campanula

taxodium distichum, I think. I have seen a golden leaved cultivar

Thank you so much. Am going to faff about with the broken spring and have ordered a spare (which I will no doubt end up using). I was going to order a complete new starting unit (having already spent a ton.).. will at least attempt to get this right as costs will be coming out of my bulb and hedging budget

Yes, that's it. Took the cassette apart and the spring flew open...and have spent several hours trying to rewind...knowing there is some obvious method...but being too dense to actually figure it out...including using a drill to rewind the spring, snapping the small loop off the end. Can I rebend some of the spring and make up the difference at the other end (which has a longer loop)...or can you get replacement springs or even a complete unit? Can't quite believe I have been so dementedly dense.

Last autumn, my brushcutter died (again)...after £450 repair after the last time (when idiot offspring didn't get the oil/petrol mix exactly right...or at least that what I was told). Threw it in shed in despair. However, the horrendous brambles, nettles and other stuff is causing more despairing than dealing with the strimmer so... Took the string pull cap off...but the bloody spring has...sprung and I cannot get it back into its housing. FWIW, I am clueless but, you know, was hoping the inability to start the thing was due to a jammed string or summat. Too fearful to take it back to Ernest Does (they had it for 3 months! and charged the whopping bill)...but otoh, have sunk over a grand into this and certainly cannot afford to buy a new one again. Any ideas.

Broadshot - a good broadleaf weedkiller - trichlopyr, 2,4D...and reasonable price too - around $50 for a litre which will do around a hectare

How big is it? Possibly Salix alba var.vitellina. Or maybe S.chrysocoma (although that has a pendent habit)

Oh, OK then, respect - J.Rose!

I wish to say a public thank you to one of your (arbtalk) members. I was distraught when our horsebox was robbed, mostly because we lost our parents old spokeshaves, chisels and drawknives (as well as our mower, brushcutter, axes and woodburning stove!). However, a forum member (whose name is not a million miles from England's favourite flower) offered us a brushcutter which needs a bit of remedial work but should go. As we are completely unable to manage our wood without tools, this is a lifesaver - especially so since we had to spend every last bit of cash on massive, fortress-style reinforcements. I flailed around with my Austrian scythe - mysteriously not been nicked - but the grass looked more flattened than cut despite going at it like a full-on Zumba workshop (I am blaming the grass) - I 'cut' about a quarter of the clearing and my arms were dropping off), So yep, there are amazing acts of kindness to be found on this very forum.....Not to mention the brilliant advice and suggestions.

There is no doubt that land prices are rising, and quickly too....but nothing like the profits made from bricks and mortar. We bought ours (just over 5 acres) for £6000 an acre while 18months on, the value has risen to £10,000 an acre....but.....there are a number of factors here, not least being a certain zeitgeist moment, a bit like the massive increase in allotment waiting lists....where there has been a definite cultural change regarding the natural world, insecure finances, environmental anxiety and a renewed commitment and awareness of land(smallholdings, self-sufficiency, off-grid living etc).....which, a bit like a property bubble, has led to inflated prices which may not be at all sustainable....or may go through the roof. My understanding of investments (having never had any) are that it is always a gamble anyway....and at the worst, you would still have the woodland, if not a massive financial gain.

I like them - easy to use, can push one all day (and have done).

Yosemite is nearer than King's Canyon or Sequoia National Park and I would also second the suggestion to rent a car (or better, an RV) - a terrific sight.

sad to hear about your horror - I confess to having little fantasies where a massive swedish axe is rigged to land smack in the middle of a robbing forehead (cept I know I would forget and cop it myself). I hate thieves, I really do.

As an investment, I guess much depends on future use. Apart from growth in equity, I personally believe our little patch of wood is a priceless investment in many ways....but we are committed to using this space imaginatively rather than merely waiting for its value to appreciate. True, owning 5 acres of poplar is not going to make our fortunes as it stands.....but, we have space, a heartbreakingly beautiful location (along the Yare at entrance to the Broads) and we have (some) useful skills. We are essentially a family of gardeners, youngest is a metal worker interested in running a small forge, middle daughter works in play therapy and forest school type things while oldest is keen woodworker and bodger. We just want to hang out, grow woodland flowers (and maybe a small plant nursery), walk dogs and loaf in the horsebox......so the investment in our personal happiness has been a plus in every way. Moreover, even despite restrictive planning laws, I have every expectation that there will be a way to utilise this space to build a small, off-grid residence....but regardless, we have something which we can pass on to our grandchildren, add to the sum amount of beauty in the world, make a better wood and wildlife habitat and spend as much free time as we can idling in sylvan delight - what is there to quibble about? A priceless investment of £32,000 (and not through Woodlands.co either - try auctions and local estate agents).

mmmm, I am fainting at the numbers a bit too since in our little poplar plantation we have felled 7 to enlarge a clearing and so far, only planted 7 to replace.....although there are long lines of 5litre pots with tiny tree seedlings at my allotment. Have no money for buying anything so its seed collecting and home germination.....so the whole process is going to be years and years (and we are only one year in on this lark)........but on the other hand, the plantation had no diversity apart from a few oaks and hawthorn, goat willow, elder...the usual stuff) whereas I am growing service trees, redwoods, hornbeam and alder (lots of alder) plus a few experimentals such as locusts, pawlonia, golden ash, liquidamber. As forestry novices, we are somewhat staggered by the idea of planting on 2m centres.....and I am not going for full coverage either because I am a gardener and need light.

