WET WINDY WEST.IRELAND.sometimes warm and mild

read on another site ,that making them into living fence poles was or has been done , but for my own situation going to the bother of buying or sourcing some stock to plant out is a backwards step , firstly they are not a cheap sapling to buy over here--most stockists are charging 2 or 3 times as much than for scots pine---then they dont have any secondary use for me --looking at one of leylandii s parent --the nootka cypress--this has the same shallow rooting and growth ,but very good timber , so if i was to go for eco fence poles i would choose it over the leylandii---meanwhile heres a potential mate for my first parana pine --this ones only just over a year old ---so long way to go yet

 

Now just in case some might think that i only buy in saplings or trees,--- loud trumpet fanfare noise ----and heres one of my new arrivels---its betula lenta--cherry/black birch---these are not stocked as bare root over here and only rarely found as potted trees --way above my price range ---i have tried to germinate seed for these many times--and now its happening---same way i have used before --but differant seed supply---birch do well on my ground and the forestry planted up behind me has a small block of it ---as a shield screen against the sitka---a law or requirement when sitka is planted up to or facing private homes.But its all silver birch and some has started to self seed in and around my place , i prefer the cherry birch --so when these get bigger they will be planted up to screen the silver birch and supply some winter green and later some sap i hope

 

Has not been much garden/forest productivity lately due to our heavy rainfall ,hence my many postings---also been able to catch up on my reading about permaculture , being a drier based country where it started out ,conservation of water and restoration of water tables is a big factor ---well i am an almost exact opposite to this---my water table is above ground it seems and if i collect anymore of it or try to conserve it i believe the property will slide off its base and head on down to the river--i have been outdoors clearing ditches so the flow is kept up and fast moving , tons of water is working its way off the land as each night we experience long heavy downpours---but i do notice that where the soil is thick with mulch and friable no pools of water build up or last very long and its still possible the next day to walk over without sinking into it --as it eases up---notice i said eases ---it doesnt stop altogether --its just a bit lighter so we call it a mist or refer to it as being a bit damp--rather than call it rain as this would just be too much for the nervous system to handle .This bodes good news for the long term survival of my expected redwood saplings , reading up on them and it seems although they are capable of growing on many sites around the world the problem kicks in at around the 100 to 150 year old tree as it gains hight and the tree struggles to draw its water requiements higher--which is why it relies on soft rains and mists at this stage to keep on growing----so who ever is on my spot in the next 150 to 1000 years later on may have me to thank as these giant trees anchor the whole site to the ground and stop it floating off down to the river as climate change kicks in harder .Or they will have enough timber to build a large raft and float off safely to another spot.

 

Just planted out the last 5 of my coastal redwood --in anticipation of a good growing year to come --a great new year to all --enjoy and stay well -cheers

 

Doing my shed build has taken over my budget, so my usual habit this time of year was to buy bundles of bareroot trees and plant them out--having only loose change left i have spent this all on buying seeds --mostly of trees that we cant get here in ireland, Hoping to get some results from the effort, i find its a bit hit and miss as theres no way of determining seed freshness or age when you buy off the bay, but its a hobby and the surprises can happen. For the small fiddly stuff iI use recycled milk cartons--cut down and holes made in the base with my hot soldering iron --no need to take them out once they root up --just tear the bottom off the bag and plant it , But for the bigger seeds and nut types , I have found most of them dont like to be disturbed as much or even tolerate it when they have to be potted up to grow on for awhile longer until big enough to be above the grass and weeds when planted out in the final spot. So i make up these wooden long pots , made from off cuts for pallet making from the sawmills , so no treatments on it and i use old iron nails to hold it together---once grown out ,i will knock out the bottom /base and dig a hole to take the whole thing.

 

Did nt read through that, left out that i use those little seed bags bought of the bay or from the ali site, they are touted as being enviro friendly but i have never seen one rot away yet--but on the wider scale of plastic use in my gardening they are a lot less than countless small pots , i dont like to waste plastic as here in ireland we dont recycle any of it---its 95% landfill or gets exported in large compressed bales to processing plants in the uk or europe somewhere--destination unknown---i suspect our uk contacts have been re shipping ---more carbon miles---most of it ,along with a big batch of their own output /recycled stuff to the chinese. This practice has now been "tipped over" as china has just recently cut this intake by 50%. The missing 5% of our plastic --only a rough guess from me ----is fired out of car windows into our hedgerows and verges to vividly decorate all our roadways , and a figure thats likely to rise , ---we do have a very small recycled plastic use . The black plastic silage bale wrapping is collected from farms and processed into fencing stakes and 8x4 panels like plywood sheets---i cant establish if this is carried out by our own manufacturing or is sent away ---again---to be remade---and then brought back to us to be sold. But the concept of recycling lives on in our imagination quite comfortably as it gives the warm cozy fuzzy feeling of being green.

 

I have been trying to validate my use of non native trees lately , and trying to get to a useful balance of natives and nons --according to our national tree council and reasearch , ireland has a low diversity or range of trees species as we were cut off from europe /mainland quite suddenly as the icesheets retreated so we didnt get our full quota that green nature dished out across england and the rest of europe. Many of our natives also seem to have been hacked down to extinction as far back in human occupation to stone age even, and were in some cases re introduced by early man later on , as iron came in and large movements of trade and people by barge and boat increased , this depletion of our very large trees accelerated .Even Stoneage people were building very big skip type boats --made from 50 to 60 foot long by 3 to 4 feet or more-- wide planks knotted and tied together, as technology learnt to adapt and use smaller trees , these too were harvested very quickly, so by the time the vikings and then the last of the english navy had taken their full --our forests were remnants and not only the giants had gone--but even the odd cruk shaped were taken to make hull ribs . So trying to bring back our forests to original state or even just trying to replant a resemblance of it --were or at which point to start, i also have to be practical as i am on 2 acres and would like to be feeding us from a food forest a bit more and to suit our more dainty and timid palates we have acquired in modern ireland. I dont see the food value in planting out native oak in large numbers as the process required to make acorns palatable is long and harsh , animals yes they love it ---and i could eat them ---but the other side to this ---i wont be around to harvest an acorn as the oak will take decades before it starts to crop in any large quantity. So the Holm and Cork oaks would be better to concentrate on ---i just might see a bowl or two out of them , our entire landscape has been under intense cultivation for thousands of years already , so what may look wild and untamed to eyes at first is really just a few hundred at most years of neglect ,and remote uneconomic/too dangerous to access stunted growth , this doesnt mean it should be clear felled or ignored i feel--as these surviours are likely to hold the genetic clues and solutions to our continued squatting /occupation of this patch in the atlantic ocean.

 

bought a cheapo little plastic covered 4x4 greenhouse type thing and filled it up with seed trays , soon ran out of space ,so its well crowded and bursting , but a lot better than being out in the open for the birds to feed on and scratch up, my wife has bribed me by stating the piggybank finances will stretch to getting a polytunnel but only after i have completed the shed and started on our house renovations. I might soon be woking by candle light ---burning at both ends if i have to .Deciding to go for a polycarbonate twinwall sheet type , as looking at several of the polytunnels that neighbours have put up , some are only getting 4 or 5 years out of them .Not sun damaged but wind and flying debris is the big culprit , another deciding point has been are more frequent colder weather and cold freezes /frosts . Nothing on the scale we see on the world wide news , ours is only -6 and a few feet of snow in a 4 to 5 years cycle , but our recent one caused a 2 week shut down and panic buying at the supermarkets. We just aren t prepared here for even a small event , once the roads are deemed unsafe to travel by a few inches of snow and ice forms on sections ---all road transport comes to a halt---no deliveries to the supermarkets/stores and a lot of our water supply tends to freeze up as pipes are not buried deep enough---so the bottled water and liquids fly out off the shelves as people bulk buy---and dont get in their way ---its close to punch ups in the car parks sometimes.

 

good luck on getting projects finished. we are lining them up here for this coming season too...

what projects are you planning?

the only issues we have with sprouting our own seedlings is sunflowers and the edamame
soybeans since the chipmunks/groundhogs will smell them and dig them up or eat them as
soon as they sprout. Mom has pretty much given up on sunflowers because of this and i
don't really need to grow edamame soybeans either, as there are many other beans i could
grow instead that they'll mostly ignore.

as for grocery stores and such, i can't imagine not having some emergency supplies on
hand just in case no matter where i lived. here we can have temporary power outages
so i have a routine down for capturing any remaining water in the system until the
pressure fades. this can be used for flushing toilets when needed. i also turn off the
hot water heater so it doesn't have a chance of restarting without water being in there
(not usually a problem, but just in case). i keep enough drinking water on hand and we
usually have enough food in the freezer that won't go bad for several days if we don't
open the freezer at all. we eat the stuff in the fridge first. in the winter months (when
the power is most likely to go out) having cold for food storage isn't quite the problem
since we do get well below freezing often enough. even now we're still getting night
time temperatures below freezing.

