A Bit of Hacking

This is me last autumn deciding to cut a largish pine tree, grown from a tiny fledging pine I found on a mountain walk, a number of years ago, 

Why would I want to cut down such a tree, you might ask? We're living in a world that asks us to plant trees, not cut them down. Yes indeed.

The problem I was having with this largish tree was, that it was casting a dark shadow on the vegetable beds behind it.

But don't worry. the tree is very much alive. I just cut a large portion of its top, so now the light can get to the beds behind and the tree is still alive.

It does look odd, however, with its top off and cut. I'm not sure if it will produce a small shoot upwards to give its top a bit of balance.

I have included a photo of this injured tree. I'm not hiding my rough treatment.

Yes I do admit it must have suffered a kind of shock. It has survived the winter and is not showing any signs of weakness, so far.

It does provide a great windbreak to the plants behind it and absorbs the winds blowing from either side.

And yes I did make my apology to it before I put the first cut into it.

It was hard going with a bow saw, which got stuck halfway, because the angle of cutting was too high for my reach.

Fortunately sometime after, a very windy storm blew the rest of the uncut top down. Thanks Nature.

I used a lopper to cut up the larger branches into neat piles, allowing them to rot naturally over the winter. Some of these piles have provided ground cover to weeds growing underneath.

Pine needles, I understand are good for the soil, but can introduce a bit too much acid.

Sweet Scent

Narcissus  Scent

What a delightful scent, so sweet, almost heady. On these spring days when the weather is still like winter and the rain doesn't let up, this sweet scent is a great spirit uplifted. It's no wonder poets write in raving style about this flower.

I should plant more of these bulbs, but honestly, I just forget to do it in the autumn time. Oh dear!

Sweet Pine

Here's a little pine tree, rescued from the Christmas buying frenzy last year, on sale after the great festive day. I bought four in all as an idea of celebrating each of my grandchildren. I'm thinking some day they might come and claim their own. 

This is a fairly slow growing variety, nice bright green shoots appearing this spring.

I'll eventually have to move them from their spot if they get too big...a few years before that needs to happen though!

Pop-Ups in the Garden...Nature's Abundance

Raspberry pop-up.

They're everywhere. This little plant is probably a runner frim an Autumn fruiting variety, which originally cane frim a friend's left-over planting. These plants grow quite tall throughout  the summer. In the autumn, dark red fruits are in abundance. Very eady to grow and the plant in fruit lasts well into November, despite the cold weather.

A great example of easy growing fruit. 

Potato pop-up. 

There are many of these pop-ups around the garden. They have increased over the years. I used to dig them out, thinking they were in the way, until I realised Nature is helping me for free. Generally the pop-ups grow without much help. I will cover the growing plant, so the developing potatoes won't  be green when exposed to the air. Last year I had quite a good crop, in one spot, with some very large potatoes, as I forgot to dig them up. Quite tasty too.

And believe it or not, I'm not a great potato eater, maybe roast or oven baked being the best way I like to eat them.