sloth

Exactly Goaty. I think we are overdue a global human cull...

Anyone? The soil is about 20-30cm of good humus rich gravelly soil then heavy clay, it was often quite wet through the winter and early spring, but seems OK since - Apple, cherry and jap acers are doing fine around the mulberries...

I think some of your post may be missing...

[ATTACH]222277[/ATTACH][ATTACH]222278[/ATTACH] Stag beetle and mullein caterpillar...

I'd leave the solicitors out of it. Keep trying to talk to them in person, see what they think, then go from there. And keep your £500 for now too!

I needed proof, the judge will never believe my story otherwise...

Best one found so far, and obviously a male carrot! [ATTACH]222252[/ATTACH]

Impressive creatures. I spent half an hour with a coffee earlier watching a gaggle of leaf cutter bees snipping away at my willow and fuchsia to line the bamboo bug hotel holes that my kids put in the garden last year - the simplest of things can make a day so much nicer...

Tee he. Good luck with it...

Yep, definitely the first port of call. Followed by months of arguing, solicitors letters, fisticuffs and a hand drill with glyphosate at midnight! Or sensible discussion between adults, which is preferable of course...

Plastic! About as real as the dinosaurs there with it! [ATTACH]222251[/ATTACH] I think it must have been covering electric boxes or something. It was as dinosaur adventure park at Norwich, absolutely lovely trees there. Some big veteran beeches and really old gnarly limes. Anyone know anything about the sites' history? It's obviously a woodland plenty of it. Oh, and the kids had a nice time too...

Came across this unusual log in an often visited woodland today. Without saying where the woodland was (which was a lovely day out, with some awesome old trees in) can anyone guess what it is? Woodland was mostly lime, hazel, oak and beech - but it didn't come from any of them! [ATTACH]222237[/ATTACH]

And brought to the UK by the Romans I believe...

Hi all, I planted two mulberry trees in my garden last summer (I got three berries then!) about five metres apart. This year they both, though one more than the other, are starting to look off. They have random patches of leaves which slowly over a week or two turn yellow, then wilt, then drop. There doesn't seem to be a definite pattern to the yellowing, but it mostly starts interveinal near the base and spreads to the whole leaf from there, either single leaves or whole small twigs, scattered all over the tree. I know very little about mulberry growing, but I love the fruit and would be gutted to lose them and have to start again. Tia... [ATTACH]222217[/ATTACH][ATTACH]222218[/ATTACH][ATTACH]222219[/ATTACH][ATTACH]222220[/ATTACH]

I think it would be species dependent. However I believe I read somewhere individuals of the same species do set up their own individual boundaries - until they are close enough they wouldn't necessarily be aware of each others existence. Of course at some point to colonies of the same species meeting would share genetics to produce offspring, would they not? And then perhaps they would be open to sharing resources too...

Walnuts?

An exception to every rule!

Interesting...

Quite possibly. I guess like many other things in nature there are good and bad years, or mast years etc. My little willow this time last year was riddled with aphids and wasps/hornets feeding from them, this year I seem to have no aphids but plenty of ladybird in the garden where there were few before...

Probably horse chestnut leaf miner, they can make a tree look fairly brown by this time of year...

Crikey that was a close one. It's a very unusual looking tear out, no signs of wood dysfunction or decay?

Wow, amazing trees! Where abouts in the country are they?

It really is hard to say anything meaningful without seeing the tree in person, however, for what it's worth... It looks like bracing would be a waste of time and money, with ongoing costs etc. Reducing the height and spread would likely help, but probably not a long term financial sensible solution. Felling and replanting if desired - well it is an option, but that tree is decades old and even a heavy standard sized replacement is going to a long time to look mature or replace the visual impact of the lost tree. My armchair view would be to pollard the tree, probably to a metre or so above the split. It would remove the risk of the limbs failing, maintain the habitat provided by the split and give a good chance of developing into a hollow bole; although of course by the time the bole is hollow and rotten the tree will have strengthened where it needs to and have grown a new crown. It'd maintain the mature features of the fatter trunk, and it looks like it's in a rural setting so wouldn't look out place either. Of course it would need re-pollarding every few years, but with very little if any climbing involved with such a low pollard, and only fairly small diameter branches, it would be a quick, easy and cheap job (if not one you could do yourself). If you have a fire it would provide some wood too. What is there to lose by trying? If you decide at a later date you don't like it, then fell it...

Yes it's sapwood. There's variations between species, growing conditions and even within the same tree. Can't comment on what to do with it in a woodwork sense though, other than to say the sapwood will rot quickly outside...

Brilliant cheers guys...