The Tree field Skye

Putting the net curtains over the blueberries made such a difference that I'm definitely going to protect more of my bushes. The birds also have eaten all of my Aronia this year, so I'm very disappointed in that, and again may have to think harder about distraction/protection for those.

The nice weather we have had during August encouraged me to make a start on finishing off some of the raised beds I started last year. I quite enjoy the physical labour and seeing the results of it. The rains have come back now, so I haven' quite finished off the first section.

the Avenue progresses

I used some of the mulch from cutting the trackways again to mulch the small trees and bushes at the edges.

mulching with hay

A little more weeding of onion grass in the shell garden. It still seems to be coming back strongly, so I tried an experiment here - the left hand side (South) is thickly mulched after a rough 'goat mode' chop and drop. The right side (North) I really tried to get out as much of the onion grass bulbils as I could, and then mulched similarly. Hopefully I'll be able to see more clearly in a few weeks whether the extra effort pays off.

shell garden experimental mulching

Although the weather has been generally lovely during August we dd get rather strong winds in the middle of the month - probably gusting to about 75 or 80mph, which is pretty unusual for the time of year. Because of the leaves all being still on the trees there would be a lot more loading and a lot of small twiggy branches were snapped off the alder and the more exposed birch trees. Several willows were snapped at the crotches and one aspen was blown right over. I lost a fair amount of the apples of the tree that was promising the best crop ever, but fortunately they were ripe enough for cooking with, so it wasn't a complete loss. I'm hoping that the tree, which seems slightly loose, will settle back in time.

willows broken by winds

The late summer flowers are coming out now - knapweed and field scabious - as the meadowsweet starts to fade.

late summer flowers