Monthly Archives: June 2008

How do you tell a Dogwood – and who cares?

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The Dogwood family has many members some of which grow on practically every continent on earth. They can range form entirely insignificant to stunning beautiful and from very small to decent sized trees.

Telling a dogwood is easy (provided it is in leaf).  Look for plants that are generally shrubby and that have spear-head shaped leaves. Take a leaf and gently pull it “across the grain” (so you are pulling the tip of the leaf directly away from the stalk.  Just as it splits, look to see if the veins in the leaf remain unbroken – they look like threads bridging the gap.  If they do, you have a dogwood.

Congratulations, but so what.  Well if you happen to be stranded and have to fend for yourself, Dogwoods are useful friends.  That same stringiness in the leaf applies to the bark. Strip it lenthways and palit or twist it and you have a strong cord to use in snares, tying tend poles together, making fish traps etc.

You will also notice, that the young growths of dogwoods are very straight.  And if you try to burn them, they just smoulder.  Which makes them great as kebab sticks over an open fire – when sharpened at one end with your flint knife…

If you want to read a bit more about dogwoods and maybe buy a few, why not visit the Willows and Dogwoods section of the Ashridge Trees site?

 

Ways to save water – Part 1 (with thanks to Ian Drury)

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The likelihood is that water becomes increasingly scarce. The weather may feel wetter, but as we build more (and we do) the area of land covered by housing, roads and industrial estates stops being “porous” and instead is drained into reservoirs or straight into the sea. Therefore less water is absorbed by mother earth each year making the ground drier….. If your water is metered, that makes your life more expensive and if there is a hosepipe ban natural reserves of water may be inadequate to support your plants.

So here is a fairly random list of things that can be done to make your garden less dry…..

1. Do not have concrete, paved or other surfaces to your paths that cause water to run off. Use gravel over landscaping fabric, pebbles, bark chippings etc so that rain fall is absorbed into the earth and does not run off in a flood to the nearest drain.

2. A hot tip is to stop watering your plants. Well almost – do not water until the plants look a bit distressed (the leaves tend to flag a bit). Then water well. Stressing plants like this makes them send their roots deeper where the soil tends to stay damp longer….

3. When you are preparing your vegetables in the kitchen, do them in a bowl, not in the kitchen sink. Peel your potatoes, scrub your carrots, wash your salads, but whatever your do – KEEP THE WATER. And use it in your garden.

4. Always water plants very well immediately after planting. Then apply a good thick mulch (2″/5cms) of almost anything that is organic and non toxic. Mulching not only ultimately improves the soil, but it also helps retain water.

5. Build in a watering system when you plant trees and shrubs. You can get fancy with purpose made irrigation systems, but if you sink a flower pot up to its rim right next to each shrub, you can fill that with water. The water gets to the roots and the weeds have none of it. Variations on a theme include sinking 2 litre soft drinks bottles (pouring end down) and with the bottom cut off (you get the same end result but these are probably more effective with trees. In both cases, once the plant is truly established, either take the pot/bottle out of the ground or fill it in.

6. Pretty obvious, but why not install rainwater barrels (butts) at the bottom of each of your drainpipes so you catch rainwater off your roof. Most DIY and hardware shops now supply a fitting that goes onto your downpipe that diverts rainwater until the barrel is full and then, cunningly, lest the rest flow down your your drains…

Why are there so few trees in Europe?

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Did you know…. why there are (relatively) so few species of tree in Europe when compared to North America? 

European mountains go the wrong way… during an ice age, when ice sheets spread southwards, if the mountain ranges mainly run North/South then it is easier for trees to seed themselves away from the oncoming ice.  In North America the giant ranges run North/South unlike Europe where most mountain ranges run roughly East/West and so trees in Europe were caught (literally) between a rock and a hard place.

 

If you would like to help increase the variety of trees near you, why not visit our store at www.ashridgetrees.co.uk

Hedgerow Jelly

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This an excellent recipe which can be adapted to accommodate almost any hedge (and its fruit).  Please remember to check that something is safe (if you are not sure) before cooking and eating it….. With the exception of Elderberries (you can buy Elder trees seperately from us at Sambucus nigra), all the plants that produce the berries in this recipe are likely to be in a pack of Conservation Hedge Mix hedging.

Ingredients

On average these will yield about 2kg of jelly
3lbs (1.4kg) crab apples, windfall apples or cooking apples
2lbs (900g) in total of blackberries, elderberries & sloes as available
2lbs (900g) in total of rowan berries, haws & rose hips as available
Juice of 1 lemon
Sugar

Instructions

Wash the apples, and if you are using cooking apples chop them roughly.
Wash and drain the blackberries, elderberries & sloes.
Wash and drain the rowan berries, haws & rose hips.
Put all the fruit except the rowan berry batch in a large, heavy- based pan with all bar a tablespoon of the lemon juice and add cold water to the level of the fruit.
In a separate pan put the rowan berry batch and the remaining lemon juice and cover with water.
Bring to the boil, then simmer gently until all the fruit is tender and well broken down – the rowan berry batch will take longer to soften.
Strain both pan fulls through a scalded jelly bag for at least 4 hours. Do not squeeze the bag.
Measure the strained juice and weigh out 1lb (450g) sugar for each pint (575/600ml) of juice.
Pour the juice back into the pan and heat very gently. Add the sugar and stir until completely dissolved.
Bring to the boil and cook rapidly until setting point is reached.
Skim, pot and seal in the usual way.
Enjoy


Creative Commons License

Hedgerow Jelly Recipe by
Charles Simon is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 UK: England & Wales License.

Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at
http://blog.ashridgetrees.co.uk.