Best of Tree Collecting

Tree Collecting with a Car

2012-03-14T12:54:00.001-07:00

My first tree collection with a car was possibly one of the last of the season. As the trees are quickly budding up, with all this hot Spring weather.

It was really nice to sit the in warmth and comfort of my new car, listening to music, with the window open, rather than hunched over the bike freezing and hypothermic.

Great to have all that storage space, to bring tools and to put bags of trees, rather than like the old days, of having to fit tools in a ruck sac and bungee the trees procariously onto the back of the bike.

The extra clothes I had to wear, when driving the motorbike were always a problem to carry around, when I was out, looking for trees.

In short guerilla gardening has now been made a great deal easier.

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Last Dart Valley Tree Collection

2012-02-06T15:57:00.001-08:00

One last Load

Above, my motorbike sits loaded up with trees from the Dart valley, for one last time. Very soon I will be living and guerrilla gardening in a new place and I will get a highly more practical van.

I should really be packing, but I just had to get a few crucial little bits planted, up on Dartmoor.

the focus today was really on the Oaks. I needed stocky little trees, about 2/3 foot (just under 1 metre) to be able to compete with thick brambly based undergrowth. I got some other trees as well, but mostly Oaks.

Oak trees do not like to have their long tap roots severed, so great care must be taken to insure to cut a ring around each one, with the spade and to cut straight down and not under the tree.

Oaks also dry out quickly when unearthed, so I always transfer them immediately to a plastic sack, which contains some damp leaves.

Collecting Primroses

2012-02-06T15:54:00.001-08:00

Primroses have spread like crazy, in my garden. So now I am digging up a loads, to transplant else where.

These plants seem to not be too keen on being transplanted and often fail to flower for the first couple of years, when planted in the wild. It is necessary to get them with a good root ball, so as to make their move as stress-free as possible.

Primroses will thrive in a number of different environments but will only spread by seed, if there is not too much grass or other vegetation, blocking the sunlight from their seedlings. They do so well in gardens because of the bare earth in the borders and the cut lawns. Primroses also do very well in rock faced banks and hedges.

If Primroses are planted in mossy grass; they will spread much faster as the moss is shorter than grass and the seedlings will have enough light to grow.

Tree Collecting is Called off!

2012-02-04T02:25:00.001-08:00

Snow Stops Play!

I have been promising my Cat, 'Sally' that I would let her star in a blog-post, so here she is in her debut purr-formance, scanning the horizon, from what she possibly regards as a good vantage point.

I was planning to drive off today and get some more trees, but it doesn't look like that's going to happen now. There is no way I could justify driving 20+ miles (30+ Km) in this. It's also starting to settle on the main road at the top of this road.

According to the local shop; it is a warm front and will snow on its leading edge and then it will turn to rain and everything will melt. But I remain sceptical, as it has been well below zero for days now and it's snowing in lowland Exeter, which means that it might not get warm enough to rain up here and we might just get loads more heavy snow.

I am supposed to be moving house next week. I hope I'm not going to be trapped up here, like I have been for the past three Winters. Perhaps Mother Nature is trying to keep me here.

Sneaky Twilight Tree Collections

2012-01-22T13:24:00.001-08:00

Large Birch

For some sites, which I intend to get planted with trees; tall dense undergrowth, such as Rose-bay-willow-herb, Bramble or Stinging Nettle, occupies the areas in big established super-clumps and gets so tall and thick in the Summer, as to smother and kill any smaller trees, which might be planted amongst it. So today's mission, should I choose to accept it; is to collect tall Birch trees.

Birch are generally quite spindly trees, and more can be gathered in one bag, than most other types of tree, of the same height. It is more efficient therefore, if I transform clumps of large weedy perennials into clumps of Birch. The Birch have got to go somewhere, so I let nature show me where to put them.

The trees I am collecting today range in height from five to nine feet (1.5 - 3 metres). I then trim them down to about five foot (1.5 meters), trying to ensure, despite the lack of daylight; that I cut them back to healthy buds and not just bare trunk. Birch are one type of tree, which really likes to have buds to grow from in the spring, but some other species of trees, such as Willow will grow quite happily, how ever far they are cut back.

