Welly's Gardening thread revival Bank Holiday update

[Welly]

One day, whilst strolling in our local park, I happened upon a huge Horse Chestnut Tree under which a Conker had started to sprout roots. Giving the conker a fighting chance I carefully picked it up and put it in my pocket.

I planted it in a pot with some other stuff and forgot all about it until a year or so later this strange plant appeared........

Here it was at about 18 months old and approx 12" in height, awww....




Fast forward 5 years, a few pot-changes later, a lot of TLC and look at me now....










The pot is a lot bigger than it looks here

Standing 7' 4" now and it's a beauty. I feel kinda proud when I see it but one day I shall have to set it free I suppose but for now I shall still enjoy it as it is.

It's really interesting to see it unravel it's new branches and leaves each year as they're all hidden over the winter in a sticky bud/cup thing which opens out in spring

Thanks for listening

Normal service will be resumed shortly.....

[steve_earwig]

And you are..?

Tip on side, remove pot, dig hole to fit pot, shove horse chestnut in hole (brown bit first), water.

I wish I had the same sort of luck with walnuts, they seem to get to about 2' and just die.

[teamster1975]

Welly the conkerer!
How long will you leaf it before giving it a permanent home Welly?
*legging it for the door!!*

[Welly]

I was researching into when to plant it and it's about now really. Trouble is, wherever I plant it I need to consider that it could reach 30mtrs in height and almost as wide

It can apparently take many years for it to bear it's conkers (oo-er) and also produce white flowers (known as candles) as it does so.

I might appear a bit nurdy about my tree and it's certainly a talking point amongst my family (who always thought I was different) but I like it! I've grown it and I've helped it get to over 7 feet so there

Something like this would cost nearly £50.00 to buy from a specialist

[teamster1975]

Joking aside I think it's a cool thing to do
I planted a conker down the back of Mum and Dad's garden when I was about 11 years old and couldn't wait until spring time to see how much it would grow the next year!
I always wanted to start off an apple tree but could never get it to last long

[jasper5]

Brilliant stuff
Take a look at the Damson tree to the right of my 407 in my front garden, I grew that from a twig, it's now the full height of the house and bears loads of fruit every year about August/september time.
http://i638.photobucket.com/albums/uu10 ... 1253373336

[Doggy]

Brill! Not enough people doing this, good on you, Welters old chap.

Prefer Ash, Oak or Beech for the woodburner, but I've made a note...

Welly - autumn 2050 - large chainsaw

[Welly]

Thread resurrection alertage:

Now the Horse Chestnut lives in a sorn-off half Red Wine Barrel imported from France and is mahoosive

Crap Tree pics alert:



In other news I was getting fed up with my Patio/Lawn interface so set about designing an edging profile to give me a decorative boarder that I can 'mow over' and automatically 'edge' the lawn:

So I measured and drew up a design and had our Metal shop at work Plasma cut these from 0.9mm Aluzinc the top has a rolled edge for strength and a safe edge:


Going in using a Rubber Mallet and a 'twating' action:


Cornerage:


A straight:


A long bit:


My beautiful Japanese Crab:



The Cat watching and helping*:


And the other one in its Lounge:


Suffer with a touch of OCD and have some spare Mortar mix? step this way and repair* the curbstone that broke years ago:


Quite literally 25 minutes after I completed this masterpiece of curb reassignment my Neighbour trod on the wet Mortar and f*cked it up. I managed to repair it to an acceptable* standard.

Thanks for reading

[steve_earwig]

That edging's rather good, looks really smart with the pea shingle and those paving stones. In fact it looks smart all round chez Welly.

...and had our Metal shop at work Plasma cut these from 0.9mm Aluzinc

Bloody hell, it's alright for some! You lucky, lucky...

The metalwork kind of looks like the business part of the tractor grass cutters they use here (except the "teeth" look like sharks' teeth).

And once more I had a walnut growing in a flowerpot at the end of last year, I should've planted it but I couldn't decide where and it didn't make it through winter.

Ah well, here's one someone (who's probably long dead by now) planted earlier


Cats are strange animals, they've refused to sleep in any bed I've ever got them, preferring cardboard boxes, plastic bags, my rucksacks, the laundry baskets, fruit bowls... Here's Mary-Jane on...

... the tray I was potting up seedlings on

[Doggy]

Coming along nicely that there conker tree. Keep up the good work.

I've noticed some of the horse chestnuts in our part of the world have pink candles - is this due to red wine barrelage?

[Welly]

There's Red and White flowered HC's so the Red is prolly Pink to look at. Mine's supposed to be white.

There's a problem with a lot of HC's in the UK with the 'Leaf Miner' bug or 'Leaf Blotch' which is a fungus mine get's these blotches in the summer. In fact I was looking at the tree last night and might trim it right down it's too big really, it fell over in the high wind yesterday even though the 'pot' weighs at least 50Kg's.

[steve_earwig]

You can't compost horse chestnut leafs, too much tannin apparently (same as walnut).

Anyway, speaking of compost, my mate James is on the scrounge https://www.buzzbnk.org/GreenhamReach I'm not expecting/demanding you stick your hands in your pockets but it would be much appreciated. Btw that's James playing on the soundtrack, he even made the accordion. Clever bugger.

[binnzy]

last time I grew anything I got arrested

[PeterN]

A sawed up a large branch that had fallen from a tree a couple of weeks ago and found a very healthy sprig of holly growing out of it which was odd because it was an oak tree! On investigation I found the holly had taken root in a hole in the wood, I put it in a pot in the greenhouse but it doesn't look very happy. Still I have a nice pile of logs

Peter

[steve_earwig]

Anyway, speaking of compost, my mate James is on the scrounge https://www.buzzbnk.org/GreenhamReach I'm not expecting/demanding you stick your hands in your pockets but it would be much appreciated. Btw that's James playing on the soundtrack, he even made the accordion. Clever bugger.

James on the Beeb http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b05tbf5c#auto