Andrew Gale

I absolutely love the stuff; the chard we grow doesn't have an earthy taste but more of a spinach kick. That recipe sounds good Muttley; gonna nip to the allotment to grab a handful....

Currently reading Feral by John Monbiot - a really interesting read into rewilding parts of the UK. Got about half way through Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harai but got a bit bogged down in it; I'll look to pick it up again after I've finished Feral. A really good read is Tiger by John Vaillant - I cannot recommend this book enough.

Max beat me to it. I was on the scheme for a while and in my opinion was an utter waste of time and money; I find Checkatrade a better scheme albeit slightly flawed.

I'd go with Zelkova carpinifolia too.

I saw an almost identical tree a few years back and went down the route of P. lateralis but in the end it turned out to be an over adventurous gardener and a knapsack full of weed killer. He had cleared the area directly below the tree by removing a lot of shrubby plants and killed them off with said weed killer but in the process of removing the shrubs he cut a lot of the Lawson's roots and subsequently killed the tree. The tree looks to be next to some sheds; any chance of chemical leakage?

From an early age I've always had a hankering for working in the countryside but my careers adviser at school told me there’s no money in it so upon leaving school I started my working career as a YTS bricklayer; however the recession at the end of the 80’s soon put pay to that. I bummed around for a few years working at a caravan park where I worked with a couple of ex-army lads so a venture in the armed forces beckoned. At the same time I looked into countryside courses and liked the Countryside and Game Management course at a local college. Long story short a toss of a coin decided the path I went down and whilst at college I found that I could get paid to climb trees and mess about with chainsaws; the rest, as they say, is history.

Me four......

Ha ha, if we get to do it, and if my guys don't grab them I'll be in touch....

A spruce of some kind from me; did consider Douglas fir...

I'd go fig also; be careful handling the cut ends, it can leave a rash..

Pinus coulteri from me also; a client has one over a footpath and at some point he wants me to remove the cones from over the footpath in case one should fall......

I know the feeling re too many books; I managed to get mine from a second hand book shop for a fraction of the price.

I have a book called Conifers of the World by James E. Eckenwalder and although the images are black and white the descriptions are pretty good. The length of the needles drew me to P. parviflora as the majority of 5 needled pines tend to have longer needles; Eckenwalder describes P. parviflora as having stiff, curved needles that seem to resemble those in your photos.