It is better to collect Tall trees later because they tend to look a bit dodgy, tied on to the back of a motorbike, particularly when they are so long, as to drag slightly along the ground. The roads on Dartmoor are very quiet, at that time of night, but it is sensible to take as little risk as possible.

Normally I collect trees in the late afternoon, just before it starts to get dark, but often for big trees; I will conduct the whole operation during twilight and/or darkness hours. This is obviously far more difficult, but at least then all people can see, as I drive past them, is headlights.

Getting Darker

Twilight is a time of the day, which only lasts for that brief transition, between day and night, as the last light from the sun slips behind the planet. Once the darkness has come; then my work becomes just that little bit more tricky, although my eyes do become accustomed to the changing light.

The main problem is always loosing things and having to spend time searching for the spade or my pile of trees, with the limited light, from my mobile phone. I never bring a torch, I don't even have one!

I find I loose things far more often, when I am planting trees, to when I am collecting them, but it is always good to take measures to minimise the risk. One measure is to select a stash spot. Somewhere secluded and easily recognisable, such as by a land mark or feature, like a rock or a tree, but nothing interesting enough to attract people to it, and somewhere out of sight.

A good advantage of doing this in the dark is that anyone else I see, which is extremely rare; would possibly be on some kind of secret mission of their own and probably wouldn't bother me, even if they did know I was there.

On the few occasions, where I do see people out at night, they always seem to have a torch and a dog. This gives me the advantage of seeing them and hearing them before they get anywhere near me and it gives me time to stop what I am doing, stash all my trees and tools safely and then attempt to either innocently walk past them or to hide and get down wind of their dog.

Career Change

I am moving house very soon, to a new area, but not all that far from here. When I move; I am going to treat myself to a van.

My six years with my motorbike have been great. I have collected many trees with its assistance, certainly allot more than the bicycle, which preceded it. But with a van I could collect allot more trees, be able to bring more tools and equipment with me and turn up warm and dry, instead of shivering and often soaking wet. Motorbikes are great in traffic jams and rush hour, but they're not remotely weatherproof.

My work is almost complete, where I have been living. I shall miss my woods and my garden. But it is time for me to move on.

I am going to start up an Aquaponics business, for which I need to be off the national park, so I can put up some poly tunnels, without the strict planning restraints, also I need the revenue from selling my house to finance my business venture. I will have to get used to living in a caravan. I am quite looking forward to it actually.

Up until now I have been working as a gardener, with a gardening round and regular customers. The people I worked for were all very nice, but I could not stand the poverty, in the Winter, when there was very little work. Also being out in other peoples gardens, doing manual labour all day; meant that on the few dry days, when I did have a day off; the last thing I wanted to be doing, was digging my own vegetable patch or cutting my own hedges. Gardening is my biggest hobby. Whilst I spent my days toiling in other people's gardens, my own garden just slowly went to ruin, which was very disheartening and unfavourable for job satisfaction.

I have made a promise to my self, that however skint I ever become in the future, or how ever desperate for money, that I ever find myself; I will never do gardening, for other people again.

Gathering Hazels

2012-01-17T10:30:00.001-08:00

No spade today

Did I mention that I melted my rucksack, the other day; on my mates wood-burner?

I put it there to dry & didn't realise that wood-burners got that hot. I thought they were the 'live in a bus' equivalent of a radiator, but no! It melted quite fast!

That meant that I couldn't bring my spade with me today on my Dart Valley Tree collecting mission, to collect Hazels.

I decided it wouldn't be very safe, tied on the back of my motorbike with bungees, for a thirty mile round trip collecting Hazels. I just would have to be a bit more careful pulling them up; getting my hands right underneath them, to help prevent too many roots tearing and not being able to get any larger specimens.

Despite the inconvenience of not having my trustee spade with me; I did get quite allot of Hazels and Dog roses + one Spindle, so I was happy.

The advantage of having no spade was; how much less paranoid I felt, as I dropped every thing and pretended to be looking at the view or examining some kind of plant life, whenever a car or some people went by, but it is so much easier and better to use a spade.

I suppose I will need to invest again in a nice new rucksack and then I must remember not to melt it.

