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ve done a bit of work on the front garden behind the fdrg trying to get out the creeping grass and plant it up there are a few currant bushes that are doing ok some local elder cuttings ditto i ve also planted out the miscanthus grass seedlings and various other things that will do better in the ground that stuck in their pots i was lucky enough to be given some dwarf jerusalem artichoke and some chinese artichoke so have planted these where the grass is more likely to come back the theory is that if i have to dig to harvest then i can dig out the grass at the same time i could probably do with doing some more mulching in this area too we ve had quite a warm summer and so far the yacon here seem to be doing better than in previous years yacon and lush growth by fdrg in terms of new planting i haven t done any broadscale tree planting this year i had intended to replant the area that i had cleared the ash from with small leaved lime beech italian alder local hazel and rowan however i didn t really have time for much this spring due to commitments in the shop the experimental plantings of lime and italian alder have done very well however the sea buckthorn has struggled some of the bushes are still alive but i wouldn t describe it as much of a pioneer it may be that it really dislikes my acid soil or it might be that they take longer to get established and will romp away in a year or two all i know is i m not about to go out and splash out on expensive cultivars if they re not likely to make it through i bought four hazel cultivars this year and have been disappointed that two of them seem to have died i probably will replace them next year though since i do think that they have a good possiblity of good yield here next year i am also thinking of getting some walnuts and maybe some japanese heartnuts baby monkey puzzle with bottle protector i managed to germinate quite a few monkey puzzle tree seeds over the winter and have started planting the seedlings into the treefield ideally i would leave them to get a bit bigger but i have a poor record of keeping things alive in pots so i think they will do better in the ground i have marked various places around the tree field where i think the monkey puzzles could go with long sticks and started turning the turf over to prepare planting holes unfortunately the spade handle finally splintered during this process so there are still quite a few places to be prepared and about half the seedlings still in pots the trees in the fruit jungle really look impressive now i have learnt from them not to plant the monkey puzzles too close to pathways since the leaf spines are really sharp posted in design fruit garden gevuina avellana hazelnuts miscanthus monkey puzzle tree field uncategorized yacon 2 comments some good some bad posted on july 18 2021 july 18 2021 by skyeent rather later than anticipated i m reviewing my unusual tuber harvest for last year i ve had a few distraction in my life recently mostly in my shop creating a zero waste facility in a very short timescale thanks to a zero waste scotland grant but also getting sucked into the permies com forums i guess the change in the wordpress editor hasn t helped i find it much slower to create a post now than it used to i actually dug the yacon in the polytunnel on 22 january and a few days later outside by the start of february we had a prolonged spell of freezing weather and the temperatures got down to about 8 degrees celsius this is unusually cold for here and i have lost several other plants to the cold annoyingly this included some newly purchased ones that i had left outside the polytunnel without thinking that they would have been better off inside it can t have been that cold in the polytunnel since the pond remained frost free this at the same time as the river was frozen yacon flowers 2020 the yacon all seemed to grow pretty well last year all were at least at tall as me although not heading for the sky outside several had mulitple stems and all the new ones developed some lovely flowers like tiny sunflowers the different varieties flowered at different times so it is unlikely i will get viable seeds see cultivariable i had the following harvest of tubers yaon new zealand 2020 new zealand plant1 1500g plant2 3775g plant3 1750g yacon morado 2020 morado plant1 1875g plant2 350g this one got stem rot early in the summer and the upper growth remained poor plant3 1750g plant4 2600g this one only one with broken tubers white std i seem to have mislaid my harvest information but i remember it was a bit less than the other two yacon after peeling l r original nz morado all the nz plants had some broken tubers with splits the original white plants seemed to vary quite a a lot in yeild and tuber quality the morado tubers have the darkest colour skin and the flesh is also slightly orange in colour the new zealand is more uneven in colour and the tubers are white under the skin i found that the flavour of the original ones were the sweetest and the tuber sizes on the morado and new zealand were larger as was the yield the plants outside did much less well none of them had tubers of any great size none bigger than a fat finger perhaps some of the tubers did not store too well i think that they were rather damp and cold when they came in and they got some mould developing on the skins surprisingly though i still have a few that appear perfect the last one i tried though had a slight off taste so i think i wil compost the rest i have also harvested the mashua from the polytunnel this seems to have been quite happy last year despite not having had any attention and i got a fair amount of tubers from the plants it didn t flower at all though i left some nice tubers adjacent to the polytunnel side in situ to regrow this year and they survived the cold snap and are growing away nicely i made some chutney with most of the tubers the spicy flavour goes well in my standard chutney recipe although i think next time i will reduce the cinnamon and cloves so much for the good now for the bad i did not harvest the oca before the hard frosts digging frosted tubers i had carefully planted out my different coloured oca harvested from last year in the pallet garden so that i could grow out and compare the different tubers for taste and yeild they grew away pretty well and flowered last year unfortunately almost all the tubers got frosted they develop just under the surface in fact some were on top of the ground surface and were eaten by birds mice or slugs and were not deep enough to escape damage all the tubers were pale and soft only a very few tubers that were closest to the pallet seem to have escaped the frost i didn t have results therefore for yield or flavour comparison i had just a few tubers to plant this year and only one seems to be sprouting in its pot however i have several offers of new tubers for next year so will start again maybe the one survivor is more frost tolerant time might tell posted in mashua oca perennials polytunnel yacon 8 comments ice and fire posted on february 15 2021 february 20 2021 by skyeent frozen river this has been the coldest spell we ve had in several years freezing temperatures both night and day for several weeks the sky s have been clear blue cloudless days and stunning starry nights i m hoping that i haven t lost many plants i think the minimum we reached was about 8 degrees celsius everything looks really dessicated