My Earliest Flowering Willow

Two years ago I was sent some willow cuttings from the research centre at Rothampstead, who keep the National willow collection. The cuttings were for me to use to see which were the earliest flowering willows. My interest is early bee forage. I have  a lot of violet willow (Salix daphnoides), which is my earliest flowering willow and every year I’m relieved when I see my bees foraging on it, as I know that their lean period is over. From then on, there is a steady flow of nectar until early Summer, and only the weather.

2011/2012 Tree Planting Starting in Earnest

Hi All

I started planted a few of the potted trees back in September. These were mainly False Acacia, and Box Elder, grown from seed for the Coppice and Orchard. There are still a few of these to do, as I’ve been concentrating on the vegetable growing areas recently. That changed today, as I was told that the first batch of my fruit trees were due to arrive. These trees are cider apple trees, on M25 rootstocks. Sometimes the blog might make it seem that everything is always well planned, but these were an impulse purchase, sparked by my first proper attempt at cider making.

Coppice and Orchard Update July 2012

I’ve not had too much to write about the Coppice and Orchard recently, as it’s just quietly growing, with little need for any intervention. For the last few days I’ve been spending a bit more time there, doing my annual ‘defence against wasps’ duties, and for the first time, the 2009/2010 trees are getting above my head.

If you’re reading about this for the first time, it might be worth checking out the Pictures, Design, and Plans page, to see the overall pattern of the tree planting.

Forest Garden Update July 2012

Hi All

I wanted to get some current pictures of the Forest garden posted, with a short account of where I’ve got to so far, and what’s next. For those who haven’t visited the blog before, it might be worth  you checking out the Forest Garden paragraph of the Pictures, Designs, and Plans page, before continuing.

The first picture is a view from the top (North East) corner of the Forest Garden, which is about an acre in size.

View from the top

The pink bands that you can see running across the picture are the swale banks, which are covered in Musk Mallow. This is a wonderful plant, perennial, edible leaves and flowers, great bee forage, deep rooted, and able to compete with grass. I planted most of these as self seeded plants from the vegetable garden,and they have started to self seed, and expand. The pictures below show a bit more detail.

Listening to Plants

Before you think that I’ve finally crossed the threshold from eccentric, to dangerous, I’m not actually writing about plants speaking, or making sounds, more like being open to learn from what you see. I was going to use the title, Permaculture Principles – Observe and Interact, but I did that at this time last year HERE. So I’ve gone for something a little bit different in the title, even if the thrust of the post is the same.

Today I was potting on seedlings of the Amur Cork tree (Phellodendrum Amurensis). The seeds were sown last year, in a 12 inch shallow terracotta pot, and have been outside, unprotected, all Winter. I wasn’t sure if they had survived, but had not seen any evidence of dieback on the stems. I’m growing them for my bees, as the trees are a good source of nectar, flowering in June, and I can also harvest wood for fuel. However it was what I saw inside the pot that gave me the incentive to write this post.

2010/2011 Tree Planting. Update One

Well Over the last nine days I’ve done six days of tree planting, two days of scything to prepare for tree planting, and a day of work in the primary vegetable patch.

I’m going to do a post about what I do to get my beds ready for Winter, but that will have to wait for another day. Today is just a quick update of how things are progressing so far with my trees.

“2010/2011 Tree Planting about to Begin in Earnest

Today was an exciting day here at The Sustainable  Smallholding, as I collected the majority of the trees for this year’s planting. Most of them are destined for the Forest Garden, to create the shelter and framework for it. There is a plan of the overall scheme on the Pictures, Designs, and Plans page.

Burying Wood at the Sustainable Smallholding

Those of you reading this who know me are probably thinking that I’ve finally lost the plot, but actually, all is not what it seems. This is all part of my Forest Garden preparation, which I wrote about in an earlier post. If you want to read the post, click on the link below.

HERE

In the post I mentioned that I was going to dig two more swales, and this post is related to that.

Mycorrhizal Fungi in pots

Hi All

I recently noticed the fruiting bodies of what appears to be Mycorrhizal fungi, in some of my potted trees and shrubs. That’s not a great surprise, as I do add spores whenever I pot on a plant, and when setting out seeds etc, but this is the first time that I’ve really noticed the fruiting bodies, so I took some pictures for you.

I hope that you find them interesting.

My New Forest Garden (Site Preparation and Establishment)

For the second post in this sequence, I wanted to write about how I’m planning to prepare the site, and then establish the trees after planting. There is some really good advice available, particularly Martin Crawford’s book, Creating a Forest Garden, and Edible Forest Gardens (vol. 2), by Jacke and Toensmeier. However, as I’m planning to do something completely different, I thought that it might be interesting to write about it.