Town Tree Collecting

2012-01-05T17:23:00.001-08:00

Today I am making the most of a bad situation; My bike's fan belt broke yesterday and now my bike is being fixed by my neighbour, Carl. This meant that I had to buss-it into Tavistock today, to shop and do other important things.
Unfortunately public transport in the UK is among some of the most dire in Europe. Today I had to wait six hours, for the bus back home, but I put this time to good use and collected some Trees.

Tavistock sits in a deep valley, coming off the moors and, like this area show; is full of many little undevelopable corners, where nature has taken over.

Of course; I cannot collect nearly as many trees as I could have done, with the bike, but still enough to really impact the places where I will plant them.

Invasive Weeds
One problem with these urban sites is the sheer quantity of invasive weeds, which have escaped originally from irresponsible people's gardens. Here this mainly consists of Rhododendron, Cherry-Laurel, Sycamore and Cotoneaster.
Where possible; I make it my policy to pull these up. I am always extremely vigilant not to collect and plant any and always look through what I have collected before planting them out, especially if I will be planting them at night.

Carting trees on Public Transport

2012-01-05T09:35:00.001-08:00

"Daddy. Whys that man got all those trees?"

Was the only verbal comment made by passengers on this twenty minute bus ride home, across the moor.

There was a bit of non verbal communication though, especially from the lady in the seat, directly in front of me, when her hat became momentarily caught in a Blackthorn spike.

My bike should be fixed by tomorrow, so I shouldn't have to do this again for a while.

Public Transport is dire!

Collecting Blackthorns

2011-12-27T07:56:00.001-08:00

Collecting Blackthorns in the Dart Valley

Today I am looking over the reforesting areas around the edge of the moor, for Blackthorns, to thicken up the hedges I am planting at the moment.

As Blackthorns grow, they send out long underground rhizomes, from which new trees, in the form of suckers grow around the basses of the parent plants.

This natural form of vegetative propagation, provides me with many little trees to dig up, without diminishing the local population. As is it always my code of practise to only ever take baby trees, which I feel have 0% chance of reaching maturity, in their current location.

Digging Blackthorns up

Most baby blackthorns are suckers, from a mother plant. Occasionally I find seed grown ones, but usually not. The thing to be most aware of is the Rhizomes; These under ground propagational roots, seem to grow in virtually straight lines, radiating out from the mother plants, a few inches under the soil surface.
At intervals along these Rhizomes, of a foot (30cm), or so; sprout young Blackthorn trees. This gives me an idea where the rhizomes are, also gently tugging the young trees can show quite clearly their position. This then tells me where to cut, with the spade, in order to get the most root possible, with each little tree, that I take.

I cut cleanly round each tree and make sure that the rhizome is cut both sides, then I gently pull up the root ball, shake off the soil and place them in a plastic sack containing some damp leaves or moss, to stop the roots from drying out.

How Blackthorns transform Grassland into Woodland

2011-12-27T07:46:00.001-08:00

An army of invading suckers

Blackthorns, which are a thorny member of the Cherry family (prunus); if present, are highly effective at transforming grassland into woods.

As demonstrated here, by the first two photos.

Each Blackthorn sends out underground rhizomes, which sprout new trees up as little suckers, at intervals, and in all directions, from the patent plant. These quickly grow and form expanding, prickly clumps. Creating food and safe nesting sites for birds, as well as catering to the needs of many other creatures, big and small.

Protected from large grazing herbivores; little Oaks and Birch trees seed and grow unhindered, under the tangled mass of prickles, provided by the Blackthorns. These soon become bigger and displace them, forming the early stages of mature woodland.

Sprouting Acorns

2011-12-21T15:36:00.001-08:00

The Acorns, which I and some friends collected in October, and which have just been sat outside, upon some wet earth, in these pots since then; have begin to sprout. Meaning; that its about time I got round to planting them soon.

Sprouting Acorns from the forest floor

2011-12-21T15:30:00.001-08:00

On location in the Teign(teen) gorge

A little bit of digging in the leaf mould on the forest floor is enough to find many sprouted Acorns.

These are much more advanced than the ones that I have in the plant pots in my garden. Not sure why though, could be any number of reasons. Probably because these are at a lower altitude and covered with damp rotting leaves.