although it s not been windy everything is freeze dried despite the time of year there have been several wild fires on skye and the outer isles leading to road closures in the middle of skye last week i don t know whether they were deliberate muirburn to regenerate grazing or accidental fires my wasabi has died back and the luma apiculata s leaves have dried up i forgot to wrap the unknown citrus in the polytunnel and that has shrivelled leaves too hopefully these will all sprout back in spring i do hope so there was a little snow but most of it melted before it froze again there is snow on the tops of the hills still which look like mt fuji ice crystals in grass as the ground is frozen i can t really get on with planting anything but i ve made some progress with coppicing i ve cleared a little of the alder copse at the top by the cut through i cut those between the windbreak and the cut through so the regrowth should have a bit of shelter alder coppice at cut through some of the birch are getting pretty big now i have taken out some of the lower branches singling the stems so they will make straighter logs in time perhaps singling birch further down again i singled out more alder along the top of the river bank and in the pond area also taking out completely one multistemmed tree i think that s all i ll do for this year i don t want to overdo things especially until i know how well the regrowth will do we won t have enough to be self sufficient in wood i don t think however it s nice to feel like we re making a step in that direction especially with it having been so cold recently posted in birch coppicing firewood tree field wasabi weather tagged alder coppice skye 2 comments taking the ash out posted on january 27 2021 by skyeent unfortunately this year i am hoping some of the wood i am cutting will not grow back unlike most of my coppicing i have decided that the dieback i am getting on the ash trees is actually chalera and have reported it to to the treealert forestry research site up until last year i had not noticed green leaves dying back and the dieback was not generally associated with nodes i suspect that these specific parts of the symptoms are associated with more mature trees rather than young saplings none of my trees is taller than about 8 feet or more than 6cm in diameter previously i was just noticing dieback of new shoots i noticed some symptoms as far back as 2012 but many of my young trees die back as a result of salt winds in winter on new growth hazel and oak for example so i wasn t sure whether to be too concerned view of central ash area last summer i noticed several trees where some new green growth had wilted just fading away rather than turning colour like they do in autumn in addition i could see some marking spreading from the branch nodes like the pictures show on the ash dieback pictures i have not really seen this before dieback of green leaves dieback at branch node i don t know whether the symptoms i have seen before were ash dieback or whether it has just arrived this year anyway rather than just interplanting the ash with different trees as discussed before i decided to try and remove the ash completely i have therefore cut the trunks right down as near to the round as possible this involved lifting up the vole guard removing the grass to expose the trunk and cutting as close to the earth as possible the picture below shows the bottle vole guards catching the light showing the tree i ve cleared around clearing the grass from the trunks i am hoping that by leaving off the vole guards that the little critters will eat any regrowth from the ash although i suspect they may grow back a bit since some have been in more than 10 years now hopefully i will not need to dig out the roots as well victims of chalera although the trunks are generally quite small and many diseased there are a few that may be big enough to be useful as tool handles i need a new rake handle as my best one was broken over the winter the rest of the ash will only be useful as kindling but i think it best to burn it as soon as possible rather than leave it to compost as i would otherwise do i ve still got just a few ash to take out one or two that i ve spotted which i missed the first time round and a dozen or so right at the top that were local provenance but also don t look good we ve had a bit of snow this week so i ll wait till that thaws before finishing off bamboo marks positions for two of the new hazels on a more positive note i potted up another ten monkey puzzle seeds at the weekend also my plants from art have come i have decided where to plant my four hazelnut trees and there are three blueberry bushes to plant too also my xmas present from my super younger sisters has come at least the plants i bought with the edulis nursery voucher have i therefore have plenty to do outside once the weather allows posted in ash dieback firewood tree field tagged ash dieback chalera tree disease 6 comments monkeying around posted on january 2 2021 january 3 2021 by skyeent wintry showers i ve been a bit busy with shop projects recently and with the daylight being so short at the moment i haven t actually done very much outside it is just past the solstice and it is dark till 8 a m and dark again at about 4 30 p m the days are supposedly getting longer usually by the start of february the difference is appreciable some plants are already starting to show spring growth the celandine leaves are already forming others don t seem to have realised yet that it is winter some of the fuchsias still have most of their leaves although the winter hasn t been too bad yet this week is set to be colder and drier so at once will be frostier but nicer for working outside in the former drg i have staked the gevuina which is starting to rock in the wind a bit i ll prune the leader out this summer coming and see if i can start a new plant from the removed tip it is supposed to be fairly easy to take cuttings the two seedlings that grew this summer are still doing well i have just left them outside in the wet and they seem to be thriving i wonder if they prefer the cooler damp conditions rather the drier warmer conditions i tried in the polytunnel with previous seeds maybe a little warmer to germinate then outside to the wet again i still have several pots with seeds in that have not started to germinate but look healthy large female monkey puzzle tree in portree skye may 2019 i am rather keen to grow many more monkey puzzle trees they grow so nicely and shrug off the winds here the plan would be to put them all down the hill not near paths and let them grow until they fruit then the female trees can be kept to provide nuts and the male trees harvested for timber to this end i bought a moderate amount of scottish harvested seeds from an ebay seller and have put these to germinate in the kitchen based on the instructions provided by the seller i soaked the seeds overnight placed a layer of damp vermiculite in a couple of old strawberry punnets pushed the seeds in about half way put the lids back on the trays and put the trays stacked on top of each other near the stove flue seeds by stove flue every few days i sprayed the tops of the seeds with water to keep them damp after a couple of weeks i taped up most of the ventilation holes in the lids since the seeds seemed to be getting a little dry in between sprays as i noticed that there were a few roots developing the other day i tipped the seeds out and sorted the...