in hand-arm vibration and weight, as well as the reduction in noise and fumes.

'No Burn ' Ground Preparation for Forestry

After felling mature conifers on an Estate, we are now preparing the sites ready to be planted in the autumn with broadleaves. Rather than burning the brash, we are using this 480 horse power mulcher to do the job.

Woodfuel Seminar at the RAC

Nicholsons Forestry Team was represented by Rob Pile at a seminar on the use of woodfuel for heating at the Royal Agricultural College, Cirencester last week. The event also saw the official opening of the college's new woodfuel heating system.
As well as hearing presentations from a range of speakers on managing woodlands to provide woodfuel, timber specification for producing good quality woodchip for fuel, and the new Forestry Commission grants aimed at woodfuel production, it was also a chance to catch up with some old clients and meet some (hopefully) new ones. Rob also spent some time talking to Andy Grundy from Midlands Wood Fuel Ltd. with a view to selling lower grade conifer timber from our clients' woodlands to MWF.

Nicholsons Country Gardeners at Broughton Grange

This Thursday the Nicholsons Country Gardeners Club visited Broughton Grange. The Gardens are only open 3 times a year under the NGS scheme, but we were able to have a private viewing in the evening by kind courtesy of the owner. The head gardener Andrew Woods showed us around assisted by the assistant head gardener Alastair. Both were hugely enthusiastioc and obviously passionate about the garden, which is divided up into many zones. There is the more formal parterre with Box and Roses, a stunning Herbacesous border,a woodland garden with peat blocks, a stumpery, 80 acres of Arboretum and a garden designed by Tom Stuart Smith, with it's different levels and a different theme on each level. The views from this part of the garden in the evening are stunning and we were very lucky with the weather.

The tours have been a great success so for those who have not joined the club please do and join us on some great visits and fascinating lectures.

Nicholsons visits Rousham

With our Country Gardeners Club we had a visit to Rousham and were hosted my Charles and Angela Cottrell Dormer who introduced the tour and were kind enough, with their fantastic and energetic head gardener Anne Starling, to show us round these beautiful gardens. The gardens were designed and laid out by William Kent and have remained in the same style and layout ever since.

Dreadnaught.

This pictures the launch of our intrepid Tim.P and him subsequently wrestling a 4" pipe into our reservoir. He had to brave the snug fitting life jacket, coax a contrary rubber duck into position, manhandle a giant dipstick on a lump of concrete into the middle of the reservoir, fend off swarming toad tadpoles and the mirth of his colleagues in order to achieve the task. Which he did superbly!

Our reservoir is rainwater harvested from our poly tunnels and roof spaces with a little coming from nursery run off. Like most people involved in agriculture and horticulture over the past few months our reserves are low - the reservoir did not fill up to capacity over the winter months which did not help matters.

Having not had our reservoir this low before we soon realised the pump extracting water was not able to do the job with the water so low.

Tim is placing in a 'sewage' pump which pushes big volumes of water out and into a new (actually recycled) holding tank, before being chlorinated and stored for use. It has a cunning floating filter so only abstracts from the clearest water near the surface..... Or so we thought until we spotted several dozen (live) toad tadpoles in our holding tank!

They are now found in the mesh of several filters - fortunately their numbers are such that losses are negligible - much less than them getting cooked on the liner in the heat as they crawl out - yet another hazard. Thankfully large numbers do make it to safety and are found all around the area!

We are now able to use the remaining water in our reservoir which takes the pressure off our mains bill - and your available water!

'ditching' and 'dolloping'

Making the most of the unusually dry weather we are currently preparing a 3 hectare site near Coventry for the next rotation of trees. The land was previously stocked with poplar and is a very wet site. To improve the site drainage for the young trees, ditches are being cut and the resulting spoil 'dolloped' to create raised individual planting stations. Alder, ash and oak trees will be planted in December.

Timber Extraction in Dry Weather

One of the virtues of the dry weather is that the Nicholsons Forestry team has been able to carry out the early summer's thinning program with the minimal possible damage to sites. This is another load of timber departing from the Althorp Estate on its way to the sawmill.
[Written by Tim Shardlow, Forestry Consultant to the Althorp Estate]