Oak are one of a few trees, where the tree can be sowed from seed, directly into short grass, because the first sprout, is tall enough to reach up and get enough light to grow.

Under Cover Tree Collector

2011-12-15T22:51:00.001-08:00

Discretion and need to know basis
Whilst I tend not to make too much of a secret about what I do; I do when I'm doing it. It is always better to be safe than sorry & having someone moaning at me about what I am doing, when I'm busy; is far from helpful.

Today I am collecting mostly Oak, Birch and Hazel, from one of my favourite sites near Okehampton. Also diversity enhancing things like Dog roses, Spindle and Honeysuckle, enriching my woods with as many native plants, that will tolerate the harsh condition up on Dartmoor.

Local as Possible
In every valley or area; each species varies slightly. I get over 95% of my trees from less than 25 miles from where they are to be planted. I want a good mixture of healthy local stock, which is attuned to the wildlife in this area.

It concerns me, that garden centres sell wild trees grown on mass, from just a few small areas, to stock the whole country with new woodland. People really don't seem to consider the effects of things like this, but it seems to me that Homogenisation is bad and leads to a lack of diversity and a weakening of genetic and local variation.

Digging up a Tree Demonstration
I'll end this post, with a short demonstration of the best way to dig up a young tree:

Cut the spade straight down and not at an angle. We don't want to be severing tap roots or anything.
Do this right around the tree, in a full circle.
Gently lift up the Tree, with root ball.
Gently shake off the soil.
Place the Trees in a plastic bag, with wet leaves, to stop the roots from drying out.

Scrumping Apples

2011-12-15T12:51:00.001-08:00

Allot of Apples always go to waste up here. For years it was in a wild garden, to some barely used chalet type property.

Now it's a designated building plot.

The only practical way up to there is up this lamppost, much easier than it looks, all the kids in our street, could climb up this lamppost.

So many Apples just dropping off the trees, such a waste.

I picked about fifty nice ones off the tree and threw them down to my accomplice, who preferred not to be mentioned on here (the photographer).

It is always sad to see food going to waste.
I hope these Apple Trees survive the new houses being built on the site, but even if they do; I doubt I will be able to climb up there, when they are in the tiny squashy little gardens of some gruesome new development.

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Sorting Small Trees

2011-12-15T05:33:00.001-08:00

These trees are going to be planted at night, so I don't want to be holding each individual tree up against the moonlight, to determine the species, so I tend to sort them into bags of type before hand, to make my mission faster and easier. The only kind of light I ever take with me is my mobile phone and a cigarette lighter. I do not possess a torch.

Plastic bags, in this case bin bags are very good at preventing moisture loss. Keeping the roots from drying out is crucial for the trees' survival.

Often I throw in some wet leaves as well.

Once the trees are all sorted out and bagged up; I carry them off, sometimes miles, to where they will be planted and either plant them there and then, or stash them for another day.

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New Bridge

2011-10-09T02:43:00.000-07:00

Collecting Trees at New Bridge

Today; I'm here, at New Bridge, which is a small hamlet on the Dart Vally in Devon, on a swamp tree collecting mission.

I suppose this bridge must have been new at some time, but I couldn't think of a more inappropriate name for it. Maybe ancient rickety old bridge, might be better. It is quite amusing watching huge camper vans trying to get over in in the summer.

Here the River Dart cuts into Dartmoor in a deep snaking gorge, which is mostly thick natural forest, that expands every year, as it spreads further onto the moors.

Allot of Canoeists and kayakers use this stretch of river at all times of year, as it is Southern England's fastest flowing large river, it has many small waterfalls and lots of rapids, so it is perfect for that sort of thing, of course; I come here for the plant life, which at this time of the year; means trees.


The view upstream from New Bridge

Willows and Birch

As you can see, from these pictures; there are litterally thousands of baby trees. This little corner of this vast froest, was a conifer plantation untill a few years ago. When they removed the conifers; the whole area seeded with millions of baby trees, mostly Willow and Birch, but with sizable quantities of Oak, Hazel and Alder aswell. There is much thinning out to be done here and a seemingly endless supply of little trees to take away and plant further up stream.

