Chopping Trees

Not quite, chopping branches off of trees instead, ones that come over from the field and shadow the plot in the summer. In the winter the plot seems so open with views down over the airport and sea, and up over the fields onto the Downs. It is hard to imagine that in the middle of summer you loose all these views and in particular the trees and growth from the field come over and into the plot. It doesn’t cause any shade as it is all on the north side, but it does prevent half the plot receiving any much needed rain in the summer. While everything is muddy, wet, and sticky, it is hard to imagine I am thinking about the summer.

I’m not too sure on the right or wrong way to deal with such things. Am I allowed even to cut branches off of trees in what is actually a national park? I thought yes as I ventured out into the field with my saw and trimmed (and not really cut down) branches overhanging. It’s amazing how much cut wood this generated, which I trimmed all the bits off and will keep as wooden sticks to use later on. I thought this would take quite a long time and so left a lot on the ground which I will go and gather up over the coming months. There were a couple of quite wide bits which I cut a bit smaller and will make good edging for something later on.

It’s hard to know how much difference it will make next year, and looking back I could see quite a lot I had missed. It should make some difference though and let more rain on the plot when it most needs it.

I had the day off work and was making an afternoon of it before it got dark (or started raining again). I have had a couple of fruit bushes in the garden needing to be planted out properly for the last month. Both of these kindly given to me by Richard at the VegGrower Podcast . The blueberry bush I will put into a pot as it will like a more acidic soil I should think. The blackcurrant bush though has had a place on the plot joining the other three bushes already there. Last year I cut down one of the bushes (there were four) as it was in the wrong place and it had clearly been there for a number of years and was not doing much fruit giving. I had planned to replace it, so this all worked out well.

New blackcurrant bush planted

I tidied up the celeriac, we have four plants left which should all come out by the end of next month. In the meantime I pulled the lower dying leaves off which allows it to let a lot more air and light through. The bottom leaves not really giving that much to the plant.

Still undecided if I like celeriac or not… they certainly look good when in the ground. #celeriac

There are now four surviving broad bean plants growing under their bottles. Out of a load I planted undercover at home I notice three plants starting to show (I ran out of winter beans and so planted some others too of which I’m not surprised have not done anything). I shall dare to uncover the ones at the plot under their bottles over the coming days as they are starting to get a bit too big. With hopefully seven plants which should be plenty.

I pulled the last lot of main carrots which were not really worth keeping as they were either too small (planted too late) or too eaten. These were added to the compost pile while I covered the old main carrot bed with spent mushroom compost. The small later row of transplanted wonky carrots could do with all pulling before they get too eaten, something for next time.

I took home:

  • carrots
  • parsnip
  • leek
  • sprouts

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *