Oct 6 2014

Windswept Bonsai

Not the style! The effects suffered after a night of Gale force winds here in Northern Ireland with gusts up to 70 mph.

This was the first ‘blow’ after a very settled Summer and early Autumn then over night we had 5 times the rain than we received in all of September!

On checking my trees this morning I saw a few toppled over among the raw material but they where all on the ground and didn’t have far to fall. I then looked around the corner into the sheltered part of the garden just to make sure all was ok and I was greeted by my beech hanging onto the bench by the pot feet!! It had still to drop leaf but was now half bare. Strangely all the leaves on the back of the tree were gone??

This I could believe but how the hell this little accent in a Stone Monkey pot managed to flip over, I am stumped!! Tornado? 🙂

Feb 4 2014

Batten Down the Hatches!!!

Something is bouncing around outside, but I’m not going out to check!!

Good luck to everybody in the UK and Ireland and may all yer trees be upright tomorrow.

Nov 23 2012

Wind Damage!!

After a crap night’s sleep on Thursday night listening to a pretty bad storm blattering my bedroom window I awoke and went to work. On my return home I thought I better have a check around the trees.

Not good!!

My big Scot’s Pine took a dive off the bench and travelled a good few feet before hitting the ground smashing the lovely Ian Ballie pot 😦 I also lost a few minor branches which I can live with. This is the tree that I was going to use for my workshop with Ryan Neil in January.

On the way down it took a Japanese Black Pine and a Cotoneaster with it. No broken pots but the Cotoneaster has a partially broken branch that I’ve patched up in the hope that it will recover.

I used some sealer and then a wrap around of self amalgamating tape to keep the wound from drying out.

This other Scottie in training also took a tumble. The wind must have had some serious gusts to shift this one from were it was sitting!! Only in a wash hand basin thank goodness!

Lesson learned!!

Sep 27 2012

Trident Tumble

After two days of crappy weather, I ventured up to the back of the garden to see what state my trees were in. Heavy rain and high winds had been constant on Monday and Tuesday.

This is what I found. Two trees had been blown off a bench and one had smashed a pot. That’s the bad news, the good news is that they weren’t mine!!

Not really good news as I felt rather guilty as these trees and a few others are in my care for a few weeks while Brian is away on holiday.

A quick check of my pot stash and I found a suitable replacement for the Trident. I transferred it over but it will need a proper repot in the Spring. I actually prefer the new pot to the old one.