For those of you who have yet to check out what we’ve been doing in the bottom field of the nature reserve, here’s a bird’s eye view.

It’s been a 5 month wait, but finally the Forestry Commission has approved our native woodland planting and confirmed that the grant payment will be in our bank account by the end of this month. By doing the planting ourselves we have minimised the costs and will have a few hundred pounds surplus to add to the community funds. Many thanks to everyone who volunteered.

The full lengths of the 1.8m and 1.2m paths have been excavated and laid with sub-base. Several culverts have been dug to direct the run-off of surface water and have been severely tested during the downpours of the past few days.

Work is pushing on with the first paths in the Kippford Community Nature Reserve.

Recent rain has made working conditions a little more difficult, but Dempster’s are still making very good progress.

The tray (trench) for the 1.8m path has been fully excavated and the sub-base material should be finished in the next couple of days. There are then 6 culverts to be installed.

Work on the footpaths commenced this morning.

The team from Dempster Plant Ltd arrived at 7.30 am and were soon cutting the route of the path out into the lower field. The project will take a few weeks to complete, during which time you are likely to see deliveries of hardcore and timber arriving at the lower gate.

We will post some photos as soon as the first section of path is laid.

We are continuing to refine the plans for the arboretum. The latest list of birch (betula) species is given below. For those interested, you can see what they look like on Google Images.

Mid-summer and the trees are doing very well. It’s surprising to see so many having reached the top of their tubes in less than 4 months - testimony to the skills of the planting team!

After an extensive consultation, and tendering process, we have appointed a contractor to construct the initial pathways within the Kippford Community Nature Reserve.

This is the initial proposal for the arboretum. It will be revised in light of feedback we receive from the Kippford groups and advice we receive from the various plant and landscaping experts we consult.

If you go down to the woods today.... Hog House Hill has a stunning display of spring bluebells carpeting the floor

Following the survey of the Nature Reserve, instigated by Val Bradbury conducted by David Hawker( Botanical Recorder for Kirkcudbrightshire), David advised on the ideal mix of wild flower seeds for our reserve.

You will recall we've planted 4,600 trees in our Kippford Community Nature Reserve. However, it actually looks like we have planted 4,600 plastic tubes. These are to protect the saplings in the first few years of life -- mostly from the deer.

What a great turnout we had for our final weekend tree planting. Over 20 volunteers enjoyed the late winter sunshine (if not the cold northerly wind) to plant the block of 440 trees in the lower field.

We’re almost there!

Good progress has been made this week. By the end of Friday we estimate 4,000 trees will have been planted, leaving 600 to go.

We had a great morning on Saturday with 14 volunteers planting from 9.00 to 12.00, and almost completing one area of 400 trees from start to finish! This really has boosted our progress.

We’ve had some pretty inclement weather to deal with this week on The Kipp, so well done to those who came along to help.

By the end of Friday, we should have finished the compartment above Kipp House, so, in total we must have planted 3,000 trees!

This week the tree planting continues.  We are currently working in the area behind Kipp House.  Come in through the top gate at The Kipp, walk up the field and veer to the left.
Planting times are weekdays 9-11am, and weekends 9am-12noon.  Please note that we are NOT planting on Wednesday this week as the forecast is poor. 

We had lovely weather for today’s tree planting and lots of enthusiastic volunteers, many planting trees for the very first time.

The count at the end of Sunday is 1,050 mounds prepared, 850 trees planted! Pretty good!

We finally started planting trees today, with a 2-hour session in the morning and the same in the afternoon.

Again, many thanks to those who came along with their trowels, mallets and spades: we have planted about 200 oak trees. There was also a team preparing the mounds for planting, and they have, in total prepared planting sites for 900 trees.

Some 500 planting mounds, prepared over the past two days, are ready for our first tree planting session this weekend. We will be planting in the top field Saturday (tomorrow) 9.00 - 11.00 am and 2.00 - 4.00 pm.