On May 29th, GreenFriends spent the day at the beautiful site of Amma's Woodland near Corrofin in Co. Clare, tending to the saplings recently planted, and which are thriving and looking wonderful!GreenFriends cleared the land in December, then planted hundreds of bare-rooted, native Irish broadlleaves in four varieties in February: ash, oak, birch, alder, with the fifth (willow) soon to follow, using cuttings from a magnificent established willow at the woodland.
The task now is to keep the tender young saplings from being starved of light and nutrition under great swathes of fern and bramble. On May 29th, we tended to each individual sapling, treading with great caution so as not to trample any hidden ones. We 'liberated' each sapling from the encroaching brambles and bracken, flattening down the surrounding growth and opening up the area immediately around the sapling to the air and light. GreenFriends groups will do this regularly during the growing season until the trees are big enough to survive alone. It's amazing to see how sturdy and vigorous (and beautiful) the little plants are already!
We shared a delicious vegetarian lunch, had some great laughs and precious moments together in Nature, working, learning, relaxing deeply into the peace and beauty of the place. John as always opened his woodlands, his home and his kind heart to all, sharing some of his immense understanding of nature and knowledge of trees with us.
We've been imagining Amma Ireland retreat weekends at this lovely place, camping out, meditating and walking in Nature, tending to the trees, singing bhajans ... so stay tuned, more soon :)
To join in, enjoy Nature, have fun: greenfriends@ammaireland.org
For an Amma Woodland voucher (plant a tree for a friend; it's a great gift!): www.ammaireland.org/gf-amma-woodland.html
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