• Hi all and welcome to TheWoodHaven2 brought into the 21st Century, kicking and screaming! We all have Alasdair to thank for the vast bulk of the heavy lifting to get us here, no more so than me because he's taken away a huge burden of responsibility from my shoulders and brought us to this new shiny home, with all your previous content (hopefully) still intact! Please peruse and feed back. There is still plenty to do, like changing the colour scheme, adding the banner graphic, tweaking the odd setting here and there so I have added a new thread in the 'Technical Issues, Bugs and Feature Requests' forum for you to add any issues you find, any missing settings or just anything you'd like to see added/removed from the feature set that Xenforo offers. We will get to everything over the coming weeks so please be patient, but add anything at all to the thread I mention above and we promise to get to them over the next few days/weeks/months. In the meantime, please enjoy!

Sukura, the clean up begins

That is stunning - mind you I also have a lot of admiration for the beautiful hedge behind!
 
Beautiful. This is always one of my wife's favourite months of the year, as the weather starts to improve and the tree in the garden is in blossom. But with a breeze it's like a snowstorm on some days! :ROFLMAO:
 
akirk said:
That is stunning - mind you I also have a lot of admiration for the beautiful hedge behind!
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I have about 100yds of that cut every year. When we came here it was twice that height. I am told by the neighbours that when the house was built the old field hedges were ripped out, such a shame. I would much prefer something that can be cut back hard and regrow and provide a haven for wildlife. I haven’t got the nerve to rip out and start again though. I have a constant battle trying to keep ivy from growing all over it.
 
AndyP said:
I have about 100yds of that cut every year. When we came here it was twice that height. I am told by the neighbours that when the house was built the old field hedges were ripped out, such a shame. I would much prefer something that can be cut back hard and regrow and provide a haven for wildlife. I haven’t got the nerve to rip out and start again though. I have a constant battle trying to keep ivy from growing all over it.
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that is a shame - traditional hedges are superb - we have a mixed hedgerow along one boundary - similar to that in length... it hadn't been looked after for over 20 years, so last year we had a dramatic haircut done on it and we are now planting in among it to build it back into a mixed species hedgerow - rather fun buying hazel / hawthorn / hornbeam / blackthorn / etc. there is even a walnut tree growing in it... the chap at the nursery was slightly bemused by my wanting to know which plants were best for coppicing at a size suitable for the lathe :D the hard work is worth it though as we are seeing some great signs of growth this year... not counted how many species exist - but it includes elder / plum / holly / oak / sycamore / hawthorn / hornbeam / walnut / blackthorn / yew and no doubt many others!
 
Wow Andy - kudos to you for keeping it that neat. As you know we have quite a bit of hedging (even excluding the orchard mixed hedges) and it is a constant battle to keep them even slightly under control. I dread dealing with the coniferous hedges. Even the beech and hornbeam are a challenge now.
 
I went
Cabinetman said:
Beautiful Andy, is it related to Cherry?
I had 75 yards of Laurel which was 6ft high when I inherited it, only let it get out of hand once, BIG lesson learned!
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it is a flowering cherry. We have two of them. The other not nearly as neat.
 
here is the other one, a bit diseased on the left which is why we planted a climbing rose, clematis and honeysuckle to climb up through it. They are all in need of a trim.
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When I bought my house it had a cherry blossom that had a huge spread, it was a multi trunked tree and the crown must of covered 60'. The branches covered the road next to my house. Definately the biggest show of blossom I've seen. I used to have to lawn mover it up. I was young and was advised to reduce the crown because it went over the footpaths and road. Its never really regained its looks.
The lilac is getting ready to flower which is the best smell of the year.
 
^^ what he said. Andy - cherries are notorious when pruned. They are short lived trees anyway (by tree standards) and they readily get diseased when pruned. We have a couple of similar double pom pom blossom cherries, in full blossom right now, and I pruned one six years ago and it took three years for it to recover its former glory. Leave it alone if you can. If you do prune make sure it is a bonios dry period when the sap is not active. Naoko Abe is giving a talk on exactly this subject this weekend at the operation near to Ingram's place.
 
akirk said:
..... not counted how many species exist - but it includes elder / plum / holly / oak / sycamore / hawthorn / hornbeam / walnut / blackthorn / yew and no doubt many others!
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You've still got time! :) Get that blackthorn out before it takes over, and then stabs you everytime you go anywhere near it. It's evil stuff. I've got about 25 metres of it, and I'm forever digging suckers up in the garden (and they're really difficult to get out). The cuttings remain deadly to life and limb until they're burnt. It's impossible to compost them without shredding yourself in the process, and many's the time I've been stabbed by them through thick leather (both boots and gloves). Our hornbeam is incredibly slow growing, so I wouldn't expect miracles from it if I were you.
 
