Author: ForestHarvest

On the 6th April Dovehouse Community Garden was opened officially by the Mayor of Lichfield, who planted an Almond tree sponsored by Forest Harvest. A lovely warm day by recent weather standards, fizz, homemade wine and beautiful cake was enjoyed too. 12th of April Nick led a new local walk he has devised from Woodmill… Continue reading April 2018

The work at Dovehouse continued into March with marking out the small allotment beds and preparing for the Grand Opening on the 6th April by the Mayor. The area looks very different from the scrubland when work started in December. A course on fruit tree grafting run by the WFEG at Whittington was very useful… Continue reading March 2018

Work projects continued in February, including the retrieval of materials from a local building site to finish the greenhouse. We fixed the fence wall to shelter the wood-burner, which became a necessity for the site to work in winter. We celebrated the new stove by baking bananas and drinking a new batch of Tepache. There… Continue reading February 2018

The new year heralded  new signposts at Forest Harvest and some new projects. We erected the sign in on a glorious day , spring -like, even with a rainbow to  finish the day gloriously. We started to create a much needed inglenook around the fireplace; a few logs were needed to be moved but will… Continue reading January 2018

The Mill looked beautiful with the early December snow, enough to give the bees an insulated roof, but unfortunately too much weight for the poly-tunnel roof! Winter solstice was cloudy, so the dawn chorus was delayed to nearly 8:00am. The Robin was the first voice, as is often the case in winter, followed by the… Continue reading December 2017

Lots of Autumn projects started. Tom & digger kindly cleared an area big enough to take the 10m x 5m marquee. The new ‘Clearing’ is now ready to be sown with grass and meadow seed in the Spring. No one realised the side benefit ; a beautiful view of the sunsets from the workshop. Also started… Continue reading November 2017

Hornets were about this autumn in abundance but not so many wasps. Earlier in the year there was plenty of wasp activity; collecting wood-pulp for nests, so where they went is anyones guess. The hornets didn’t go for the hives either but were busy looking for winter shelter in our polytunnel. Although not  known to… Continue reading October 2017

September is the first anniversary of the charity Forest Harvest. Although the wood itself is 30 years old; officially it was only one year old on 1st September. This year has seen the site at Woodmill converted from an overgrown shabby bit of scrubland to a beautiful wood with a Visitor’s Centre, clear paths for… Continue reading September 2017

The bees in the woodland hives were very busy in August but the very mixed weather and cold nights has made it a less than average year for honey. The 2017 swarm was too busy growing to give any spare honey but the two year old swarm from the Market Square provided around 20 lbs… Continue reading August 2017

Planting continued at the Mill during July, with marginals around the pond to encourage wildlife dye plants in the raised beds and plants in forest garden to show visitors how growing can produce useful products sustainably, while improving the environment and reducing the use of chemicals. We made contact on 7th July with a group… Continue reading July 2017