Gary Prentice

The 5 m of tipped soil along with all the compaction in doing so Guy. I'm specifying soil remediation work for the trees at the bottom of the slope, after removing the tipped mass, but those that are under several metres and already in a poor physiological and or structural condition are either beyond salvage or not worth the effort to attempt to do so. The original ground level of the beech below was circa 2 m to the left of the tree and four metres to the right!

Wood chip mulch is a given, I'd be specifying that anyway and it would be handy to get cherry or hawthorn chips to encourage mycorrhizal. I'd like to specify soil from a woodland but I don't know if that's possible to even source. I was a bit disappointed in the Carbon Gold website, I was expecting some links to a few studies to help in an assessment of its use.

Kevin, try to keep up. It's 'public money'. They don't have to manage it, they just get some more.

Go into town on a Saturday night, have a couple of pints and then pick a fight with a copper. As a white Englishman you'll have no problems finding an opponent, I promise

No, it isn't. There's just certain vocal minority's that they're not allowed to.

You've an impressive memory.

?? believe it or not Chris, this is what I enjoy. We’re very close to an amicable resolution involving some new planting and a bit of spoil moved off site. Nothing too drastic or expensive, the site will get improved with more tree species than at present - everyone wins.

Brilliant. Thanks again for all the work you put into everything, it all helps.

Good! I thought I was asking a question that was answerable by searching. When/if it becomes more widely available, will it be like the 'nearest A&E apps' where you put in the postcode and the nearest casualty departments pop up?

Thanks for the link, I'll have a read of that. Because of the site history, species selection can't be limited, there's going to be a requirement to plant a variety of species.

Groundwork lads are on site monday week, to move some of the tipped earth from around the trees, so I need to get the planting pits excavated while they are there. We'll get a good quality top soil for the pits and the surrounding areas that will be seeded or turfed, but my concern is that the subsoil is so free draining we need to look to retain moisture. TBH, I think that establishing grass might be problematic unless that get a decent depth of topsoil.

If only it was the customers spec Let's just say that there's a complicated backstory involving 20,000 tonnes of excavation waste tipped around a trees with a TPO! Initially the council were claiming irremediable damage to eighteen mature trees. I'm currently acting on the clients behalf to provide method statements for removing tipped soil, mitigation planting for trees that are unsalvageable, planting to replace trees that should have been removed prior to tipping etc, etc etc. So I'm writing the specs...

Has anyone any experience with using biochar to improve water retention when tree planting. I'm currently involved in a site where hundreds of tonnes of sandy/clay shale has been tipped and then compacted. Initially we had concerns about the permeability of this soil - thinking that tree pits would turn into sumps. In an attempt to assess permeability, I dug a trial pit 600mm deep. For a percolation test, you're meant to fill this with water and allow it to drain for 24 hrs, then refill and time how quickly the level drops over a set height of water. For the first fill, I poured in 25 L - it disappeared! I left the pit covered for 24 hrs and returned this morning with 75 L of water. The pit was still damp to the base and sides, to the height of the first part fill. I poured in three 25L drums simultaneously, but by the time I picked up my tape measure to measure the height it had drained away. Acknowledging that we've had no rain since this 'soil' was tipped and the moisture content is likely to be very low, I can still only come to a conclusion that the soil is free-draining/very free draining, so the tree planting problem isn't about draining tree pits but improving their water retention capability. We're looking at group plantings of three trees to a planting area, I haven't calculated soil volumes as yet as agreement of species is yet to be reached. I can talk to the Carbon Gold people, and it will be the best thing since sliced bread , but I wondered if anyone here had any experience, or alternatives?

Thanks Steve. You'll have to excuse my ignorance, but is there a list of these available somewhere or are these entries only viewable to you? I've tried searching the forums unsuccessfully.

Could have been worse and fallen on the village pub!

Go on. Live a little and take risks

You're not taking this seriously, are you?

I'm pretty sure that any action would be directed to the company, rather than the driver. Im just considering the drivers position, refusing to return 'waste' to the client. Now, if a driver is told to tip waste in a country lane, field gateway - something so obviously illegal that would be a different matter IMO

Probably not! Unlike punching the customer

What's the definition of waste though. If part of a quote includes removing materials, whether to the tip, to be logged or otherwise recycled and then the customer doesn't pay all of the agreed price is it unreasonable then not to do all of the specified works. There's plenty of internet videos of skip wagons, and worse, tipping off back to the customers garden. I don't know!

I think you've got problems. That looks to be more than the normal habit of losing lower limbs by overshading. Any fungi around the base, now or last autumn? Weeping cracks in the stem. Recent works in the garden? Any trenching or excavations nearby? Are you using any weed killer, moss killer or feed on the lawn? If you planted it, were the roots spiralling around the pot? Can an you post more pics, showing a closer view of the base of the tree, Edit. Be wary of garden centre advice. Staff are often sales people, not horticulturalists, and just selling some fertiliser to help a tree in poor condition and ailing isn't much use.

Still trying to understand what impression you're trying to put across, with your avatar photo

Come come on Kevin, we know how tolerant you are to all religions, creeds, sexual preferences etc, but bankers and government types! That’s a whole different category altogether that even the most tolerant among us have difficulty in acceptance of. We do try, but it’s oh so difficult. They’re like the mangy wild dog that you feel sorry for, keep feeding but bites you everytime it comes near. You know that the right thing to do is to support it, feed it, care for it, but after the umpteenth bite you just want to kill it!

Are you not interested in going either?

That's striking, but is it strictly reversion? Reversion is, I understand, losing the abnormality of the lack of chlorophyll and turning back green. The plate with the divided green leaf (white one side of the midrib/green the other) must be reverting on the side that's green and whatever the opposite of reversion is on the other. I.e turning completely white. I don't understand the white leaves that you see on hollies, usually epicormic type shoots around a secondary stem stub. They're not photosynthesising (or are they) but are able to grow - so must be drawing energy from the parent tree. I don't get how/why the parent continues to supply the workshy growth, although there must be some mechanism in place because the never seem to reach much more than a certain size. Have you thought of trying to strike cuttings from that 50/50 branch?