Is this a "tiny forest"? Seen near Ickleford in Hertfordshire: a multitude of saplings, bare root 'whips' planted out with plastic tubing to protect them from being eaten by deer. Tiny forests are a concept developed by Japanese botanist Akira Miawaki in the 1970s. The idea is to use native species to create a dense fast growing woodland on a very small scale.

 I'll be fascinated to see how this one develops in the years ahead because I have some reservations about the methodology. When forests generate or regenerate naturally the process of natural selection has the effect of spacing and layering new growth. Some schools of thought like forest gardening set out to mimic nature with canopy, understory and ground level species. Planting trees very close together will result in an impenetrable thicket and no doubt such pockets can be a good thing. But I can't help thinking a wider spacing is preferable?

 Then again many of the typical species of a native hedge will grow into trees if left to their own devices but are suitable to merge together as a single mass. Perhaps a tiny forest is an enormous hedgerow?