Tree Pruning can be a wild business!

It’s not unusual for a Tree Surgeon to be given a nickname, quite often involving the term ‘monkey’ or ‘tree monkey’…they’re regularly accused of monkeying around in trees!

However, for our most recent job, pruning trees at a local forest has indeed been watched over by some real monkeys (technically, they are Barbary Macaques) and they soon showed us who’s the best at climbing!

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We all need to plant trees!

 If we lose them, we can’t hug them….and that should be the least of our worries! Plant trees!

Leslie hugging a tree at Bodnant Garden

I didn’t plant this tree but I’m really glad someone did! It’s a Metasequoia glyptostroboides in the beautiful Dell at Bodnant Garden.

 

Back in April I wrote a blog about the possibility of losing our Oak trees to Acute Oak Decline. Last week The Woodland Trust blogged about the impact of losing 12 million Ash trees to Ash Dieback.

Then there’s Horse Chestnut Leaf Miner, London Planes suffering from Massaria disease, various Phytopthora pathogens and Red band needle blight attacking our conifers…the list goes on. When you factor in the pressures from climate change, pollution and urban development (such as the HS2 rail link destroying Ancient Woodlands) you get the picture – we are losing trees rapidly.

In June, the Forestry Commission released it’s latest woodland cover statistics in their document “Woodland Area, Planting and Restocking”. England has just 10% tree cover – that’s one of the lowest percentages in the whole of Europe!

But there is something we can all do to help….plant a tree, or, if you’ve got the space, plant a load of trees!

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Arboricultural Association Approved!

 

If you’ve ever taken a close look at any of our vehicles, our staff, our headed notepaper or even this website, you may have noticed the logo of the Arboricultural Association…

Approved Contractor Collective Registered

But do you know what it signifies?

Do you know what it means if your Tree Surgeon isn’t Arb Approved?

How does a Contractor become approved by the Arb Association?

Tree Heritage had their reassessment recently and have been approved, again.

Read on and we’ll tell you all about it!…

 

 

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Alien Invasion?!

Without wishing to alarm anyone – did you know that we are being invaded by an alien plant and that it could very well be in your garden?!

This is the perfect time of year to spot it and you need to be vigilant, this is one you can’t turn your back on and hope it will go away…it won’t. And the amateur gardeners methods of digging, strimming or simply ‘thrashing’ it could turn your horticultural problem into an ongoing nightmare!!

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Can you imagine England without Oak Trees?!

The English Oak (Quercus robur) is one of the most recognisable trees in England – as a child, I was encouraged to collect it’s leaves and draw them (such an iconic shape) and the acorn cups were obviously hats discarded by fairies! There’s so many of them that they seem to fill our landscape, they are one of the richest habitats with individual trees supporting countless birds and insects and, best of all, they seem to live forever, or at least for a very, very long time. And yet… they’re under attack?!

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tree-heritage-spring

Has Spring sprung?

Last week was gloriously warm, this morning we were scraping ice off the windscreen again?!

Due to one of us having a birthday last week, we took a gamble, decided to go camping and booked the week after Easter off work. We couldn’t have timed it better – the week before Easter had seen some strong gales and quite a few people phoning us because branches had come down out of trees. In fact the week before that, there had been hail and a definite requirement for central heating!

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Happy Easter!

The Easter weekend is upon us and hopefully the weather is good enough to allow us all to get out in the garden?!

Here are a few small jobs that can be done in between cups of tea, but will make a noticable difference once you’ve finished (and celebrated with Easter eggs, Simnel cake and/or chocolate biscuits!)

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Hay Fever Hell!!

Are you one of the 10 million+ hay fever sufferers in the UK? That’s 1 in 5 people in this country!

If so, you’ll be only too aware of the effects – the sneezing, the runny or blocked nose?, the itchy eyes…and if you’re an asthma sufferer, there’s the tight chest, wheezing and shortness of breath! All of which makes everyday tasks seem almost impossible.

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World Wildlife Day

The United Nations has designated Tuesday 3rd March as World Wildlife Day and the emphasis this year is on Wildlife Crime.
Although the focus will mainly be on global issues such as the destruction of rainforests and the illegal killing and trading of endangered species, there are wildlife crimes occurring in this country too.

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