yep - going to get youngest son to do just that (knew it would be worth bringing up my ingrate offspring.....eventually). Seriously, J.Rose? Personally, my handy skills end with puncture repairs on my bike....but again, I can maybe lean on one of the loafing youngsters with mechanical expertise. I am ashamed to say I don't know what model the strimmer was (I am a strictly hand tools sort of gardener) but I know it was a Stihl FS something and, frankly, weighed a ton.....plus you could attach a sort of circular saw blade which just minced thru the bramble. Anyway, if you think we could give your cutter a loving home we would be thrilled......plus I would really like to not have to sacrifice my entire seed and tree budget for more manly tools (the list is never ending)

apols first coz I only post on here to scrabble for advice ........but our horsebox was burgled (burglarised?) in our woods in Norfolk. The robbing swine nicked our tools, including ancient and irreplaceable woodwork tools belonging to dad as well as my sons beloved Swedish axes, really great saws, our mower, strimmer.....and our woodburning stove! Almost went home...but that would be backing down and giving up....and our little bit of woodland (5 sweet acres in Postwick, Norfolk ) would be.....different. Anyway, we didn't coz things are just things, the woods are still here.....except we now have no tools to manage them. Anyway, I have to replace the strimmer because I can, at a stretch, cut the grass with one, as well as the brambles (I did about half an acre with my Austrian scythe until my arms felt like they were falling off!) so what would you suggest. The lightest, but pokiest strimmer/brushcutter for less than £400. Ideas? And where best to look for (cheap) second hand stuff - it took me half a year to save for the woodburner so we are mightily pissed and the grass is growing like turbo-charged bamboo. I can see the clearing and the rides we hacked out of the brambles vanishing back into jungle.....sigh.

some thieving sods broke into our horsebox in our woods (Postwick, Norfolk) and stole all our tools (including precious ancient woodworking tools from grandad) and a collection of Swedish axes and Japanese knives and saws). They stole our strimmer. mower and......our woodburning stove (for which we saved for half a year)....and all my sons camping kit and a really great hammock. We almost turned round and went home....except that would be to really concede defeat......NO WAY. Anyway, sad to add to the woeful list of thievees.....and hoping they get a really nasty burn off the stove!

Or, alternatively, you could live with the ivy - this is a tremendous resource for wildlife, providing food and shelter for birds and insects. If you are concerned that the ivy has grown into the canopy and presents a risk of falling limbs or even tree fall, then topping the growth with a pruning saw, just under the main branching limbs will still allow the ivy to climb, thereby reaching fruiting maturity, while diminishing the risk of catching too much wind and stressing the tree. Ivy does not strangle or damage either trees or masonry.

Rather than prunus dulcis, look instead for prunus x persicoides - the 2 commonest varieties in UK nurseries are Ingrid and Robijn. These are small, precocious (will fruit when young) hybrid almonds with reliable hardiness and some resistance to peach leaf curl. However, you cannot grow them near to peach or nectarine trees because cross pollination will result in bitter almonds. Although they do have resistance to the curl, they will still need spraying with copper at bud break and also at leaf-fall.....but you will be guaranteed a nice harvest of nuts (and as the trees are usually on dwarfing rootstocks, they are easily picked - I eat mine while still green). Frank P Matthews (Trees for Life) sells both varieties, as either bare roots or potted specimens.....along with a number of other fruit nurseries such as Deacons, Keepers, Chris Brown and Ken Muir. Mine is gloriously in full blossom at the moment, looking wonderful on the allotment.

Thank you, Alec. We know there are constraints to using poplar but had decided to either clad it or use it just for internal construction. It is what it is and we have 300 of them! We are not attempting to make wide planks either - we rarely work with anything wider than 200mm, glueing, dowelling and clamping if we need extra width. So I am thinking we can stretch to the 24inch Alaskan and mini-mill, granberg chain, precision grinder and 24inch bar. As for extra rails, we can get the youngest to weld something useful for us, when we fully understand the processes involved. Again, many thanks for your thoughtful and encouraging response. Sigh....larch would be wonderful....but so would an endless source of thuja pliata, english oak (although we do have some of that), hornbeam and alder......and in 20-30 years we (or most likely, our children) will have....and there are always timber merchants. Although, having seen the falling standards of building timber over the last three decades, we are fairly confident that we can do as well, given patience, good racking and drying, shedloads of preservatives and barrels of tung oil.

The milling is for our own use - we don't have to make money from it so are keen to build treehouses and climbing stuff for granddaughter, make a nicer composting toilet, build a decent logstore - you know, that sort of stuff. We earn a crust doing gardening and cannot really forsee us making much money with a 5acre poplar plantation (although I have ramped up the plant propagation considerably now that I have space). I am aware we are very new to this and really appreciate the help and advice to be git from this forum.

Noooo, I am an idiot - our saw is a 365 (70cc). It all sounds a bit more hopeful then?

Um, so are you saying we cannot use a mill at all, Big J? Very disappointing and something of a set-back as we certainly cannot afford another chainsaw - took us ages to save for this one. It does limit our use of the wood to either hewn lengths (although my eldest son has a decent collection of axes).....or firewood. Setting priorities for woodland management is certainly tricky.

The trees range between 20-26 inches diameter. The oldest were planted in 1948 and has been more or less neglected since the mid 70s. Planted on 8m centres and very tall and straight.