Blackthorn and Hawthorn are 'fairy castles' in old Ulster lore and farmers regularly work around established ones. Pruning, or cutting hedges of, is strictly verboten.
Methinks it's more avoidance for the reasons Mike mentioned; pre-mechanisation, these bushes must have been hyperbolic barstewards to deal with.
 
Mike G said:
You've still got time! :) Get that blackthorn out before it takes over, and then stabs you everytime you go anywhere near it. It's evil stuff. I've got about 25 metres of it, and I'm forever digging suckers up in the garden (and they're really difficult to get out). The cuttings remain deadly to life and limb until they're burnt. It's impossible to compost them without shredding yourself in the process, and many's the time I've been stabbed by them through thick leather (both boots and gloves). Our hornbeam is incredibly slow growing, so I wouldn't expect miracles from it if I were you.
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The blackthorn is a thornless variety! we already have a thorny one the other side of the garden, so know the hazards!
Hornbeam - not a problem, I always take a long approach to these things, we don’t intend to go anywhere, so can plan for the long term… we don’t have a huge space (though 1/4 acre in Bristol is not tiny!) but have already planted c. a dozen trees since moving in 4 years ago… the hedge is a 20+ year project and that is fine, I would prefer to see it grow properly than just put in a row of mature hedging!
 
Surprised that hornbeam is slow growing. My wife planted about 50 yards of hornbeam hedge up near my workshop all from bare root, about 5 years ago and that is a good thick hedge now. She keeps it to about 8 feet high. Some of the other bare root hornbeams she planted to make trees are quite tall now, though not especially impressive trunk girth.
 
Got my "beams" mixed up fellas. Apologies. It's our whitebeam, not hornbeam, which is crawling up at snail's pace, barely any quicker than a ginko.
 
Ginko is weird. My wife bought one from Chelsea or somewhere like that not long after we met (20 or so years ago) and it took ages to get established. It was in pots for about 10 years then she planted it in the ground at our present house and it sulked for a year or two and then suddenly took off and has grown a lot in the past three years.
 
I have some Ginko in the workshop from when next door cut down their - drying and waiting to be turned!
 
Ginko: a gorgeous tree especially in the fall. I recall taking botany 50 years ago when I was at university and the instructor delighted in telling us the amazing history of the tree but he recommended that if we ever wanted to plant one, plant only a male since the fruit smelled like raw dog vomit. A vivid comparison I have not forgotten.

Ornamental cherries in all varieties are in full bloom or just past here in Oregon. There are many around and the neighbourhood smells wonderful.
 
AJB Temple said:
Ginko is weird. My wife bought one from Chelsea or somewhere like that not long after we met (20 or so years ago) and it took ages to get established. It was in pots for about 10 years then she planted it in the ground at our present house and it sulked for a year or two and then suddenly took off and has grown a lot in the past three years.
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In a gardening class my wife and I took when we retired the instructors told us that when transplanting anything the rule of three years applies: the first year it sleeps, the second it creeps, the third it leaps.
 
Most of the petals were picked up when I cut yesterday. Today I went over it with the cut height raised a notch.
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some of you might recognise the patten. Done without the aid of a robot too.
Love blossoms;)
 
Cool. V&A used to be Victoria & Albert but in your garden must be Valerie & Andy.

Our blossoms are blowing all over everywhere too. Mostly into the ponds :rolleyes:
 
That backyard, looks like great place to relax, possibly with a bourbon.
 
fiveeyes said:
That backyard, looks like great place to relax, possibly with a bourbon.
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Indeed. Either that or a plain chocolate digestive and a mug of earl grey to dunk them in.;):).

And if this has confused you this might help. Bourbon around here is a biscuit rather than a whisky.


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