The death of a cherry tree - and "oh god my back aches"

Sad news of an old friend going.

I lost the old cherry tree outside the front of my house. Months of brutal high winds and rain this awful winter took its toll, causing a split in the trunk and dropped branches. I will miss it this spring - the blossom was beautiful.

Blossom from the cherry tree from spring 2012

Silver lining in the black cloud

In between one storm and another, our local council sent some people to cut down the tree, chip the branches.and remove the logs. It was my day off work - Luck that I was here when they started the job!

I bribed the workmen with big mugs of builders tea and they were kind enough to dump the spoils outside the allotment garden gates.

Me and my mate Doug spent the rest of the day moving wheel barrows of chippings the 500 metres or so from the allotment garden gate to various places in our gardens. 26 loads later...... God my arms and back ached the next day.

My old wheelbarrow - Dave, on top of
a pile of wood chips

I have a love/hate relationship with my wheelbarrow. It's a very old, solid wheel type. Its made from spot welded galvanized steel sheets - indestructible (which is why I love it) and heavy as hell (which is why I hate it). It was left to me by the old guy who had my garden before me and is named Dave after him.

Using the wood chippings

I spread a good two inches of home made compost first, and then used some of my share of the chippings to cover my two raspberry patches and the soil at back of the pond with a good 2 inch (5cm) layer.

Wood chippings like this make a fantastic weed suppressing layer (Posh word is "Mulch").

Mulch works by stopping the light getting to weed seeds so they don't grow.

The chips will slowly rot away and leave behind a layer of light soil full of worms. Great stuff.

I expect this layer to last a year or so, depending on the weather.  

my two raspberry beds

I have two raspberry beds. 

• The nearest one is autumn fruiting and the new canes will pop up some time in March. I cut the old canes down in early December after the last of the leaves had fallen
• The furthest bed is summer fruiting and these canes came up in late summer after the old canes had finished fruiting. I cut out the old canes in August so all the growth would go into the new canes.

Raspberries are woodland margin plants in the wild and they like light humus rich soil. (Humus is the posh word for rotted down plants)  I normally mulch them with a two inch (5cm) thick layer of leaves in early spring, These wood chips will do the job just as well.

Behind the pond

I'm not sure that mulching behind the pond was such a good idea. I covered over a whole load of bulbs that were just showing. They'll now have to fight through a thick layer of chipping which may hold back their growth or swamp them, some might be too small to push through - especially the small crocus and iris

chippings covering the bare soil behind
my new pond

Waste not want not

I'll use the unused chippings underneath my fruit bushes to do the same mulching job..... Just as soon as we get a break in the weather.

I have no idea what I am going to do with the logs, but there will be a home for them somewhere.They are such a fantastic colour and given a few months to start rotting into the soil, will become a great home for bugs to feed my birds.

Fantastic bright orange cherry wood logs