It's all coming out now! Sorry about the poor picture quality ..read more

Just a few pics from the garden, I'll post a proper update over the next few days ..read more

Part 8! yoinks, it seems that I've learned how to drag out a topic to it's utter death!  Well, it's 3 years (more or less to the day) since this tree had it's first full stripping down, and it is a very different tree now! It certainly needed a haircut as it was looking unruly and the inner needles were beginning to brown.    What a mess! Thick and unruly, this foliage needs cutting right back or we'll lose the compact size of the silhouette, and end up with leggy growth where we want tighter ramification     So I set about stripping back again, leaving branc ..read more

As you know I have recently acquired an allotment, the chronicles of which can be read HERE Well, not much has been happening over there but I have been slowly building my stock and associate paraphernalia for planting in the spring. Check out this amazing pallet  which arrived at my workplace recently. the sides are completely removable, and fold down with metal hinges, it also has a lid if required. However, to me, it looks like a box planter ready for newly collected material in the spring! it doesn't look it but it's actually a whopper - the width you can see nearest the fron ..read more

I'll let the pics do the talking ..read more

God I'm excited. Summer has come to a close and asides from the usual wire removal and bud work on a few of my trees, I there's not a lot let for me to do this year. The Junipers were repotted earlier in the year so won't be worked too hard. The big white pine was fully wired and will need wire removing in certain places, and bud selection. However, bollocks to all that, this is the super-fun bit; I'm off to collect hawthorn material! Following on from my last post, it seems widely accepted that Hawthorn are more successful collected in the Winter. I've been hunting around the county ..read more

I originally asked this question here: http://weetrees.co.uk/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=15660 I wanted to ask the experienced collectors out there a couple of questions, which on paper seem to make sense, yet seem to contradict the "norm" when it comes to collecting. Let's talk about hawthorn, as I've just come across a goldmine of them locally I've spoken to some very experienced collectors and they all say to prune off the unwanted braches at point of collection, dig it up, pot it, voila. Normally speaking we then see a stump in a box/pot and wait for budding/shoots over the next ..read more

Things are moving in the ground planting project...take a look at the other blog for a look! https://aseedyplot.blogspot.co.uk ..read more

This past few days has been as warm as I can remember in this country. I do remember when I was around my late 20's working in London, when the heat reached nearly 32c. I remember the searing feel of it from spending just a few minutes and the sweaty tiring experience of being in an exposed office with no aircon. Well, temperatures in my office yesterday exceeded 34c and I had a shirt and suit on. With no air-con.Yesterday was a miserable, shattering day of sweaty distraction and I figure it must have been just the same for the trees. We are told that Japanese White Pine love the extremes ..read more

I currently have no garden, which is tricky as an avid Bonsaista and blogger of things related to horticulture. I left that behind when I left my joyless control-freak of an ex-partner. *shudder* However, I soon came to realise that I couldn't really survive without a garden; living in a flat without one wasn't helping... so I applied for an allotment. A place of quiet contemplation, hard work and personal endeavour, sprinkled with the joy of actually growing stuff. The waiting lists are quite something in the Stevenage area but I felt that in order to get a 5 year headstart on ..read more