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sean
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 42225
Location: North Devon

Posted: Mon Jul 18, 16 7:55 pm Post subject:
They were great. I even danced which probably lent added comedy value to the evening.

tahir

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 45723
Location: Essex

Posted: Mon Jul 18, 16 8:43 pm Post subject:
Mulberries galore, mulberry leather I reckon

gz

Joined: 23 Jan 2009
Posts: 9252
Location: Ayrshire, Scotland

Posted: Mon Jul 18, 16 9:17 pm Post subject:

tahir wrote:

Mulberries galore, mulberry leather I reckon

chez

Joined: 13 Aug 2006
Posts: 35935
Location: The Hive of the Uberbee, Quantock Hills, Somerset

Posted: Tue Jul 19, 16 6:05 am Post subject:

sean wrote:

They were great. I even danced which probably lent added comedy value to the evening.

Bloody hell.

Mistress Rose

Joined: 21 Jul 2011
Posts: 16512

Posted: Tue Jul 19, 16 7:21 am Post subject:
The beer trap I put down next to the newly planted out peas was full of slugs and the peas haven't been nibbled (yet). The manager of the food bank gave the volunteers tea in her garden yesterday afternoon. Really nice, and the weather was good.

dpack

Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 44407
Location: yes

Posted: Tue Jul 19, 16 12:25 pm Post subject:

the hot and sunny is doing wonders among the planty inhabitants of the yard.

i used the dripper hose system yesterday which is ace for flushing the planters(run off lands in a tub for use on the potted trees and the bramble bed) so everything is now back on balanced feed from a bottle.

although it is a "soil"based system an occasional flush and changing the feed for fresh seems to work really well and is much less faff than a full hydroponic set up.

sean
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 42225
Location: North Devon

Posted: Tue Jul 19, 16 1:55 pm Post subject:
I thought the walls of BW's room were going to need three coats of paint. Looks like two will do it. Slightly less happily he's naffed off to the beach with his girlfriend leaving me to paint his room on the hottest day of the year.

gz

Joined: 23 Jan 2009
Posts: 9252
Location: Ayrshire, Scotland

Posted: Tue Jul 19, 16 4:17 pm Post subject:
a day of Cosmic Chuckles....late to the garden job, so saw a friend. Went to see her after, now have another job to do...spoke to another friend nearby...and if we hadn't, wouldn't have seen John-Paul and Joanne (cycling friends out on their bikes) .....and arrived home in time to pick up another local job...a hot, tiring but productive day

Liz in Ireland

Joined: 27 Jan 2009
Posts: 1287

Posted: Tue Jul 19, 16 10:25 pm Post subject:
The oak tree that I have grown from a twig, and is now 19 years old, is producing acorns for the first time

dpack

Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 44407
Location: yes

Posted: Tue Jul 19, 16 11:11 pm Post subject:

ace ,have you plans for the acorns?do you know what type it is?

i am still trying to make up for a lot of metal working and a few hundred years of ship building by distributing acorns into likely spots

some of mine are 45 yrs old by now and are young oak/mixed woodland as well as patches and hedgeline trees but i still can find new places where a few oaks will do well and outlast me by a long way.once you get an eye in for likely spots it is amazing how many there could be if the odd acorn landed there.

Mistress Rose

Joined: 21 Jul 2011
Posts: 16512

Posted: Wed Jul 20, 16 7:09 am Post subject:

Nice about the acorns. Trouble is with 'oak being a good idea', our wood has a lot of oak trees like that, and it makes trying to get some coherent plan for the wood really difficult. We have some areas where there is hazel coppice and so much oak that we are going to have to run it as a two level woodland. Tricky for harvesting, and not good for the hazel at all, but looks quite good and not bad for wildlife if we can keep the squirrels down.

Managed to get most of the washing dry yesterday. Am hoping the cloud this morning doesn't drop anything as I left a few bits out overnight as they weren't quite dry.

dpack

Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 44407
Location: yes

Posted: Wed Jul 20, 16 8:16 pm Post subject:

the one i have done on a steep 7 acre hillside has replaced bracken which got set alight most years and one mature oak and a couple of sycamore beside one of the two paths that go up the side at an angle.tis about 250 ft from valley floor to the flat top .
the oaks are in groups of type with a variety of other stuff in the gaps .i recon the oaks will need thinning in about 20 yrs but there are only a few bits that germinated too close together and have penciled. there are open bits as well for eyeline and for a varied flora at ground level.
as to harvesting it hasn’t really been a consideration and as most of it is at 45 degrees or steeper with a few sudden drops into freefall it aint going to be easy anyway when any of them get up to a decent size
i started to plant it as i was fed up of looking at burned off bracken,no soil.no life etc and tis now a fine wildlife habitat from what was the edge of a brownfield site on a north facing valley wall with a couple of victorian gritstone quarry walls cut into it.

most of the others are small patches on brownfield scrub/wasteland that is not building land for various reasons or odd gaps in natural scrub woodland on steep valley sides ,again for amenity and wildlife rather than with timber in mind.

i agree that a forest planting for timber is best on a regular grid or similar plan with careful though before mixing anything in decent sized blocks

thinking of big plants the bigboys are both well over 1500mm tall,1200 wide and 500 deep,they are both setting fruit in considerable numbers

i have never had toms like em even when i had a full sun glasshouse to grow in

Mistress Rose

Joined: 21 Jul 2011
Posts: 16512

Posted: Thu Jul 21, 16 6:50 am Post subject:
Your planting sounds good Dpack. Yes, harvesting will be a problem, but in small groups like that, it probably won't really be worth it, so amenity and wildlife value as you say.

dpack

Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 44407
Location: yes

Posted: Thu Jul 21, 16 12:17 pm Post subject:

i just had a look at the google aerial view for 2016 and noticed that some of the 2005/2006 plantings on the other side of the valley and the one on the bulge on the east side of the "mouth" seem to be going well so that adds another 4 acres to the re foresting scheme

the main areas which go back to the early seventies look like they were well planned

i will try to get some photos this autumn as it does colour up rather nicely due to the 30 odd types of oaks and the 20 odd other species included in the woods.

yummersetter

Joined: 26 Jan 2008
Posts: 3241
Location: Somerset

Posted: Thu Jul 21, 16 8:19 pm Post subject:
Joyous. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ln3wAdRAim4&feature=share

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