Our journey with Scot’s Pine

As you wander the site you can clearly see that there are animals coming and going. There are holes in the hedgerows, flattened grass and slightly nibbled trees that we decided not to guard. And on a good day you can see large hares darting away out of your path. Also this past winter one of our neighbours reported that a large stag was spotted on their front lawn. So we decided to put guards around most of our trees to make sure that they would get a head start.

For pioneers species such as Alder and Birch we went with a cardboard based tree guard as they will grow out of these fairly quickly. For our slower growing ones like Oak and Scot’s Pine we had to go for something that holds up for a good few years and in the case of Scot’s pine something wide enough so that the branches can grow undisturbed. The NPWS in Wicklow uses metal cages to protect their trees and they were generous to share there plans with us.

Scot’s Pines prefer well drained soil and don’t like to stand in water for prolonged periods of time. As most of Ireland, Kerry had extreme amounts of rain these past few months and it has taken considerable time for the soil to dry out. Because of this and the planting itself the Scot’s Pine went into shock turning most of them brown. But as we know nature is amazing and with the warm dry weather we experienced over the last week they are starting to put their energy into the growth of new branches.

We will follow their progress closely and will replant as needed to make sure that we will have many of these tall and gracious trees growing for years to come.