It has finally stopped raining long enough for the trees we had ordered (see previous blog) to arrive.

We brought the trees from Majestic Trees and their truck arrived on a damp November day.

After laying some boards across part of the field the next job was unloading.

The farmer had let us use his field for access to where the trees were to be planted in our meadow area. You can still see standing water in the field as a result of the continuous rain we have been having!

The first tree arrives safely to where it will be planted. Time for a cup of coffee!

Another tree is brought across the field.

And positioned near where it will be planted.

And similarly the third tree.

Here comes a small digger and various bits of kit for the planting of the trees.

Ready to start digging the first hole.







Ensuring the tree is upright was done by eye . The sacking around the root ball was not removed as it rots way quite naturally.

The tree needs to be fixed so it will not blow over. Two of the trees had substantial root balls and the system used was Platipus Anchors.


The anchor on the end of the wire is pushed into the ground with the help of the steel rod and in this case the shovel of the digger.

The wire is then pulled up and as it does the anchor folds out and fixes the wire in place.

This was then repeated three times giving three anchored points around the root ball. A wire was then threaded through these points and a ratchet used to tighten the root ball into the ground.

Here you can see the wire across the top of the root ball. A watering tube was then positioned around the root ball.

And the tree is finally planted.


Similarly the second tree.


And the third although with a smaller root ball a more conventional way of securing the tree has been used.
In addition to the trees we have planted some roses in the two corners adjacent to our main garden. These are Rosa Rugosa, Rosa Rugosa ‘Alba’ and Rosa Rugosa ‘Fru Dagmar Hastrup’. These were chosen for their hips providing food for birds in the autumn as well as their colour in the spring.
There is still some more work to do in the meadow. I plan to move an existing tree from elsewhere in the garden and we have around 1000 Fritillaria Meleagris (Snakeshead) in the greenhouse that will need planting out in the spring!
Where are the Xmas lights Steve?
Sent from my iPhone
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Augus! It is not Christmas yet and anyway we need to minimise light pollution!!
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Fantastic! It sure changes the feel of the meadow and I think these are some lucky trees for where they have landed.
I don’t envy you for those thousand fritillaria in need of planting out!
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thanks………..I am sure the trees will add to the meadow and eventually be good for wildlife.
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Thanks for this fascinating update.
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Thanks Jackie, there will be more updates as it all progresses
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Just this morning, I mentioned how those guy cables are almost never installed properly here by so-called ‘gardeners’. I grew boxed and a few field grown trees in the early 1990s. I know several of them were not installed or guyed properly.
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Hi Tony, Well the company that put them in are one of the best in the UK so we will have to see. What surprised me was the significant amount of pull down on the root ball the system was able to achieve. Also they said it was only really suited to large root balls which is why one of the trees has conventional posts.
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Arboriculture and horticulture are taken more seriously there. We have access to the same products here, but it is rare to see them used properly. It is embarrassing actually. I worked on a job site at which mature Mexican fan palms had been installed, and the guy cables were exemplary, but so much silica gel (which absorbs and stores moisture) had been dumped in below the palms that it swelled up enough to launch the palms right out of the ground, even with the guys attached! I worked for a so-called ‘landscape’ company years ago that had only a few guys on the crews who could read or write. They were the guys who were supposed to document chemical use for me!
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