Filling gaps in the beach tree line

The top edge of our small Devon wood is marked by a stone wall fashioned in the Devon style. It starts in the eastern corner, rising gently then steeply until it meets the high face of the old quarry. The wall and quarry top have old beech trees leaning precariously over and into our wood. They stand magnificent: great limbs reaching up and stretching out. Their twisted gnarled roots weave through the stonework and rockface, impossibly anchoring these huge structures to the ground. Those at the quarry top start with a 20' advantage over those at the beginning of the boundary wall. Add to this their own height of another 20' or so and to stand beneath is humbling. Some whole trees and individual limbs have inevitably fallen and lay moss-covered on the woodland floor. Stumps torn from the earth stand upended, half buried. As newcommers we don't know how long the fallen trees and limbs have lain there, perhaps many years as the dense wood of the beech does not easily succumb to decay despite the damp. Whether it was the tenuous hold the roots had in the stony ground, high winds, proximity to the edge or a combination of all that led to their demise, is hard to tell. However, an investigation reveals spalting caused by a fungus that weakens and eventually destoys the wood.

The beech-topped old quarry

The old stone wall unable to withstand the trees.

As we have been making the most of the wet dormant season planting our own saplings, we decided to relocate some of the self-set beech found scattered around the wood. We earmarked 4 small shallow-rooted specimens and they cleanly uprooted with little resistance. We planted them in one of the gaps in the wall described earlier. Alongside the giant mature beeches it's hard to believe these spindly specimens grown from a small beech nut can grow so large. Maybe just one will survive and grow to maturity. Alas, we will never know. 

Magnificent beech atoop the old quarry