Developing a Garden in Bo'ness, Scotland

[Graham Catlow]

Hi Angie, Maggi,
Hugo may be cute on the outside but a monster lies beneath, (in a nice way). He can be a handful.

[Graham Catlow]

The next job was to deal with the west border.
Some images of how it looked prior to it being cleared.
It contained a large patch of Saxifraga ('London Pride'?) a white mossy Saxifraga, Pieris, Cotoneaster, Hebe, Euonymous, Sycamore, Bramble, Foxgloves, Bluebells, but worst of all it had grass growing all the way through it.

[Maggi Young]

Digging that lot out will keep you fit, Graham!

[Maggi Young]

Hi Angie, Maggi,
Hugo may be cute on the outside but a monster lies beneath, (in a nice way). He can be a handful.

 Angela and I understand that - our husbands say much the same about us!

[Graham Catlow]

I mentioned earlier that there were a lot of tree roots close to the surface. These are from two large Ash trees just inside our front wall. They were pollarded a few years ago so look like two large green lollipops now. One of the first things neighbors asked me when I started to work in the garden was 'What are you going to do with the trees?' There seems to be a dislike of the trees for some reason. And whilst I wouldn't have planted them as a pair (or even ash trees) I have no real hatred of them so the answer is nothing at this time unless the neighbors want to pay for them to be removed.
These roots made clearing very difficult as you can imagine from the photos below. There were several large roots as seen in the photo but even more fibrous ones. The image is a small quantity of what I actually took out.
The whole area was hand dug down to two spade depths. Fortunately the quality of the soil is very friable and the weather has been good so it remained quite dry for most of the time.
Again the neighbors made interesting comments as they saw me work my way through. One even thought I was digging for coal (Bo'ness is a former coal mining town).
I found a couple of old tree stumps under the Saxifraga which will make nice featured for the future development.
The border is nearly 3m wide.

[Graham Catlow]

Digging that lot out will keep you fit, Graham!

It was hard work Maggi. You posted whilst I was writng the next post. So you can now see it completed.

[Graham Catlow]

Angela and I understand that - our husbands say much the same about us!

 

[Maggi Young]

Never ceases to amaze me what animosity there  can be to trees. Mostly mumping about the falling leaves - or the sticky mess you can get  under some - but the most surprising  expression of hatred comes from a woman round the corner - she lives on a slip road which has a grassy area between it and the main road. There are some rose beds and a line of big old  flowering Cherry trees. When these cherries  are in flower their branches are covered in the lovely double pink flowers ad look  completely gorgeous.  Of course, with time - or horrible weather - the blossoms fall and the whole area seems to have had a deep pink snowfall. You should hear her complain.  It's a beautiful sight. Loily used to love rolling in the fallen petals!
It does make a bit of a mess for a week or so, but it's not a matter of life and death - but you'd never know it to hear this wifie!

[Matt T]

Everywhere you go there are street trees being maligned, cut down and/or mutilated for all sorts of reasons. There are so many benefits to having trees in our surroundings, whether private gardens or public spaces. Goodness knows, we've survived many millennia living in a world with trees. I'm not convinced that many of us will come to any real harm now.

Whilst I think it's a shame that Graham's ash trees have been pollarded (probably under pressure from tree haters) it's nice that they are there to provide some structure and another type of habitat. On the plus side, pollarding does extend the life of a tree   Fact - ash has alkaline bark and so provides the perfect habitat for many mosses and lichens to colonise = huge biodiversity benefit!

[Chris Johnson]

I found a couple of old tree stumps under the Saxifraga which will make nice featured for the future development.

Could well produce some interesting fungi this autumn.

[Tim Ingram]

On that anarchistic part of the Internet - Facebook - Marcela Ferreya shows pictures of children drawing and hugging trees! Perhaps we have education all wrong here if people end up moaning about the leaves and flowers they drop!! My word, is there anywhere more calming and vitalising than a woodland?

[Hoy]

I have nothing against trees but sometimes they can be too greedy!

My father had once made considerably effort to build up a compost heap during some years. When he decided to use the stuff he opened it and found nothing but ash roots He became both very astonished and very angry

So be aware. The ash will grow roots into your bed.

[Matt T]

Equally, those roots could be an advantage, sucking up excess water in the summer, which would benefit plants that need a dry rest, especially in a wet summer. Hepatica, Cyclamen, many bulbs etc would love those conditions.

[Maggi Young]

On that anarchistic part of the Internet - Facebook - Marcela Ferreya shows pictures of children drawing and hugging trees! Perhaps we have education all wrong here if people end up moaning about the leaves and flowers they drop!! My word, is there anywhere more calming and vitalising than a woodland?

I have a horrible feeling that taking children out to hug trees in the UK would be vetoed in many places by over- zealous  Health and Safety officials!  Where such things are encourage the children will enjoy it and learn a great deal.

[David Nicholson]

On that anarchistic part of the Internet - Facebook - ..............................

I have to say that on the second day of a self-implemented trial of Facebook I haven't found it at all "anarchistic"; would that it had been!. In the main trivial, predictable, and quite a bore. Much better to have read through and enjoyed Graham's new project and the interesting comments it generated.