Trees

[sam_t]

The tree surgeon who came to look at the garden says that one of the flowering cherries will have to go. Apparently it's got a wood-rotting fungus which would mean that it would have to come down eventually for safety's sake, and it's better to do it now before the fungus spreads to the other tree. I'm rather sad at this - I love flowering cherries - but better one than both. I've also asked him to take a bit off the silver birch, which could do with a bit of reducing while it's still only large as opposed to enormous, and to take out a couple of conifers which aren't really doing anything apart from making the end of the garden extremely dark and keeping a couple of fruit trees from growing. I feel rather guilty about chopping down perfectly healthy trees but there are plenty of other trees around for birds, and I hope that with the conifers gone the apple and pear will eventually fill their place. They're certainly not going to get anywhere as it is, with no light and not a lot of nutrients.

Comments

[forthwritten.livejournal.com]

Have to admit that I don't like conifers for that reason - they block out the light and seem to suck all the nutrients out of the soil. You'll feel guilty now but in a few years you'll have a more bird-friendly, attractive garden.

[sollersuk.livejournal.com]

My thoughts exactly. Conifers are so not bird friendly.

[watervole.livejournal.com]

Once the fruit trees have a bit more light, the other really good thing you can do for them is to mulch around them. Use compost or wood chippings or grass clippings or almost anything organic (garden compost is probably best, but all mulches are good) and mulch several inches deep for a radius of several feet.

[sam-t.livejournal.com]

Thanks! Will fresh wood chippings be OK? I'd heard that unless you let them rot down a bit they tend to take nutrients out of the soil rather than putting them in. On the other hand, I can get the tree surgeon to leave me some of the chippings instead of taking them away, so it'd be free, unlike compost (until I get the compost bin going).

[watervole.livejournal.com]

If you dig wood chippings into the soil, then they will indeed remove nitrogen from the soil. However, as a surface mulch, they'll be fine.

Do several inches thickness and you'll probably find there won't be that much chippings to be taken away.