"False Autumn" declared
Posted: Sat Aug 20, 2022 8:00 am
Reports of early leaf drop, mention of "badly planted tree's" at the edges of roads on poor soil may wither & die due to extreme heat & lack of water & nutrients. .radio 4, 7.10am this morning.
Also mentioned, blackberries as early as June this year.
Makes me consider top dressiing the soil around our favourite vociferous pine tree on the garden side (for a bit more deep moisture retention) it's a decent conifer approaching 50 years old on clay, left undisturbed with little traffic, & a decent build up of needles ..maybe I ought buy some nitrogen rich chicken manure & bury that under the pile, suffice to say it is the only front garden tree in the street, all others hacked down to expand people's driveways & brick pave gardens, or simply butchered beyond an inch of their lives by so called door knocking pretend arborists. (There is one, sitting on a strip between 2 neighbours which is periodically brutally pollarded, ..I don't consider that a tree anymore)
If you have a tree / shade canopy you value, seriously consider giving it a top dressing this autumn, ..the writing is on the wall for temperature rise, planting & maintaining needs a bit more nurturing to stand a chance, ..for those who aren't big gardeners, you get more nitrogen into the soil by digging manure / treatments in, but surface treatments whilst suffering a degree of evaporation can still deliver nutrients. It's always debatable with a farmers field next door as to what is being absorbed via crop rotation, (the field, a decade ago was deemed too small to work & was merely ploughed infrequently for 20 odd years, nowadays it is deemed viable, how things change.
So even a sprinkling of chicken pellets, blood & bone etc ..which won't annoy your neighbours with smell if you care about them, ideal for us housing estate spods to keep the peace.I
It doesn't need to be smelly to get the job done.
Also mentioned, blackberries as early as June this year.
Makes me consider top dressiing the soil around our favourite vociferous pine tree on the garden side (for a bit more deep moisture retention) it's a decent conifer approaching 50 years old on clay, left undisturbed with little traffic, & a decent build up of needles ..maybe I ought buy some nitrogen rich chicken manure & bury that under the pile, suffice to say it is the only front garden tree in the street, all others hacked down to expand people's driveways & brick pave gardens, or simply butchered beyond an inch of their lives by so called door knocking pretend arborists. (There is one, sitting on a strip between 2 neighbours which is periodically brutally pollarded, ..I don't consider that a tree anymore)
If you have a tree / shade canopy you value, seriously consider giving it a top dressing this autumn, ..the writing is on the wall for temperature rise, planting & maintaining needs a bit more nurturing to stand a chance, ..for those who aren't big gardeners, you get more nitrogen into the soil by digging manure / treatments in, but surface treatments whilst suffering a degree of evaporation can still deliver nutrients. It's always debatable with a farmers field next door as to what is being absorbed via crop rotation, (the field, a decade ago was deemed too small to work & was merely ploughed infrequently for 20 odd years, nowadays it is deemed viable, how things change.
So even a sprinkling of chicken pellets, blood & bone etc ..which won't annoy your neighbours with smell if you care about them, ideal for us housing estate spods to keep the peace.I
It doesn't need to be smelly to get the job done.