The reason that so many trees have seeded here, it because, when the land was conifers, there was very little light getting down to the forest floor and therefore little to no vegetation, coupled with the fact that the site is surrounded by forest on three sides. When the conifers were suddenly felled; the bare earth in full sunlight all erupted into tree seedlings, which now, some half a decade later, are just a tangled mass of competing saplings.

Just look how close together the little tree trunks are, to each other, on the caption above.

I just cut paths through this thick mass, which allows these trees to grow better and which gives me many trees to take away and plant. To the right, I prune off the excess growth, down to strong healthy buds and stick them all in a plastic sack, to prevent the roots from drying out. Below right; I carefully cut out a root ball around each tree that I take, to give it them highest chance of survival in their new home.

Dog Roses and Hazels

I have enjoyed a great deal of success with Hazels and Dog Roses in my various plantations on Dartmoor. Both are tough enough to withstand the harsh conditions and both thicken up the edges and the underneath of a woodland beautifully. In fact I would consider them an essential ingredient.

Dog rose hips are full of itching powder, which you can put down some one's back and it makes them itch. The hips are there all winter, so they provide food for a wide variety of woodland creatures. They also spread into a tangled thorny mass, which protects little trees from Sheep and other tree or bark munching herbivores, so I like to plant them with the trees I plant, to protect them, also the branches of the small trees, gives support to the Dog Rose, which is a kind of rambling, climbing plant and this raises it's procumbent branches out of the tall summer grass and into the light.

Dog roses spread vegetatively and, like brambles; the trailing branches root and form a new clump, anywhere they touch the ground.

Collecting Alders

2011-10-07T14:27:00.000-07:00

Today I collected the first trees for year 11. As I have mostly swamp left to plant; I have decided to come to this rapidly reforesting valley, on the edge of the moors, near Tavistock, to collect Alders.

You can see just how thickly they have seeded themselves here, from the above caption. So they defiantly could do with being thinned out. Very leggy ones, however are not very good and are best left. The trick is to get them just before they get over shadowed, whilst they are still strong and bushy. Leggy ones (if I get them at all) are generally planted two or three in a hole and even then they often don't grow.

The ground here is so wet, that the young trees often just lift out, if gently pulled, with a great soggy root-ball attached, but some need to be cut round with the spade.

The next thing I do is to trim off any leggy bits, down to nice strong buds. I want the trees to be vigorous from the first year and not having to support allot of unnecessary branches after having their roots cut and disturbed. I like to trim the trees back to just taller than the Summer height of the vegetation, where they are going to be planted. In this case; these are destined for a reed swamp. The reeds are about 0.7 metres high, so I'm cutting the Alders to about 80cm.

Keeping the roots from getting dry is crucial for success. A large plastic bag, such as an old compost sack or heavy duty bin bag is best.

A few bin bags full of young trees will fit nicely on the back of my motor-bike, tied on with bungees, but I will be able to collect loads more, when I have a car.

Stashing Trees

It is very important to hide the trees well. I take them straight from where I collected them, to where they are going to be planted, put them in a quiet part of the site and them cover them in whatever bits of vegetation I can find. In this case grass.

Like this; they are unlikely to be seen by anyone and less likely to dry out. Shown here; they are not immediately obvious. Usually I would hide them better than this, but no one comes in here, but me and the odd ornithologist. After all; it's a swamp.

Seeds & Strawberries

2011-09-30T21:46:00.000-07:00

Low on Resources

Today, I still have no transport & am having to make do with what I have got in the garden, which is mainly Campions and Wild Strawberries.

Firstly I will start with a brief demonstration of how wild Strawberries can quickly spread by vegetative means, in the form of runners, just like cultivated strawberries do:

As you can see on the right hand caption; many runners grow from a single plant and grow out in all directions, along the ground, up to about just over a metre (4 Feet), with many little plantlets all along each runner, which quickly find comfort, with even the shallowest rockiest soils and form a massive clump in very little time.

Today I am planting along the leat, in on the edges of rocky surfaces and sowing seeds, where there are disturbed patches of soil, such as mole hills.

I collected the seeds I have today, from my last traumatic breakdown experience and the subsequent long hitch home:

A few days ago; I broke down at night, with no phone and in the rain . A long way from where I had come from and a long way from where I was headed.

