Gary Prentice

Frustrating isn't quite the word I'd use. It would be nice to imagine that the public would remember just who ignored the referendum when it comes around to voting time. Once we're out it doesn't really matter if you originally voted to stay or leave, the important issue will then be that a huge number of MPs failed to stand on the single question that the electorate answered. Democracy was overturned and everything possible must be done to ensure that Parliament remembers who they actually represent and who ultimately employs them.

Lucky you Edward, the last Landscape Architect I met just wanted to deny that I was anything but a tree -feller. When I pointed out that raising the soil level 4 m around a ailing/decaying late mature Horse chestnut wouldn't do it any good and it would be better simply remove it before it killed someone, (or crushed the owners Range Rover, he's attitude was 'well, it would be an easy tree for you to fell'. I kinda had a idea something was amiss when I got the blank look on asking where the trees RPA was marked on his plans...

Come over t'hill, Lanc's lads have long arms and shallow pockets, not t'other way round.

Stuff that, it's your money.

That's a relief, when @Stubby stopped singing his praises of his 'Spud-ported' saws, I thought he'd died or something Glad to hear that he, and you, are both still going strong.

Not much profit when something wipes almost the entire species out, is there? Sorry, I know I'm preaching to the choir. I suppose that in the future our kids can visit Bedgebury to wonder at the range of conifer species there, it's unlikely that they'll be much elsewhere if Nurseries, timber growers and the like continue as they are.

On the plus side, it does mean that there's going to be an awful amount of job security around for a few years. Said (almost) entirely tongue in cheek. Being pragmatic, just accept it as evolution. tolerant trees will reproduce and in a century or two they'll be back. In the meantime, other pests and diseases will come along, affect particular genus's (?), species or families and the cycle will continue. Maybe we all need this as a kick in the pants to remind us to diversify, broaden the palette of what we plant. Heresy I know, but forget 'we should plant natives, plant what grows FFS and as many different species as we possibly can. Tell the landscape architects that we don't just want rosaceous species on new residential sites, no avenues of cloned trees. Tell the FC to revisit their grant scheme specifications. The world is changing oh so rapidly, so must we.

Why would you be wanting to prune trees at any intervals? They've managed quite well left to themselves, like forever, without human intervention. Don't prune unless; 1. to improve fruit production 2. to create a good scaffold of structural limbs around planting time 3. to manage a tree that is becoming hazardous for some reason. 4. it's coppice/pollard management - which is ancient practice intended to produce a high volume of useable small diameter wood. It's a misconception that trees 'need' pruning (despite what many arb contractors would like you to believe). (you need to be reading Alex Shigo's books about the harms of unnecessary pruning) Good tree management decrees the right tree in the right place, saves a lot of costs in trying to make it 'fit' into is location. Okay I'll relent on you book query too, (there's a lot of answers already written on here - use the search function ) Tree ident - everyone likes 'Collins Tree Guide - Johnson and More'. Bit basic, but a start. Hilliers Manuals adds to the lists, along with Bean, Trees & Shrubs of the British Isles, 4 Vol & pricy. I like Krussmans Manual of Cultivated Conifers, Conifers - Keith Rushforth, Mitchells - Trees of Britain. And that's before you start of books devoted to particulars species, I've books just on; Japanese cherries, Elm ID, Maple ID, Willows and Poplar etc List goes on. Pruning books! Where to start.... Arboriculture - Harris, Clark and Matheny Tree Maintenance, Pirone RHS - Pruning Practical Tree Management, An arborists Handbook. Lawrence, Norquay & Liffman Urban Trees, A practical management guide - Steve CoX Bob Watson dips into it too, Can't see that on the shelf for the title. PRUNING OF TREES, SHRUBS & CONIFERS - BROWN (excuse caps lock) Pests, fungi and diseases. Arb Assoc guides Butin, Tree disorders and diseases Anything by Klaus/Claus Mattheck, particularly Fungal Strategies of wood decay in trees. Diseases of Shade trees, Manion (USA), Principles of forestry pathology, Tainter & Baker (USA) Hartig's book, can't find that atm, very old but a good grounding read. Peace - Pathology of trees and SHRUBS (Old now, but still relevant) Diagnosis & Prognosis of the development of wood decay in urban trees - Francis WMR Schwarze (EXpensive, V Good) Schmidt - Wood & Tree fungi Diseases of Trees and Shrubs - Sinclaire and Lyon (USA - Very detailed, I've both editions, the first is very cheap now) Any and all the Research for amenity trees. DSO series are worth a look if you can find them cheap enough, but particularly Diagnosis of ill health in trees, strouts and winter. Oh and Principals of tree assessment hazard and management, as well as Matthecks 'The body language of trees' (Book 4 of the series) Just buy his encyclopedia, pub a couple of yrs ago. Do you wish you'd never asked yet? Anything and everything written by Shigo, again. Read him twice for good measure. Then start reading books like, A-Z of tree terms, Companion to British Arboriculture, Phillip Wilson to understand some of the new language in the more weighty tomes, and books on botany, how trees and plants grow, hormones, things like that. Join the arb assoc as an ordinary member to access their journals, there's a wealth of information been written and available there. I've missed loads cos I can't be arsed finding them all on the shelves, but others will add to. Anyway, it's a start.g Luck.

