This probably entirely inappropriate and anti-Eu and politically incorrect and so on, but the thought struck me that if we all deliberately went out of our way to buy British produce, products and, yes, plants we would keep more people in this country in employment and maybe go some way to protecting the “fragile recovery”.

And the more we do that, the more jobs are created , the more people can pay tax and not draw benefit and maybe, if we all did it we could reduce our deficit without too many painful cuts.

Willow fedges are living structures made from closely planted willows.  Ornate structures can be built up; chairs, houses, pergolas and so on, but in its simplest form a willow fedge is just a living fence.

Tags: Hedging, Willow Fedges

This may sound silly, but it is amazing how well it works.

If you have a good number of hawthorn hedge plants to get in the ground, why not have a hawthorn hedge planting party. Obviously you can get everyone to help lay weed proof fabric and tuck the edges in, but the planting bit can be made real fun.

An entirely random thought.

I stumbled on a site that has kept a record of the date on which a hazel bush has come into pollen each year. The theory is that the date a hazel produces pollen indicates whether spring will be early or late (for the sake of completeness, catkins came 9 days later this year than last).

Tags: beech