sandspider

I've heard good things about A4A and AF8.

Did you find out which strain it is, J? Might plant a few myself.

That looks like the badger, many thanks.

I feel it's obvious and I should know, but I can't put my finger on it... Thanks.

I can still see a patch on my stovetop where I wiped WD40 on the rusty bit (a few months ago now) but not the rest of the surface, so something seems to linger... Don't know if oil might soak into the firebricks and weaken them, maybe?

Yep! Not totally sure on finish actually, but stove installer recommended WD40 rather than expensive stove cleaners / oils as it does the same job. Seems to work well. I only put a little bit on and wipe it around the surface, and I don't then light the stove for a month or two, so no, it doesn't smoke that I've noticed. There was a patch of rust starting where a stove fan got put on top of the metalwork when it was a bit damp, the oil seems to keep this at bay. As for putting oil inside, I don't know. Not sure it would be good to get oil in fire bricks etc.? Wiping it carefully on the metalwork might be OK, but I wouldn't then light the fire for a while, and maybe open the door to let the volatiles out.

I oil the outside of mine, and open the door every so often to help the air move a bit. (Leave the vents at least half open, as you say).

Thanks all. Will chase my tree surgeon up and get it done sooner rather than later. I've got another ash with a big limb over the garage that's looking a bit sickly too, shame. I like my ash trees.

Thanks chaps, I didn't think it looked good. But is it likely to be dangerous, and is it likely to fail suddenly or gradually, branches first? I guess it can't be too bad as long as it still has some live leaves...? I.e., should I have it down this week, this year, next year...?

Can you do it last week for £200 then?!

Hi all A not great photo of two ash trees attached. One has only a few leaves, generally looks a bit thin and sorry for itself, whereas the one next to it looks pretty healthy. I'm guessing the sickly one might have chalara? (Can take closer photos if necessary). Secondly (and I appreciate this is hard to tell from a photo) is it likely to be dangerous? It's still alive to some extent, but not looking great. It's over my drive and probably within range of the house, just about... I'd guess it'll be OK for a year or two more, and will lose the odd (dead) branch before it (dies and) falls completely, but is unlikely to recover? I'm waiting to hear back from a tree surgeon to come and have a look at it, but thought I'd ask here in the meantime. Finally, can anyone estimate a price to take it down? Arisings can be left on site, I'll chop the wood up small for my log burner and can use the chippings too. It's between a main ish road and a private driveway, access is OK though not for anything bigger than a Luton type van... Thank you.

Are you near a stream? Mink took all my neighbour's chickens very neatly.

Still not working for me...

Thanks stere, interesting to hear about no change in growth rates. Whenever I have time and inclination then! I'd better plant some more, can never have too many trees...

Thanks one and all. Winter is probably still the best bet overall. Maybe I'll do it as and when I have time, and see how it goes!

I have little spare time at any time of year, so makes no odds to me!! And the wood will mainly be for firewood (hopefully a few sweet chestnut and robinia fence posts), so don't mind if the cut wood dries quickly. As long as the coppice stool survives... There may also be some poplar to coppice in future, and I think the wood is hygroscopic, so maybe that's better cut in summer to dry out quickly.

Hi all As above - I've got a few species of tree (alder, sweet chestnut, willow, eucalyptus) that I'd like to coppice / pollard at some point. Looking at the best time of year to do this, there seem to be two schools of thought. 1) Winter / early spring while the sap is down so there's not much bleeding or infection of the cuts, and not much stored energy wasted. Or 2) mid summer, so the tree is growing it's fastest and wound compartmentalisation is quick. (Avoiding nesting birds). I'm leaning towards the former! Option 2 seems to be a newer idea, traditionally it was a winter occupation. Any thoughts? Cheers.

Powercuts last night and forecast to be 23C plus today.

Thanks Stubby Probably not much good to me then as I live in a damp Welsh valley, and have a bit of trouble dying wood / keeping wood dry...

Is pop any good as firewood? I had the impression it wasn't great... (But could plant a few for my firewood coppice if it grows this quickly and is worth the effort...)

I'm not referring just to youth clubs, and I'm sure you're right about lack of funding. But there has to be some personal responsibility too.

Tricky one, this. Rehabilitation needs to be employed to some extent (help those who want to be helped and can be helped, not rewarding bad behaviour), but so also does strict justice and meaningful punishment. Rehab on its own is not enough, there has to be a stick as well as a carrot. More funding for youth clubs might improve matters, but at the end of the day it's down to the individual in question deciding to stab someone. Some people just don't want to join youth clubs. I grew up in the countryside, there weren't any youth clubs, two buses a day, nearest town 8 miles away etc. - I never joined a gang or stabbed anybody. I did light the occasional fire, mess around with an air rifle etc. but nothing that would hurt anybody else.

A little bit of competition might encourage the hedge to grow? As long as it's not too thick...

IIRC, I paid about 20 quid less for a load of unseasoned wood than I would have paid for seasoned. Not really worth it. I found it very hard even to get a price for unprocessed wood- it seemed to be more trouble for the sellers than just providing processed seasoned wood. I know how much work there is in seasoning and processing as I do it myself whenever I can, so it would need to be a reasonable saving.

I have the space and like to season my own wood. When I tried to buy a load or two (either unprocessed unseasoned or processed but unseasoned) last April ish, I didn't have much luck. And prices were only a little lower than processed seasoned, if at all... So not really worth it, though I did manage to get a load in the end. It was so wet it's still seasoning, and I'll burn it this winter!