Fortunately I had a bag of Tomatoes, my friend had grown & given me, so I had food & I knew of a disused railway building, beside a massive viaduct on what used to be a railway line and is now a cycle-path, so I had somewhere dry and draughty to sleep.

Hopefully today's plants will spread into the cracks in the wall, which runs along the leat. When I plant a Wild Strawberry; I like to push the roots of all the plantlets along the runners into the soil as well.

I just hope my bike is fixed properly soon, else tree planting season will have to be catered for with public transport and/or the bicycle.

The Cruel Sea

2011-09-28T00:57:00.000-07:00

Rocky Cliffs

Along the North Devon & Cornwall coast, leading up to Hartland Point; is this amazing stretch of coast, with barely any human settlements and rock strata, which as the picture below clearly shows; go all ways, including vertically. These rocks range from Quartzite, metamorphosed Slate, Red Sandstone and the odd igneous protrusion of granite. they are around 450'000'000(four hundred and fifty hundred million) years old and were laid down originally as sediment in the Devonian era. Around the same sort of time as life began to crawl out of the sea, and was beginning to find root in and around estuaries and rivers.

Because these rocks are so old; they have been compacted, crushed together by continental drift, partially melted and metamorphosed; they are tough and stand up to fierce pounding from the relentless crashing waves of the Atlantic Ocean, which this coastline faces head-on.

Cliff Plants

Unlike the flimsy Clays and Chalks, which make up most of the coasts of Southern Briton; these tough rocky high cliffs give much anchorage and therefore habitat to many surprisingly tough little plants:

Sea Pinks Armeria Maritima

Seen here, with tufts of low, tightly packed, dark green, blade-like foliage and clusters of pink flowers, held on extended little stems.

Left to their own devices and needing seemingly no help from me; these tough little plants occupy much of Briton's rocky cliff sides and tops, even growing on some heathland, near to the coast.

As a garden plant; the Thrift, as it is sometimes known, has been a great success mainly as a rockery plant, where it thrives, despite being a long way from the coast and it flowers almost continuously from June to October, here shown in mid September, clearly their best is over, but still throwing up new flowering stems, regardless of what nature and the brooding Atlantic may through at them.

Indeed; this strikes me as a highly adaptable species. I have some in my garden on Dartmoor, where they thrive and help to keep the weeds down on the rockeries, by growing in such tight clumps, so as not to allow the young germinating weed seed any light or nutrients.

Sea Pinks will flourish where little else will grow and will take root in any little rocky crack.

I do not have any plans to introduce Sea pinks to Dartmoor, I think they should remain a sea plant, in less nature causes them to make such a migration themselves.
No, today's expedition is merely to observe.

Samphire Crithmum Maritimum

The Common Rock Samphire, which by all accounts is not only edible, but considered quite a delicacy; is common on seaside cliffs and walls, such as these around the coastline.
The flowers would have been white and umbeliferious in nature.
The whole plant has a fleshy, succulent feel to it and it is very common.

Scurvy Grass Cochleria Officinalis/Pyrenaica/Danica/Anglica

Between these clumps of Sea Pinks can be seen; the little rosettes of fleshy leaves, shaped a bit like those of a violet.

Curiously named Scurvy Grass. I mean, the Scurvy bit's OK, because they are rich in Vitamin C and therefore would cure scurvy, but 'Grass'; It is neither a type of grass, nor dose it bear any kind of resemblance to a grass, so I guess that bit will remain a mystery for now.

Some species of Scurvy Grass grow in muddy estuaries and salt flats, others can grow way inland, often in road or railway cuttings.

I have added a few specimens of such a variety of this species, which I found many of, whilst cycling home, from Okehampton, on the road edges & in banks, going around & over the edges of Dartmoor, between Okehampton and Tavistock. I will see how they do, before deciding weather or not to introduce any varieties extensively to the High Moor.

Break down

2011-09-15T17:45:00.000-07:00

I had always wondered what happened if you broke down in the fast lane and today, I found out. I have been having trouble with my motorbike, since I put the wrong kind of fuel in it a few months ago. Today; it conked out in the fast lane of the A38, just after in turns into a 3 lane road at the bottom of the infamous Haldon hill, just before it turns into the M5.

