Big-Al

Hi there, I'm Alan and Im head gardener of a 20 acre woodland garden in southwest Scotland. My job involves a lot of chainsaw work and I'm very keen on trees (obviously) so it's led me to here!

Coastal redwoods Baobab tree Wollemi pine, we have a young one at the gardens but would like to see something of a mature size Bowthorpe oak

Where we live we have tree's right round our house and neighbours places, the last time a tree went over the road, a medium size sycamore, I went out and started clearing it straight away in the pissing rain. The neighbour was curtain twitching the whole time then had the cheek to ask for the wood in the morning:001_tongue:

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rf-Mtd2A1DI]YouTube - Jimi Hendrix - Stockholm - The Wind Cries Mary (live 1967)[/ame] Chill's me right out:001_smile:

I don't think working free trials is asking too much in the slightest tbh. It doesn't show good motivation or get up and go if you won't sacrafice a day or so to potentially get a job rather than sitting on your arse doing nothing. I have two guys coming to work with us on monday from one of these back to work shceme's, they are with us for ten weeks and only get their dole money as far as I'm aware. If they are any good they will get a seasonal job with us after that. Imagine that.....ten weeks working for not alot! I met them both today and they were raring to go, desperate to get out and about and doing some manual work. They may turn out to be full of talk but atleast they're keen.

Sea kayaking is great! when I had mine my mate and I would go out most nights after work and explore along the coast. The perfect way to relax and a good way of keeping fit too. We even did a few camping trips along the solway coast etc Poor quality(phone pic) but this was mine I would really love a canadian open top one now. Or be able to make one myself..

Haha that's what I said to my mrs when we seen her! Ridiculous they way they were letting their wee girls dance around like that too:001_rolleyes: I couldn't have any respect for people that condone that.

Yeah cut back to good fresh wood and hopefully will sprout from there, as said above will go multistemmed so prune for a single stem if so desired.

Cheers for the advise Xerxses:sneaky2: I'm not a full time arborist(mostly just tree work when needed at the gardens/estate through the winter) so any advise on my felling is appreciated.

Eucalyptus I cut out of the shelter belt this weekend. Not perfect but job done...

I think so yeah, the last time we used it on a willow stump that's what we did. Worked a treat:biggrin:

Fridge's are quite a popular storage container for chemicals. I know a few people that store like this in their yards.

Yeah I keep records for all our spraying, it is a pain in the arse I agree but not as much as one of the powers-that-be wanting to check over my application records and not having it all up to scratch.

I've used the sbk vitax stuff a few times with good results, not expensive either.