Interesting fact ( or not unless you're a bit of an anorak like me ) but a Phytophthora was the cause of the potato famine in Ireland. Apparently it went through the country within a year. This was assisted because almost only one variety of spud was planted back then - unlike somewhere like Peru where they were using different varieties even on different sides of the same hill. We're still slow on the uptake aren't we? Diversify, diversify and then diversify some more.

Oh, where to start! I'd have a look at some of the book lists provided by somewhere like Treelife or Askam Bryan. There's so many.

How do you mean? It's worse IMO. Although they're very similar in the way they affect the tree, at least with DED the vector was a little less effective. The Elm bark beetle had a limited capability of flight whereas Hymenoscyphus, being airborne, spreads much more quickly (it's covered the best part of the country within 15 yrs). Also ash are becoming much more hazardous than, I think, expected. In 2014 European reports were that mature trees might live with and survive for up to a decade (as some elms seemed to) but the brittleness of ash dead would is alarming. Everything needs to change. Talking to my LA at the beginning of the summer I was told that, for 'Highway Inspections' they were zoning roads, inspecting busier/faster routes every year or two while quiet residential streets might only be zoned for five yearly inspection. I asked if they thought it was reasonable to just look at ash every fives? I met the head of arb a week or two back, another matter, and he asked that I report any sightings - or either their infected trees or those in private hands that could affect the highway. The costs just keep adding up. Work can't be delayed because of the rapidity with which they are dying back, so they're high priority. Private trees close to roads have to be served notices to deal with them, then re-inspected to check whether they have been removed/made safe, more and more officer time and costs, and on top of everything how do you deal with the sudden volumes of timber and chip that are expected? It's not like your teams are going to be picking up a couple of trunks a week, it's going to be street after street of them. And that's before you look at ash trees in schools and parks. The TO prepared a report for the finance department, back in 2014, estimating that, based on the numbers of roadside ash and areas of high occupation, the arb department might need a million quid a year (for ten years) to deal with die-back. Based on their known ash stock and at an average cost of £300-350 per tree, to fell, grind and replant. I imagine hat the thinking, back then, was that there would be a relatively linear progression in the spread of the disease and it could be dealt with steady away over a number of years. Las year we were just starting to see it in small trees. In a few mature trees we had unconfirmed suspicions of infection. This year it's almost everywhere you look! In some trees it's advanced so quickly that I wonder how it was missed last summer (these are trees I pass almost weekly). Thing is, I don't think that it was missed, I think that it's spreading through both individual trees and the population as a whole at an unbelievable rate - far quicker than expected based on European experience and reporting. We were simply unprepared. Look online and see what LAs are publishing to advise the public, there is very little. Most of what is was written five years ago, when it wasn't reported how quickly hey were becoming hazardous, no one that I've met locally this summer has much consciousness about it, it's just a disease that got some press coverage years ago. This is a tree that I pass every day, last summer there were not observable symptoms!

Can you still but SC whips? I thought that were becoming unavailable due to some disease. (Which I can't remember the name of) Edit - found it. https://www.forestresearch.gov.uk/tools-and-resources/pest-and-disease-resources/sweet-chestnut-blight-cryphonectria-parasitica/

You know that this will come back to haunt you when you get old? And, it's on the internet, it will be there forever

Top pic of foliage and stems look like Myrobalan plum, Prunus cerisifera 'nigra (IIRC)

Local TO cc'ed me into an email from a company supplying 'supernemo' nemotodes as a biological solution to OPM. News to me, but interesting reading. Biological control of Processionary Caterpillars CAMPAIGN.EMAILBLASTER.CLOUD

OEM is no guarantee whatsoever. I've seen both after-market and genuine , blades and anvils, fail in a number of different machines. Last one was a Forst anvil. To the OP, while the machine is under guarantee just bite the bullet though, you'd get little sympathy in the event of a blade failure using either after-market of home-made .

Only eat cake!

Came across these on a horse chestnut this week. I was rushed so didn't have time to investigate further, but I'm thinking that the SGR is providing dead organic matter that these are feeding on. I'm thinking that they may be Sulphur tuft, although the colour seems a bit off. Thoughts please.

Got a bit stuck at home this week, with no tools, when the oil filter on the mitsy inexplicably managed to loosen itself. This worked quite well.

Oh the chainsaw, the perfect tool to use free-handed to create a perfectly level finish. I sometimes wonder at peoples expectations.

Only mentioned it cos I found it by mistake myself, recent like

There's one pre-installed on i-phones

Haven't you got a patio?

Lower risk in a stable relationship Some of the women I've been involved with over the years should have doubled the premium, not reduced it. But that's another story which is probably better left untold.

A competent, reliable lad who ain't on his phone all day (a known quantity) is worth a bit of effort surely?