Getting across two lanes of fast moving traffic, with a rapidly decreasing motorbike, which I had to side pedal, with my feet; was pretty difficult and scary, but I made it and pushed the bike about a quarter of a mile to a dusty lay by.

Here I found this lovely new plant.

I am a bit unclear about this plant. I think it might be one of the 'Milk Vetch' family, but I would defiantly say, that I have not yet clearly identified this plant. It kind of vaguely resembles a Lupin, but I am sure its a vetch of some kind.

After examining the Vetch and taking a few photos'; the bike started again, but then broke down again in Exeter. I had to call the breakdown people.

Since I had broken down outside my friends house and told the breakdown people that they could take their time, if they had any more important calls; they took 5 minutes! The last 2 times I have broken down in remote locations, once in the rain and they took 4 hours, both times.

Anyway they fixed the bike and I drove 5 miles down the road and broke down again. This time is was drizzling and there was no phone reception, but two cars going opposite ways, both stopped and one guy called Graham, drove me two miles up a hill, so I could phone the breakdown people and then drove me back to where my bike was and waited with me 20 Min's, until they arrived.

It is really heartwarming, when people do things like that.

Broke down again in Postbridge. This time there was no phone reception, no AA and no Graham to rescue me. I pushed the bike into the tourist car park and began the long walk home.

The moon was full and the rain was intermittent. The walk was not too bad, but; what am I going to do if my bike doesn't work?

My Bike was toed away by Carl the next day. What am I going to do?

PLANTING SNEEZEWORT

2011-09-11T04:23:00.000-07:00

Sneezewort Achillea Ptarmica

I have not seen this plant growing in the wild very much. In fact; until recently, I had only ever collected the one little road side chunk of it from near Holsworthy in North Devon. The one little chunk quickly spread and seeded all over the garden and most prevalently; in the lawn. Until recently, had had 2 Geese, who kept my grass cut short for me & they didn't care much for Sneezewort, so it flourished.

It is a member of the Yarrow family, Achillia. It grows about 40cm high and starts flowering in July.

In the picture below, you can see that I am digging a patch of my lawn, thick with Sneezewort. I had previously gone over it with the mower, to cut off all the flowering stems, I had then given it a few weeks to bush out a bit, so that it was nice and vigorous and ready to be transferred to it's new home.

It is necessary to do this within a few days of rain, so the ground is nice and soft and easy to squish into cracks in walls, and also plants hate being transplanted in dry soil.

I separate these turfs into 8cm square chunks of ground, packed with the tangled roots, so that each bit has it's own little bit of root ball and then the roots will hopefully get as little disturbance as possible.

I suppose that the concept for today, is really; dig it up in chunks and stuff it into walls.

I took the Bicycle today, as I knew I would be having to stop allot. I planted a bit in suitable walls, about every few hundred meters or so in the walls along the ungraized roads, which go across the tops of the moor.

Often these walls are filled or part filled with earth. When I plant something in a wall like these ones; I like to ensure that there is some soil in there, which the root ball of what I've put in is touching. Then it feels like I have connected it to the Earth.

It was very satisfying to be able to cover so much ground and get so much done in one day. If only Wild Daffodils and Trees were so easy.

I have so many Sneezeworts in the garden, I don't have to go out looking for them, they take very easily, spread quickly, will grow where little else will grow, like on the tops of stone walls and they are stunning, when they flower, which they do for at least 4 months.

One thing that dose concern me is that all these thousands of plants, just came from this one Holsworthy chunk. There couldn't have been very many individual plants in that chunk, so they must be getting fairly inbred by now, I would have thought. But they appear to be very healthy. It is possible that someone might have some in a near by garden, or that there is already some here, that I don't yet know about.

This year I did find a little bit near Lydford, which will expand the gene pool a tiny bit, but Sneezewort defiantly likes it on Dartmoor. It will be very nice to have a fairly unusual plant so common up here.

Festival/Free Party on the Welsh Border

2011-09-08T18:19:00.000-07:00

HAIR BELLS

If they'll grow here; they should grow on Dartmoor!

