Category: Environment
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Summer 2024
It’s fair to say that the growing season started a month or two later than usual. Even on the warmer days, its tended to be cloudy, often with above average rainfall.May and June were characterised by bitterly cold northerly winds which further affected the growth of the trees, Paulownia in particular which are situated in…
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Paulownia update June 24
Not been ideal growing conditions during the past twelve months. Very wet and although temperatures are above the long term average, because of the lack of sunlight, its felt cold, no radiant heat. I’m adjusting my strategy towards planting larger trees, and will also start replacing the weaker ones.
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Why trees
No other carbon capture device provides as much environmental benefit: I’m sure I’ll add to this list as time goes on. Being a tech fan, and awestruck by all the modern inventions and products; the internet, smart phones and computers still astound me, thirty years after buying my first computer and mobile phone. But despite…
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Firestarter logs, Eucalyptus brash 🤔
Firestarter logs are popular here in Ireland, and I did use them for a while.Usually I would chop them up into three, so they worked out at around 50 cents each per fire lit. They are a bit messy and smell if you chop them up, they, so far as I could make out, a…
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Eucalyptus dry up wet ground 😉
If you have wet ground and want to dry it up in a natural way, then planting Eucalyptus trees is a good option. Before I planted my mini forest, the ground here could become very saturated. It still gets wet, though no where near the same extent.As I say in the video, when I planted…
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Eucalyptus Nitens Flowers
The first of the Nitens started flowering about three years after being planted. Eucalyptus Nitens From what I am led to believe, by the research I did initially, eucalyptus hybridise readily. This makes sense as many of them are very similar and form families of sub species. Eucalyptus Nitens flowers are small and white, as…
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Wet firewood 😧
Wet firewood, this certainly shocked me 😧 I was expecting perhaps half a pint of water for each log, but more than a full imperial pint !I suspect even the reasonable firewood that you buy from the petrol stations etc. won’t be that dry. The regulations in Ireland from what I understand is less that 15%…
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Storm damage from Barra
As I say in the video, many of these trees weren’t planted very deeply and so haven’t had a fair go. The Nitens lower down were planted properly, though the ground there can get quite saturated and this loosens the roots grip on the soil. Sorry about the video quality 😔 It is sad to…
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The wonders of horse manure
I’d always had it in mind to terrace off the area where my poly tunnels were. More for the convenience of being able to walk around on the flat. Storm Hannah made me aware of just how vulnerable the poly tunnels were to North gales. Thankfully the frames survived with very little damage, though it took…
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November 2018
The summer of 2018 was very dry, and it was noticeable that once the drought ended, and the Eucalyptus had access to more hydration, they put on a growth spurt and looked a lot healthier. It’s now late November, and the weather has been kinder than at anytime during the lifetime of my Eucalyptus mini…