Gone....at last.

Last month we finally got around to digging out the conifer which had been blocking our view of the rest of the garden for 6 years!  Such a key moment, that its inspired us to come back and update this poor neglected blog....

The tree in question was planted in the roundabout in our drive. I'm afraid if you haven't seen it, you'll have to imagine it (...were weren't digital then...).  Needless to say, it was a boring green conifer which had grown too big for its boots...as tall as the gutters on the house.

Having cut down most of the tree, we left a stump of around 4' high to ensure we had something to lever against or tie a truck too if needed!  The 2' to 3' diameter stump then stayed that way for several months - we were particularly successful in avoiding that job.

Finally, after I'd had a little go at digging it out, when Janet was over, she and Jen dug around the tree to give us some working space, cutting the roots as they came across them.

Having blunted chain saw blades in the past when working near soil, I decided to use our electric "reciprocating" saw to cut the remaining roots (...to be honest we'd bought it on a bit of a whim and not used it for anything else).  This worked really well, and I was able to free up enough of the roots to push over the trunk, and then saw off as many roots as I could from the base....we needed to make this thing lighter!

Eventually the trunk was "rollable" and so having used a jack to lift raise it slightly, we levered it out of the whole, for it to land on the tarmac with a thud (and making a big dent....nevermind, we're not keeping the tarmac long term....).

We rolled the trunk off into the bushes:

and then examined the crater:

Having filled this, and levelled, its now ready for planting!

Here come the frosts

Second "proper" frost of the season this morning - glad that the most critical plants have been moved into safety.

Its been a particularly mild autumn so far, even the beech and birch trees still have leaves. Some of the apples trees in the orchard are still with leaf, which means it will be a later than normal season for fruit trees. Our Keepers Nursery order is confirmed as delayed, and I suspect the same will apply to our EEAOP order.

Will be keeping an eye on the weather for any heavy frosts; that will be our deadline for getting everything else under cover!

Mowing, mowing, mowing

Have been out this morning mowing the main and side lawns. The circles we cleared around the trees last weekend have made a massive difference to how easy it is to mow the side lawns!

Then took the mower out on the field and mowed the main paths around the meadow and the orchard avenue. It's great mowing the field since it gives a chance to take stock on how fast things change at this time of year. Noticed the worst areas of dock investation had some plants forming flowers so have mown those areas - don't mind some broad leaved dock, but don't want it to take over!

Also mowed the area we're planning to put a poly-tunnel on - long way off yet, but the more its mown, the less "weeds" and the flatter the area.

Took stock of the ragwort situation. Can't see any on the field next door this year (perhaps they've sprayed?), but its much worse on our field than it was last year. Will have to mention it to Jen. We're always torn between it being the food plant of the larvae of the stunning cinnabar moth and potential livestock issues... we had lots of larvae and moths last year.



Noticed a big patch of yellow flowers by the road, so mowed a strip alongside the beech hedge to have a look :-) It's not ragwort - its some form of dandelion I think...need to look it up. Hadn't noticed that in the corner of the field is a large limb that has fallen from the willow! Not sure how long its been there, but checked the rest of the tree to make sure nothing was overhanging the road.

This afternoon? ... mowing the back and "secret" lawn of course!

Looking forward to seeing Louis (Cedartree Captain Mischief) at the weekend...