All work and no play. I have been kindly driven to a small 3 day free party/ mini festival thing, by my friend, Jake; and all I want to do is climb around on fields and moorland, photographing plants.

I am somewhere in Herefordsire, in the Black mountains and that ridge is the Welsh border, or at least, according to my calculations, that is so. We drove deep into Wales, to get here. According to some app on Jake's phone; the party's situated at over 500 metres above sea level.

Thanks to Beat-Nyx for putting on the party. really, really good party!Very good vibe, really nice people.

But anyway; Here, the rock is slate, someone said the mountain is Red Sandstone,so it's looking potentially to have a pretty acid soil here, like on Dartmoor, indicated blatantly; by there being much Heather here, so why don't hair Bells grow on Dartmoor?

Unfortunately there were not enough to collect any and they were way off from seeding. So on this trip, I mearly made observations and I hope that one day; I will have gathered enough data to be able to introduce these nice little grassland plants onto Dartmoor.

Planting a Swamp

2011-08-01T16:39:00.000-07:00

Float-on Bog

Much of the woods I have planted is damp ground, but quite a lot is on dangerous float-on bog, which has similar properties to quick-sand, if you tread on the wrong place. But the vegetation informs me 'where to tread and where not to tread'. Some bits are just not worth the risk and would probably not be able to support any trees. Float-on bog is water covered in a tangled layer of vegetation. There's allot of it dammed behind the river's natural levees, all along the valley, but these dangerous bogs are by no means confined to river valleys, but that's where they mostly are.

Planting in these places is a bit scary as the whole surface structure sags and quivers as I carefully step into and accross it. However one benefit is that I only need use the spade to cut hole. No digging is required; I can then stuff the little tree or plant into the wet peat with my foot.

Alders and Willows are really the only of the big(ish) trees to be able to grow on the float on, although many others will grow around the edges. Guelder Rose, Blackthorn and Hazel seem to do remarkably well too.

It is important to note, that all trees, even swamp trees are going to be stunted in the middle of a swamp. Most, esp. The bog trees (Willow & Alder) love being on the edge of a swamp, with their roots in both wet and dry ground. These grow more quickly than any other trees in this location.

Experimentation

2011-08-01T14:38:00.000-07:00

Will it Survive or won't it?

Before starting a large scale introduction of a new species; I like to try a few out first, in a few safe places and then observe the progress over however much time I feel is necessary, when or if larger scale introductions will be necessary.

Some plants are obviously very tough; Willows, for example, needed no trial. Same with wild Blue Bells. Both grew here already, but in only a few places and not in any great numbers. So with both plantings began in the wild on year1.

Wild Daffodils needed trials to determine A) If they could survive up here on the moors. B) If they were able to propagate themselves up here. C) With Wild Daffofils being and endangered species; before large scale introductions began; I also conducted experiments to determine the impact of my various collection methods upon controlled small areas in the wild. Wild Daffodils now are my most widespread plant. Mostly around Dartmoor, but I think in a few years time, people might not regard it rare anymore.

Trees and plants in the early years, were all planted in small groups and in a variety of different habitats, basically to see what they would tolerate and what they preferred.

Experiments in the wild are often simultaneous with trials in the garden. Since I dwell slightly higher than most of what I plant, the garden is generally where I start. If they'll grow in the garden; they should survive in the valley below.

Experimentation is a very good and clear way of learning. It saves waist and can avoid learning harsh lessons.

Allot of these initial experiments are quite big now, dotted about, as the first wave of the returning forest, and very importantly; appearing as natural as I can possibly make it.

Experiments in my Garden

2011-08-01T13:26:00.000-07:00

The Soil and Climate Test;

Where I can easily observe them; In the Garden!

Before introducing a new plant species, that so far has been absent from the high moor, but abundant (at least in places) on the foot hills, be able to Survive up here, on the high moor?

Successful introductions into the wild zones of the garden and since gone on to Begin their first trial plantings, in the wild, would include; Valerian (valeriania), Wild Iris, Wild Strawberries, Wild Daffs, Teazel as well as many others.

Many of the species trialed in my garden are now are building up colonies in the wild up here, and are now being (or have been) planted on a much bigger scale by me.

The amount a new species needs to be planted in the wild is often determined by it's ability to spread in it's new environment.