Grow Your Own Wood

A practical guide to planting and managing new woodlands
for communities and individuals

There is currently enormous interest in planting new woodlands encouraged by generous support from government, charities and private companies. This free resource aims to complement that support with clear and practical advice on how to plant and nurture new woodlands that will develop into natural woodland ecosystems, full of wildlife and beauty.

Woodlands can be grown which are rich in wildlife, enjoyable, and still have the potential to produce quality hardwood timber in the long term. Woodlands can be established comparatively cheaply, using the absolute minimum of plastics. Woodlands can be grown by communities and individuals. It need not be left to central government or large country estates.

Information is given on planting new woodlands that will develop into self-sustaining woodland ecosystems. Trees are allowed to complete the cycle of life through growth, decay and regeneration.

This guide deliberately takes no account of the planting grants currently available, or any of the specifications and restrictions that inevitably accompany them. Grants will come and go, but the principles behind planting and managing a new natural woodland will always stay the same.

Planting a new woodland should be seen as an investment in the future, not a profitable exercise by itself. The initial effort of planting and establishing a woodland will be repaid many times over and long into the future.

This website is based on a lifetime’s practical experience of collecting tree seeds, managing a tree nursery, planting and tending new woodlands in eastern England. The information can be equally applied to any area of lowland Britain. The basic principles of establishing new woodlands are applicable worldwide wherever there is a need to restore natural woodland cover.

Trees will grow and die but the woodland will remain forever!