Where we live we are mainly surrounded by holiday homes and empty houses due to the occupants having popped their clogs or been taken into a care home.
Once upon a time you could hear a pin drop whilst out on the terrace having lunch/dinner, along with the different frogs going off every now and then; and then all the housing construction started all around earlier this year. Running the guest house this past summer was a bit of a nightmare, explaining to the guests why very loud noises were taking place at 0700 hrs in the morning…sigh… Up and onwards
Jane - We could have called it the Wildlife Room, but as I have enjoy watching pigeons doing their thing, and I discovered how the anatomy of them works in Cape Town, we thought “why not”. Although, one does not want to get confused with the Romain Cloaca Maxima!
Colin - Thank you very much. So much more development needed - but just one day at a time these days
We have both here, the bay laurel you have to keep on top off as it can put 4ft of growth on in a year and needs hacked back twice yearly and we use a lot of it in cooking.
The evergreen oak is a very nice looking tree but not as fast growing.
Oaks etc… (whatever)… for peace of mind, do make sure they are planted the required distance away from the “boundary”…
It’s such a shame when trees have to be hacked violently (and thus ruining their shape) simply because they were originally planted too close to the edge…
an oak tree will look great, in the correct space…
He is currently here chainsawing away at at one side of the hedging - so I have no doubt he will be quite able to do the required trimming when the time arrives.
Do you think we may need to install a watering system to keep them alive during the heat of summer? Gets up into the 40’s some days…
I would say it is equally/more important to pay attention to preparing proper planting holes. If you have any proportion of clay in your soil I’ve often seen trees that have died after first year or so as the sides of planting holes have been smeared so roots can’t break out. And if a light soil if you prepare too small a hole then the surrounding dry soil pulls all the water away. So great planting holes and loads and loads of mulch.
This area used to be part of the Med Sea ways back and the Cap D’agde hill that we see from our back terrace is all that is left of an ancient volcano. So, our soil is very much a mix of volcanic ash/pumice/sand/shells etc. - very good for drainage.
The guy that came around will be doing the hole boring and planting of the trees so I will take his advice re tree care and watering system.
I have to say that the phrase “hole boring” takes on a whole different context, as I have just started watching Harlots Season 2. Watching it with a mix of shock, admiration and mirth. It does not hold back one bit!
Rainy day here today, so will have an admin day. Phill refers to me as a Pilot - I always have a pile of something to go through and sort out
The other thing to query them on is the size of the trees at planting. Often planting a smaller, younger tree seems counter-intuitive but it suffers less shock and will settle in more quickly and get away faster so in 3 or 4 years you will have exactly the same sized tree. And have saved you some money. 7 x 3m bay could be expensive!
. Don’t your guests find it odd?
hadn’t thought of that one, more biology than history me…
