In October 2020, we got our new house. Built 2013, it’s not only new to us, and this is a major upside. While I definitely can appreciate many aspects of old houses, the comfort of a modern house fits us first-time parents very well.

I carelessly took snapped this picture while driving up to the house for the first time after we got the keys.

The site is pretty large for a regular house, at about 10 500 m². Eight years ago when the house was built, all the existing old trees were cut down. The weeds took over, as they often seem to do after deforestation if nothing else is planted. The two dominant species were blackberries (I’m not sure which kind) and “Cytisus scoparius.” Birch trees also managed to cover some ground.

From upstairs, you could get a decent overview of the chaos. Birch trees in lovely yellow and green, racing with the weeds for sunlight.

It didn’t take long before we made other plans for this place. Specifically, I decided to try restoring the forest, in a way that makes sense in this area. That means a majority of oak and beech, some sections of birch, and a sprinkle of cherry, pine, and spruce.

Of course, I’ll be long gone before the grand result of this project. Future generations can hopefully bask in the glory of its success. In the meantime, I’ll enjoy watching these trees grow up.

Please note that I’m a clumsy hobbyist. I do get solid advice from my sister who is a trained gardener, and from various other sources, but you shouldn’t trust anything I say or do.

Autumn Colors, All Around

When we arrived, nature was showing its autumn palette of yellow, red, and brown. The following photos are from walks in the area surrounding our house.

The long straight path, where the dark pines meet the majestic beech forest creating a dramatic contrast, is one of my favorite spots nearby.
Down by the sea the oak trees grow tall. This is a protected walking area, one of the gems around here.
Cows grace here by the summer, leaving large plains of grass framed by old stone walls and gnarly trees.
By the sea there’s a one-of-a-kind sand volcano. I usually go down here and watch “Stenshuvud” in the far distance.

Time To Work

Alright, enough about the surrounding nature. Around mid November I started executing on our plan. At first, I had no power tools or protective gear. I think that lasted about a day, after which I came in covered in scars.

The blackberries were everywhere. I mean it. They often grew up to a height of two meters by growing inside and across the Cytisus scoparius branches, creating what I can only describe as a jungle of barbed wire.

These two have become my mortal enemies, the main targets of this operation. Blackberries, while tasty, is a weed that is notoriusly hard to get rid of. Cytisus scoparius is classified as invasive in some countries, though not in Sweden.

I cleared out a small portion, including some promising oaklings. While scarred, my motivation was now on top. I ordered a clearing saw and a full set of protective gear.

On the left, the mess I started with. On the right, one of the first young oak trees I dug out.

While waiting for the delivery, I collected acorns down by the road and planted them in old planting boxes. Finally, I covered them in thick layer of oak leaves, which sadly didn’t stop birds from the enjoying the smörgåsbord. We’ll soon see how many of the 200-300 acorns that make it. My hopes are low on this one.

Planting acorns during autumn, hoping for small oaklings to pop up later this spring.

When the saw arrived, I did a first pass on the area closest to the house. It took a while until I found a good technique and which blade to use.

A few meters into the wilderness, west side of the house.
The area around the sauna, north side of the house.

I soon realized that a more efficient workflow would be to do it in two separate phases:

  1. Get rid of as much blackberry as possible
  2. Cut down all Cytisus scoparius and other excess trees

And so it went.

Most of the blackberries cleared, up to the birch copses in the back.
(Panorama, scroll sideways.)

Finally, the north side of the road was cleared. There remains a bunch of birch trees to be cut, but that can wait a bit.

North side fully cleared, here in a surprisingly colorful winter sunset.

At this point, I had some space to work with. There’s a road construction planned at the corner of our lot, right through a little pond of self-seeded oaklings. Instead of them getting covered by gravel, I decided to move them to the newly cleared grounds. The first batch was around 25-30 trees, I think.

Oaklings with a new place to grow.

The Other Side

Awkwardly, the south side of the road remained uncleared. There, the Cytisus scoparius grew even taller and more dense.

A first round cleared some of the area behind the multi-sport court.

Speaking of the multi-sport court – it’s perhaps not the most attractive part of this place, in my opinion. But I’m guessing our toddler might have different opinions on this matter, and so it could come in handy.

An audiobook and some sweat later, the south side was cleared.

A panorama taken from the middle of the scene, just as I was done clearing.

We got help from relatives to pile up the remaining branches. There’s a little bit left to do but the main chunk of work is done.

Two mountains of waste, soon ready to be picked up by truck. I dare not start huge bonfires here.

Planting Oak and Beech

In a handful spots there grew small oak and beech plants that needed moving. Either they grew too densely, below larger trees where they’d only get shade, or in areas that needed to be kept clear (sides of the road, for example.) I started moving them into newly cleared areas to get a nicer spread of trees across the entire area.

I’ve replanted these trees with marker sticks. This makes it easy to spot them. Also, I can support the plants by tying them to the stick, and use them to fix the net cages.

Beech trees have been harder to find on our grounds. I’ll see if can get some from the neighbors, or else I’ll buy at a nursery.

Pruning

Even with the fierce competition going on after the deforestation, a bunch of oak trees managed to break through. There are some growing 4-5 m tall, already. Unfortunately they’ve grown very close to other plants and got intertwined, so I’ve spent some time pruning.

Probably the largest of the post-deforestation oak trees, this one got liberated from a crowd of four. I’m very happy with this result!
Even messier, this bunch counted almost ten separate trees. I picked out one and cut down the others. It’s shaped strangely, but it might find its way.

Pruning trees like these is usually done between July and September, but I wanted to give these a full season of unhindered growth. Hopefully I won’t regret that decision.

Springtime!

Last week, spring was declared in southern Sweden. Finally! I spent the weekend caging in small trees to (hopefully) protect them from wildlife, and to give them a more focused upwards growth. I’ve used cable ties to straighten and support the smaller trees, but I’m not sure if that’s a bad idea. Maybe I need to swap them for some softer rope.

Some of the larger trees had grown a bit sideways due to competition, so I bought heavy piles and used them for support.

And that’s where I am now, eagearly awaiting the warmth of spring and summer, and the blossoming of trees and flowers. We really don’t know what might show up!

On the left, a net cage fitted onto a marker stick. On the right, a larger tree now supported by a pile, hopefully making it grow straight and tall.

If you’ve read this far, I hope you have enjoyed the first part of our journey. If so, let me know, and I might post more pictures and words on this subject. You can also follow me on Twitter, where I nowadays torture my followers with both tech and gardening tweets.

Our beloved house, seen from the midst of newly planted trees on the slope.