 

hello, yes thanks --i have viewed similar and although i am a weld/fabricator by trade and prefer tinkering with metal those wooden frame tunnels do appeal to me , on the home diy level ---bending metal box tube in 20 to 25 mm into curves by hand is not difficult ,but just getting the materials local can be and then it has to be painted to stop rusting .Wood in the shape and lengths for roofing battens is easier to get and easy to work with--- and some friendly oil treatment to it will extend its life , pricing the twinwall polycarbonate sheets in 4mm was also surprisingly affordable. The gothic arch shape is nice to look at and has the strength and shape for snow , heavy rain plus no gutter or exposed lips/edges to get ripped up in gale force winds , then you wouldnt have to wait for a warm sunny day to put on the covering plastic either and sticking to the stock sheeting sizes no cutting apart from windows /vents and doors maybe , crack a sheet or a hole is no major structure disaster till you can replace it. So i am sold on it --currently some of our irish suppliers /manufacturers of this type tunnel are offering them at very competitive prices with 20mm box steel frame being galvanized ---no rust no paint--and a very small delivery charge ---i just hope the offer lasts until i can avail of them. Looking at them in the 10 feet wide 7 foot hight and 30 foot long size and buying 2 of , this is where one of my other projects comes in , although we live semi rural our once lazy little road past the cottage has become busier with turbine company traffic and town people coming past to eye pop and jaw drop at all the activity. We face directly to this although we are set back by about 70 feet or so , but have never had the need to hedge up the boundry line before and its our direct sun path line over the garden as well --so at an eye level in a truck or van --a hedge would be fairly sunlight blocking to my garden area . But we need to buffer our view and have some obstruction to this privacy invasion , had thought of moving away but we have no resale value now then to gain an instant blocking buffer means a screen--was thinking of the plastic mesh types in green or black but they are only slightly effective , so unless we solid fence and very high . These all are at a cost and wouldnt have a secondary use like screening off our view with tunnels for now ,and for the future greener blocking out i have already started planting up a hedge row of gorse with some briar rose .

 

We are having a very slow start to the growing season here, local farms are already struggling to feed cattle as grass growth has not taken off and land is too wet to put stock on , around my own place buds on trees and fruit bushes are only just showing, but too my surprise the wasabi plants have prospered --the freeze up and snow never bothered them and they are now setting flower

 

i had to scrap an old coffee machine--one of those over complex , foamy frothy , steam spitting , half a cup of luke warm at a time -- coffee makers--just before it went off to the electronic recycling center i spotted the top filter cup. Its very fine sieve is ideal for recovery of very small seed like the ones i saved from my last potato crop which set flowers and had some berries

 

to songbird , some of my projects--i had planted very randomly around ,various berry bushes , and as it happens--- in accordance with murphys law those preforming well are in the way of some housing development works--right where we want to extend the front yard hard surface area for the cars to park up. Also some of the scattered bushes are not doing well ---my attempt at guilds of trees ,berries and crops plus flowers has not taken off that well. Busy moving my berry plants into a single block which gets good light and a slight breeze all day, divided up into a 4x4 foot spacings and a spot that i have been amending the soil, after some ground works and earth moving .To level it up and clear away rubble ,stones and rock and covered with blackthorn thicket had brought the spot down to crumbly clay level. I used shredded paper , straw ,sawdust , cut rushes , leaf mulch, rotten timber , pine needles, chopped branches some seaweed , old crumbed peat ,wood charcoal from a bonfire with a few wheel barrow loads of large cattle bones that a local butcher gave for my dogs thrown in . These were nearly meatless and far too many for even my dogs to use up, good thing no one lives to close to me ---the stink of them burning --i lost all my good credit points with her for stenching up the washing that was hanging nearby

 

i would have just buried those bones. no need to burn them...

 

buried large shin and shoulder blade bones some years ago and they still turn up when i dig around that patch, my dogs usually tackle the medium size stuff but i just got sick of looking at the last batch and would have to bury them fairly deep as my hounds would spend the day looking for the buried treasure---and i am trying to create a no till system or as little as needed---besides i hate digging . If i take on another large batch i am thinking of a cannibal island style and smashing them up maybe .They made a good batch of of bone charcoal, so i would still burn them --but in a burn barrel rocket stove type--and away from the wash line.