I held off as long as I could, but over the last few days have popped most of my trees into cover for the Winter.
Empty Display Benches
This is where everything is hiding.
Winter Protection
Tag Archives: Northern Ireland
Merry Christmas Belfast…. NOT
A few weeks ago I was walking around the fantastic Christmas Market in the grounds of Belfast City Hall soaking up the festive spirit and stuffing my face with all sorts of good food. I took this photo of the sign that captured the moment.
Sadly this has come to a end. How this country can self destruct so quickly is beyond me. I hate politics, racism, sectarianism.
What am I talking about? This sign pictured above overlooked a riot at the weekend. The market was closed after being wrecked. This Fact File from the BBC will fill you in.
I grew up on one side of the religious divide in Northern Ireland and my best friend as a child was from the other side. I know who I am, I don’t need help with my identity, I never really understood the need for this tribalism. Some people need to step back and think about what really matters in life. This photo says it all, the two opposing flags side by side in Afghanistan were soldiers from both sides in Northern Ireland fight together. It’s who got your back that matters, not what flag they fly.
The Kyoto Network
Interesting new site The Kyoto Network. Here’s the video offerings so far.
A man of many talents is Bjorn 🙂
It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas….
Some tree styling done this weekend. My son caught me in the act of my usual Christmas task. Anything in my my house to do with trees is my job 🙂
Last Year’s Noelanders Trophy
Mr Snart posted a few past trees from the Noelanders Trophy on his blog yesterday and I again found myself drooling and wishing I was able to attend in 2013. Sadly, that’s not an option for me.
Last year Harry, my reliable Dutch photographer, sent me his photos from the Trophy, I thought it would be nice to share these again as a taster of what we can expect to see in January. Hopefully Harry is going again 🙂
Tiny Snails!!
A few of you who have been following my tree exploits for a while will know I had issues with pest attack on some of my maples last year over the Winter months. A strange time for this to happen. I was surprised as I always spray before I tuck trees away for the Winter.
While inspecting my maples this year at this stage I found that many of them have a little cone shaped Snail tucked away under loose bark or in tight spots on the trunk.
Is this the culprit?
I will spray but will this be effective when they are in shell and tucked away?
Will systemic insecticide work better?
Will this even work now during the dormant season?
Anybody else have these?
Are they even the culprit?
Who won the 1986 Sheepdog trials?
So many questions!!! 🙂
Did we already know this?
Jerry, a fellow forum buddy over on Wee Trees Bonsai Forum, posted a link to a BBC article ‘Stunted’ pot plants cannot reach full potential.
Worth a read through, however, didn’t most of us already have a fair idea that this was the case?
The full PDF scientific paper on the subject can be read here. Some interesting observations if you can spare the time to read it.
Trim and Tuck
Yesterday I did a little trimming back of Summer extension growth on a few deciduous trees before tucking them away in the green house for Winter.
I’m trying to increase the overall outline of this Trident maple and have therefore allowed for more extension than normal to remain.
Next Step
Next Step for the Escallonia was carried out today. I applied the wood hardener to the inside of the trunk with a trusty tooth brush. This was followed up by a fresh coat of lime sulphur.
An hour or so later.
Lime sulphur was applied at 3:1 ratio. It’s very white for now but will fade over the Winter and will hopefully be the right colour come flowering next year. It’s now going into some winter protection.
Branch Grafting Video
This one is worth sharing, a video from Aarin Packard showing Ryan Neil talking through the process of branch grafting.
Bonsai Eejit 