Mad March

Mad March

  March feels like a sprint to the finish in our woodland, which despite this latest brief cold snap is starting to come to life. Everywhere you look, green shoots are appearing, and some of the trees have tiny buds coming out. The challenge for us is to finish...
The end of winter (almost)

The end of winter (almost)

  Well, for a while there we thought that spring had sprung, and so it would seem did the snowdrops. After what seemed like a long winter, suddenly there is a dash to get all the jobs done before spring arrives properly (whatever happened to hibernation?). For...
Welcome to the new website

Welcome to the new website

  Well folks, after much late night toiling, here it is – our new website and blog. We’ve been with blogger for years now, but the time has come when we need more than it can offer, especially now that we’re a business and have volunteers and...
STOP PRESS – Change of date for One Million Trees in One Day

One Million Trees In One Day

27th April 2013 One Million Trees in One Day is a charity, not-for-profit, cross border, community and environmental initiative which will plant a million young native trees at many different sites across both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland in twenty...
Digging in the dirt

Digging in the dirt

Two thirds of the way through Jean-Baptiste and Marie-Josephine’s visit, and we’ve made amazing progress. Paths laid, 450 trees planted, new water pipes installed to the stables and outhouse, all the old rubble from the house levelled, tonnes of firewood...
The Great Planting

The Great Planting

  Well at last the rain has stopped, we collected our tiny trees, from Tony at NI Farm Forestry, a mountain of cardboard from Toals furniture in Rathfriland, and after a couple of hours of fencing, set to planting the first block of trees. 0.2 hectare doesn’t...
Trees!

Trees!

Part of our commitment to increasing biodiversity here on the farm involves introducing new woodland habitat, and so we’re planting over 800 new trees this year which extends the existing woodland significantly. We’re also planting additional hedgerows and...

An (un)Well well

Something I have a particular aversion to is wells. There’s just something about looking down a narrow shaft into dark water, not knowing where the bottom might be. Hence I didn’t particularly relish the task of climbing down a ladder into the depths, to...

Winter Wwoofing

Our intrepid winter (technically spring but you wouldn’t know it) Wwoofers (worldwide worksers on organic farms) are here: Marie-Josephine and Jean-Baptiste, who have performed amazing path building feats on their first proper day here at Lackan Cottage Farm....