Paul in the woods

I'm trying to work out how close I can plant a wind break to a garden. The garden faces south and the trees will be on the southern edge on a fairly steep slope. My main concern is the roots robbing the garden of too many nutrients and moisture but I don't know how much of a problem this will be. If the garden is about 3 foot higher than the tree will the roots grow up the slope? I assume they will but if I raised the garden so in effect it was about 6 foot above the base of trees will the roots grow that high? I can plant the trees further away but due to the slope they will need to grow much higher to be an effective wind break.

I know there are people selecting and breeding honey bees to cope with the varroa themselves but I don't think it's a simple as just leave any old colony to it. I know someone who didn't treat for several years and in the end the bees became noticeably deformed and they were forced to treat. I would like to treat less though, hence being curious to know what sort of varroa load and general bee health people who've not treated their bees have. With the logs you're not get 'wild' bees unless you live somewhere very remote, you'll get a swarm from a colony that's likely to be used to being treated. The logs also don't seem to have much ventilation which is one of the things that is proven to help bees cope with varroa. Then there's AFB/EFB etc and possibly small hive beetle in a year or two.

We've just treated our hives with oxalic acid. One that was a young colony from a late swam this year had rather a large amount of varroa. I'd like to move to less intervention but I'm not convinced it is the right thing to do. Agree with feeding no sugar if you can but as humans introduced varroa to UK bees should we just leave them to it?

Do you know what sort of varroa load the hives have then and have you examined any of the bees to see if they're being affected by the mites?

I meant use Chrome in safemode (I think you use Incognito mode which disables extensions by default), where you can disable all the plugins. Is the browser and flash player fully up to date? It's worth pointing out virus checkers will never get 100% of viruses, malware etc. Have you tried clearing all your cookies etc? Another suggestion was to block all the adverts.

Possibly, or possibly not. It doesn't happen to me and by the sounds of it many others. Perhaps it's linked to something previously visited or installed on the PC. If you google the issue there's some very long threads on the MS web sites so it happens to other people on other sites. I'd guess it's linked to something previously installed, intentionally or otherwise. Does it happen when browsing in safe mode or a different PC?

Now found in Wales: Bird flu alert as duck in Llanelli found to be infected - BBC News

Using their phones or PCs that are mostly made in China.

Poultry gatherings suspended following avian flu case https://www.gov.uk/government/news/poultry-gatherings-suspended-following-avian-flu-case

Well, if you have any specific questions you can always PM me and I'll look them up in his books. Without wishing to sound arrogant I tend to find it a fair bit of it is common sense. One problem with books is they tend to make you want to buy all sorts of expensive plants when there's more suitable and tastier ones already about. I did try and buy quite a few seeds from ART with variable success. Now I'm concentrating on common plants, blackberries, raspberries, blackcurrants (one thing deer don't nibble), blueberries etc. Perennial veg you would expect to find like ramsons and sorrel and then other useful plants such as hops. Currently growing on other things like bamboo. Finding reasonable suppliers has been hard, but more places are starting to stock some of the more unusual stuff. Even my local garden center is now stocking oca and yacon for example.

One book I would recommend is Plants for a Future, I think all the details are available online: PFAF with some useful searches here: Explore PFAF.ORG I've just seen they have a woodland gardening book out as well although I've not seen it. Have you seen Permaculture magazine? We've subscribed for several years and occasionally it has some useful ideas. I wouldn't suggest it's worth subscribing but it is worth having a look at its web site, especially the articles: https://www.permaculture.co.uk/articles I had a quick look to see if there were any other new books about and this one caught my eye. It would seem ideal if only it was written for the UK: https://farmingthewoods.com/ (Some of the reviews also say it's a bit wordy). Is your woodland fenced off? I've planted most of my perennials in a deer fenced area and as soon as they grow through the fence they're munched by the roe. I also assume you have read some of Martin's books? Many of the edible plants need light so are more suited to woodland edges or clearings. Worth remembering as even something like comfrey that's regarded as invasive has struggled because of low light where I've planted it.

Are you mainly looking for food crops or are you also looking for other ideas such as the various coppice products (for example, withies for weaving?) I have a couple of Martin's books, and they are good for what they are. Having tried adding some basic food plants into my woodland I've hit a big problem and that's the wildlife! Simple things like apples are stripped way before they're ripe by a huge range of critters. I think there's a big difference btween starting a forest garden from scratch and adding a garden to a forest.

I almost suggested hazel as it makes a good firewood but agree, in a small coppice it'll be too slow to produce decent sized wood and will get shaded out by other trees.

Interesting as I had wondered in the past if the trees are grey willow but they look closer to goat willow to me. A quick google does show some people don't think goat willow will root but the RHS says it does. To complicate matters more grey and goat willow will hybridise. Anyway, worth a go if you have some free material that seems to be spreading.

I've got some young (25 year old) mixed woodland, in NW Devon so similarish climate. I agree with the above re the oaks, most of mine are small compared to other trees. The ones that have done well are more open. Alder has done very well, I think mines common alder and regrows well when coppiced. It has the benefit of deer not liking it. Firewood is ok but fast burning. Ash has done very well but I wouldn't buy in plants now due to disease. If you can get hold of local seed it might be worth sowing a patch and not thinning, if Chalara does strike you may be able to select resistant ones. A bit of a gamble on a small plot. I don't have sycamore although it does well around here, but is loved by grey squirrels, even when young. I've added limes and they have established well. Goat willow is everywhere and the wood seems to burn ok when seasoned, easy to take cuttings and plant rows for instant cover. Again loved by deer which fray it and eat it.

I love seasoned ash but I've found stuff that hasn't seasoned fully doesn't burn that well on my stove. To answer the original question, IIRC, freshly felled green ash is about 45% water, seasoned should be around 20%, so a fair amount of the energy in the wood is going to be used to burn off the water - possibly depositing it in your chimney. As others have said, season it for a year, split if it's not small logs.

Do you leave 'it' by the fire for a few hours first?

I would suggest a different coral fungi, Ramaria stricta, as you've found it on stumps. Rogers Mushrooms - Ramaria stricta Mushroom

Are they recording data? I thought logins aren't recorded, just the site?

Not quite. Assuming you're not a terrorist, tax evader or have a late library book the difference is your ISPs will record every web site you visit and keep those details for a year. What concerns many is those details will get hacked so anyone will be able to find out what you visit. Note, AFAIK, only the main website details will be recorded, not the individual babe you're looking at.

I saw this: Workman fined £150 in Canterbury for not displaying 'No Smoking' sign in his own van | Daily Mail Online And then wondered how may people here have a no smoking sign in their trucks? Something to be aware of if you're working around towns especially. The article seems based on the law: https://www.gov.uk/smoking-at-work-the-law (Apologies if it's been posted before or common knowledge).

They look more like goat willow to me, they seem to sprout everywhere.

Interesting thread. I only cut and process for our own use but we burn a fair bit. As we've been getting through the log store I've noticed that the cut and split logs in the middle are less dry, 25%+ MC on a fresh split edge compared with about 20% on a log from the outside edges. Wood has been down over a year and logged up over 6 months ago. Beech has started to rot whilst on the ground a bit but is the driest but I find burns quickly. Ash, as has been said, seems to hold onto its moisture most but once dry does burn the best for me.

How much do you recon you'd get for the wife?

The US Abrams M1 Tank will, its gas turbine engine is designed to run on all sorts of fuels. Possibly not mush help though.