Entrys about topic 'trees'
Many thanks to the hardy locals who joined us to plant some new
trees yesterday - 24 x cherry plums (Prunus cerasifera) at
the rear of the Paddies, and 6 silver
birches (Betula pendula) at the foot of the Meadow, to counteract the exposure
caused by Brantwood's recent felling of their
mature woodland on our boundary.
Luckily, the rain only started once we were all safely back indoors
consuming our festive lunch.
Topics: 'forestry' 'land management' 'orchard' 'trees' 'volunteers' 'work party'
Though I've spent a fair amount of time in Japan in the last few years, I sadly didn't manage to meet any of the country's many highly skilled gardeners.
'Niwaki' by Jake Hobson (Timber Press) is thus a godsend for the gradual Japanification that is happening in the garden as much as in the kitchen here.
We have plans to place a Japanese Tea House in our meadow, and to form a bridge between it and the native plants all around I decided to prune some of the very characterful ancient hawthorn nearby in the 'Niwaki' style. Of course I forgot to take the 'Before' picture, but here is the 'After'. The process basically means pruning, tying down and staking trees to 'fake' a kind of premature aging, concentrating on encouraging horizontal growth, 'pads' of foliage, and opening up views into the bark and limbs of the specimen. With already ancient trees like this one, the process is a little easier and faster than it might be with, say, a new bonsai - which is more or less the same process but smaller.
No idea how these self-sown trees will take to this treatment, so watch this space for a 2008 report.
Topics: 'bonsai' 'Japan' 'National Garden Scheme' 'pruning' 'tea house' 'trees'
0 Comments:
Contributors:
- Adam Sutherland[28]
- Alistair Hudson[1]
- Dorian Moore[1]
- Grizedale Arts Intern[5]
- Karen Guthrie[96]
- Lisa Stewart[42]
- Maria Benjamin[8]
Topics:
- animals[2]
- apples[2]
- bad weather[2]
- Bracken[3]
- Brantwood[2]
- building[15]
- carving[2]
- demolitions[2]
- drainage[2]
- drilling[2]
- farming[2]
- Fruit[2]
- garden[12]
- gardener[2]
- gardening[2]
- grand designs[2]
- ground source heat[6]
- hedgerow[2]
- honesty shop[2]
- Japan[2]
- Japanese food[2]
- Kitchen Garden[5]
- Lawson Park[26]
- Lawson Park building[4]
- lighting[2]
- National Garden Scheme[3]
- orchard[4]
- pigs[3]
- progress[2]
- raised beds[2]
- roof[3]
- seeds[2]
- sewage treatment[2]
- slate[2]
- spring[2]
- trees[2]
- vegetables[3]
- view[2]
- wildflower meadow[4]
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2013
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2012
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2 Comments:
Karen,
Can I add flesh to your comment? “Brantwood's recent felling of their mature woodland on our boundary”, is being undertaken in order to perpetuate the long-term viability of this ancient, semi-natural wood. Begun in 1998, the work has involved re-cutting of the vastly over-mature ‘stored’ oak coppice-stools that were felling themselves with the weight of their multi-stemmed growth. This work is part of a whole estate Woodland Improvement Grant Scheme, but, at your request we have, currently, retained an edge of mature oaks on our shared boundary, subject to their continuing health and the risk to the deer fence beneath them.
The re-growing coppice in this wood is now ready to begin harvesting again and may, in fact, provide materials for your forthcoming workshop with Charlie Whinney.
Sally Beamish, Estate Manager, The Brantwood Trust, January 3, 2012 12:09
Thanks for this interesting information Sally! Lots of the volunteers asked me why it was being done and I couldn't give them much information so this is a real help.
Karen Guthrie, January 4, 2012 14:21