Pig Sty Avenue

In the middle of the photo you can see a metal post I banged in this evening to mark where "structure" stops and earth begins. The brick path running across the bed I also put in, to mark where the Midwest bed starts. So the area around what will be the new shed, I decided to use as a kind of informal seed bed. That's the ground between the metal post and the brick path, and running down to the left beneath the ash tree. All seeds hanging around the fridge, homeless, went in there today. There were about 400 hawthorns. They'd had 2 months in the fridge, and month on the windowsill, no shows, so back to the fridge; (where, by the way, the carrier bag I'd put them in with their compost stuck to the back of the fridge, tore when I tried to get it out, spilling compost all over the bloody fridge and causing me 20 mins work to empty the fridge and clean it all up). Also the alder which has been on the windowsill for a month or more, and produced only 3 plants, (...

The gorse seeds in the trays have gone berserk. Last night there was only 1 thriving germinated seedling. This morning there were 6 more breaking through. By midday, 9. Just now this evening, 19. In other news, I sowed the roses in a tray on a different windowsill. In a proper seed tray this time, following carefully the advice Prof. Google had to offer.  There are still only 3 alder, but they're handsome wee seedlings. I'll plant them together, in the wettest bit of the West bed, above the French drain.

This is the most vigorous of the fruit bushes transplanted over the winter. I think it's a gooseberry. I've planted them in what will be the front row of the hedge, about 1ft apart. So their main job is hedgerow rather than fruit production. Nonetheless I expect gooseberries etc in due course. I'm glad about 75% of the fruit bushes have taken so enthusiastically to their new homes, because it must be said that other aspects of the hedgerow are not working out; no hawthorns whatsoever germinated after 2 month stratification of 100s of seeds; only 3 alder after 3 months stratification; the gorse has now joined this unhappy list, I got 6/10 in a trial (in a 4in pot) but only 1 so far (of several hundred seeds) in the trays. The common factor in failure seems to be the recycled tin trays I'm using, (formerly used to roast a supermarket chicken). I'll get  proper seed trays for the last leg of the experiment, the roses, which have now been stratifying in the fridge...

As of this morning, I've got 9/10 gorse seeds germinated. Of those, 2 seem to have a problem shedding their seed coats, But let's say a 75% germination rate, and I've estimated I've got 400+ seeds, so that's as many as 300 plants for 280ft of boundary, (250 for now, actually: the S boundary is shaded by its fence, so gorse probably won't do; I'm thinking holly and yew, eventually). I counted up the soft fruit bushes and other odds and ends of plants already in the hedgerow, and 31 have quickened. The hawthorn and alder have been disappointing. Zero hawthorn germinated, so there's something clearly wrong there: even without stratification, I've noticed in the past, you get a 1-2% germination rate; these buggers had 2 months in the fridge. The alder, I've got maybe 6 germinated of several hundred. I'll prepare a finely riddled bed for the hawthorn and alder. They can go in there any time soon. I'll have to keep a close eye on the weeds....

I've been waiting a week for the hawthorn seeds on the study windowsill to germinate. There were 400 seeds, calculated by their weight. I suspect I'm going to get maybe 100 plants from them. Whatever hasn't germinated after a month or so on the windowsill, I'll bag up and put back in the fridge for a month or so. Anyway, the point is, hawthorn is going to be an important element in the hedge(row), but probably less than 50% of the total. So I'm rowing back, now, from calling it a hedgerow, and it'll hereafter be called The Hedge. Essentially, I've got about 80 yards of boundary to play with, and I may as well make it a work of art. So far, that's 50-ish soft fruit bushes. And then however many gorse, alder, rose and hawthorn germinate this year. I plan to add some holly, maybe 10 or so bare-rooted next winter, (it sounds like a right to-do, growing it from seed). And I want silver birch, because they were one of the first trees I learned the name o...

I took this on a brief visit tonight, (brief, but I moved 3 barrowfulls from the E to the W side). Yesterday and last night 33.6m of rain fell on Glasgow. Prior to that, the pond was very low, down to the boulder clay. That 1in plus of rain has been enough to fill it. This is the pond's maximum extent now: I know this because, see that iron spike in the middle foreground? That's the location of the opening to the Council's drain. Water was running from the edge of the pond, down into the drain. This is fantastic. It means that 12 or so hours of heavy rain were enough to fill the pond entirely. It also means that it won't get out of hand, because of the Council's drain; (I have plans to mark that overflow area with some nice stones, maybe some of the quartz pebbles I've been digging up). It also means I can see where to go if I want to extend the pond margins outwards a little, grow some interesting plants there... The area over the French drain I installe...

Done, now, with yesterday's flooded allotment blues . Here's what a bit of thought and a good night's sleep suggests: a lot of the spoil I've got, (from the pond and under the path) is either heavy clay soil (path), or actual boulder clay from the pond excavations. I'm going to use that as the first line of defence along the NW boundary, build up a wee bank with it. I'll need at least part of the path relaid first, and the scaffold boards I've been garnering, so I can get about with the barrow on the waterlogged ground. The Predecessor had a bank there, with some success. But here's the best bit: when I was talking to the bee-lady at the allotments, she was very interested to hear of my hedgerow plans, and told me the allotments had a huge amount of willow whips... So I'll plant out the clay bank with willow, which will hold the fort this year and next whilst the hawthorn and alder are growing. In the longer term, the combination of clay and hedg...

Alder Seeds, Floating in Water So yesterday I blogged about stratifying seeds for the hedgerow , and noted that the alder seeds whose cones I'd picked up from the pavement were floating when I put them in water, which anyone who forages seeds will know is a sure-fire indication of the seeds' non-viability. But I did theorise that, as alder generally grows by water, it would make evolutionary sense that its seeds could be dispersed by water, and floating away would be a good thing. And that appears to be the case, according to treesforlife.org , (scroll down to "Water").  Because I'm desperately trying to get my head back into my Doctorate reading, I'm going to make some analogies here to Kane's (2013) ideas about inferential validity. I inferred yesterday, that because alder grows by water, it could be argued that their seeds should float, and therefore flotation was not necessarily proof that they weren't viable, (which would be the case with,...

This evening I started the stratification of the 400 hawthorn and 250 rose seeds I've got, to sow this Spring, and plant out in the following Autumn. Backbone of the hedgerow. The methodology is, put them in a container with damp compost in the fridge, and leave them for two months. This simulates winter, in which seeds will spend a lot of the time in cold wet earth. This breaks down the seed coat, (not sure on the physics of that), and admits moisture to the actual seed. So when you put them in 20C compost on the windowsill in early March, hey presto! most of them should germinate. I found some alder cones on Onslow Drive a few days ago. I got about 100 seeds from them. But tonight I put them in a jug of water, and... they all floated. Generally, I've found seeds which float are barren, (maybe an F1 parent?)  But I'm thinking, trees which grow by water, their seeds might have evolved to float for a bit, carry them downstream?  Anyhow, I'll give 'em 48 hours, an...