Articles

What to do after a tree is planted Trees in towns are vital links between the built and the natural environment.  But being natural doesn’t mean that we can take them for granted.  They need to be planned for and…

Summer at last. But although June can be glorious it’s often a disappointing month with overcast sky and a downpour at Wimbledon.   ‘Flaming June’ either way. Our trees can have disappointing and annoying habits too.  In this area there…

According to my latest Country Gardener magazine, Why I Love Organic, has published a survey about people’s attitudes to bugs in the garden. I can’t find a link to it on the internet, which is a pity as it would…

As a tree specialist I am occasionally asked ‘what holds up a tree?’.  I’ve discussed this with engineers and no-one can really explain how trees can so effectively hold up their tonnes of trunk and branches, high above ground level…

Scientific names for trees can be scary and, as with many other fears, one way to deal with them is to laugh at their weirdness. These botanical names are always in Latin and often have multiple syllables just to intimidate…

Trees and Lamp posts:- Asset management versus resource management -Why aren’t street trees like lamp posts? Lamp posts stay in one place. Street trees grow, spread and develop above and below ground over decades. Lamp posts don’t change shape or…

‘Christmas and trees’: They go together like mulled wine and mince pies or tinsel and fairy lights. In the UK seven million trees are sold each year to celebrate the birth of Christ.  But it hasn’t always been the case….

…and think before you plant. Conifer hedging plants, such as Lawson cypress and Leyland cypress are perennially popular plants and frequent landscape features, demarcating back gardens and providing seclusion to their owners. These trees grow fast, forming a dense, living…

If you have access to a protractor you can make a simple clinometer which measures the angle from your eye to the top and base of a tree. Clinometers can be bought for around £150 and are very useful if…