Last Dart Valley Tree Collection

One last Load

Above, my motorbike sits loaded up with trees from the Dart valley, for one last time.  Very soon I will be living and guerrilla gardening in a new place and I will get a highly more practical van.

I should really be packing, but I just had to get a few crucial little bits planted, up on Dartmoor.

the focus today was really on the Oaks.  I needed stocky little trees, about 2/3 foot (just under 1 metre) to be able to compete with thick brambly based undergrowth.  I got some other trees as well, but mostly Oaks.

Oak trees do not like to have their long tap roots severed, so great care must be taken to insure to cut a ring around each one, with the spade and to cut straight down and not under the tree.

Oaks also dry out quickly when unearthed, so I always transfer them immediately to a plastic sack, which contains some damp leaves.

Collecting Primroses

Primroses have spread like crazy, in my garden.  So now I am digging up a loads, to transplant else where.

These plants seem to not be too keen on being transplanted and often fail to flower for the first couple of years, when planted in the wild.  It is necessary to get them with a good root ball, so as to make their move as stress-free as possible. 

Primroses will thrive in a number of different environments but will only spread by seed, if there is not too much grass or other vegetation, blocking the sunlight from their seedlings.  They do so well in gardens because of the bare earth in the borders and the cut lawns.  Primroses also do very well in rock faced banks and hedges.

If Primroses are planted in mossy grass; they will spread much faster as the moss is shorter than grass and the seedlings will have enough light to grow.

Tree Collecting is Called off!

Snow Stops Play!

I have been promising my Cat, 'Sally' that I would let her star in a blog-post, so here she is in her debut purr-formance, scanning the horizon, from what she possibly regards as a good vantage point.

I was planning to drive off today and get some more trees, but it doesn't look like that's going to happen now.  There is no way I could justify driving 20+ miles (30+ Km) in this.  It's also starting to settle on the main road at the top of this road.

According to the local shop; it is a warm front and will snow on its leading edge and then it will turn to rain and everything will melt.  But I remain sceptical, as it has been well below zero for days now and it's snowing in lowland Exeter, which means that it might not get warm enough to rain up here and we might just get loads more heavy snow.

I am supposed to be moving house next week.  I hope I'm not going to be trapped up here, like I have been for the past three Winters.  Perhaps Mother Nature is trying to keep me here.