Tree felling
At last, after two years of my moaning, Ian finally succumbed to my demand to cut down the large pine next to the veg patch. It’s annoyed me since we moved in – casting a shadow on the veg in the early morning which then moves round to shadow our front garden until past midday. It also blocks the nice view we might otherwise have… infact it had no redeeming features and I cannot understand why it was there!
Having polished the chainsaw and looking up the perfect tree-cutting technique on the internet, Ian performed a text-book tree felling (his first ever!). The trunk was then chopped up and the branches went on to the hedgehog hotel I’ve installed in the corner of the field.
I’m sure the veg patch gave a huge sigh of relief at seeing the tree go, I know I did.
This is the plot which was being overshadowed. It was called ‘plot one’… but is now known as the Bottle Garden, as I’ve used wine bottles to mark out the curved edges of the beds. I’d just like to point out that not ALL the bottles were ours, quite a few were donated by other alcoholics.
It was originally just a square plot with a path down one side, but last autumn I decided to make it a little more interesting with a central bed and four paths coming off it. It has plenty of herbs dotted around, companion plants will go in soon and it has a few perennials such as artichoke, rhubarb, welsh onions and Jerusalem artichokes.
GrowY'erGreens said,
April 23, 2008 @ 8:02 pm
Just want to congratulate you on how your land is progressing….what an achievement so far. It is so inspiring to see what you can do with a lot of hard work!! I’m sure that’s an under statement! I am really impressed to see a blank canvas, shaped and moulded into a permaculture reality….is the picture a Mandala garden? have you done a permaculture design course? be really interested to know. Would also love to hear about your soap making…what you make…do you sell it? By the way, I’m with you on the tree. I love trees and hat the idea of getting rid of them, but clearly your monster was intrusive and not the right thing in the right place! perhaps it was leftover from some christmas festivities many years ago??
hardworkinghippy said,
April 23, 2008 @ 9:56 pm
What a great relief to see that tree go and another relief that no harm was done either !
Lovely plot !!
I’m looking forward to seeing how the bottles work out.
Irene x
Scarlet said,
April 30, 2008 @ 9:43 am
Welcome GrowY’erGreens,
Sorry ’bout the delay in your comment going up - actually it had been put in the ’spam’ area and I only saw it by accident as I don’t normally check in there!
So, to anyone else who’s sent a comment which hasn’t been published - my apologies, it wasn’t me that deleted it! Try again!
Is it a mandala garden? Not really, as mandalas are round - the idea was just to make something attractive and practical. My main focus was creating well-defined paths as I’m sick and tired of visitors stomping all over the place and standing on the veg whilst nimbly avoiding the weeds! I’m going to mix up the planting and add plenty of herbs and flowers to get maximum yield, but that’s it. I’m not a hard-core permie (nor would I ever claim be to any kind of authority on permaculture), but I have been learning about it from people, books and sites for over 10 years now. I read lots of books from lots of different gardening perspectives but in the end I stick to my own personal ethos which is based on my actual situation, the resources around me and a practical and pragmatic assessment of what I need and how to best achieve it (plus a phobia of spending money on anything I could make myself).
Soap making to come soon, when I get a spare moment.