There seems to be a lot about trees in the news at the moment. How many should be planted/will be planted and so on. I am old enough to remember 'plant a tree in 73' and the follow on 'plant one more in 74'; so here I am, doing my bit even after declaring to myself there would be no more tree buying ..... yes, you've guessed it, there has been tree buying.
All the trees I have bought (this makes it sound like a mini-forest), have been for practical reasons and replacements for losses. To lose one tree is of course unfortunate, but to lose a few.....
Let me start with the practical purchase: I have three bare-root hawthorns to fill a gap in the hedge. They are nicely spikey and once they've settled in should make a good barrier. They arrived nicely boxed and were quickly planted into the veg beds to keep the roots moist. As I planted them and stood back I did think I was two trees short of a hedge and I already think I need to order a couple more.
The tree loss replacements
have been:
Loss 1 - the Davidia. Regular readers will know I've had a thing about davidias for a while. I had one that survived quite a few years but last year it hated the dry and slowly, deliberately, died. This small one is going to live in a pot in the courtyard garden for now. As I pot it up I wonder if I will live long enough to see it's handkerchief flowers...... I hope so .....
Loss 2 - the larch. I love love love larches and the drought saw off the young one I planted a couple of years ago. This too is heading for a pot for now, I want to cosset it.
Finally loss 3 - the Liquidambar 'Stared'. Yes this too is a drought loss, this too is my fault for not checking often enough on soil condition. This is also probably staying in a pot for a year or so.
There is a common theme for these three losses and that was that they did not survive the dry summer last year. The other connecting feature was they were all planted in roughly the same area of the garden. The garden does have distinct areas where the soil is very different and so whilst not wishing to deflect the blame completely from myself; I think when the new ones are planted out they will go into a different area in the hope it will suit them better.
For now they will go into my Courtyard Garden which is made up completely of plants in pots. Some are permanent residents and others are in more of a 'nursery corner' situation. I let them live there for a year or two until I think they seem strong enough to be let free into the garden itself. This seems to generally work well. I get the joy of them in the Courtyard (by which I mean grim bit of shady concrete between the outside cludgy and the conservatory); and then they settle in better when planted out into the garden itself. Win win.
I keep thinking I am now finished on the tree planting, there is no more space to squeeze another in. Maybe this time I mean it. I have planted several trees in the garden since moving here over 13 years ago; I think trees are so special and it would be my hearts desire to plant a small arboretum..... (goes to buy lottery ticket.....)