Hello! from Ipswich

[Treelover]

Just joined up after finding an excellent discussion on medlars on your board; I've just been passed a load by a friend who has a friend with a medlar tree..... I don't know if you can grow them from the pips but I'm going to give it a go. I LIKE trees, the more the merrier. My husband and I both have ME so we can't manage more than self sufficientish; essentially a few supplemental veg, loads of herbs and fruit [I had two little nut trees and nothing would they bear because my walnut isn't old enough and the squirrels get to my cobnuts before I do]. One of my hobbies is making wine; and I also dose the family with herbal remedies because they actually work. [the neighbours ask me what to use for this or that minor ailment so I guess I must be doing something right; I'm the neighbourhood witch, lol].
I'm looking forward to delving deeper in this site and meeting everyone!
Sarah

[thesunflowergal]

and a warm welcome Sarah.

Nikki x

[Milims]

Hi there and welcome

[spider8]

Hello Sarah and hubby and welcome from more tree-lovers in Orkney

[ina]

Hi Sarah, welcome!

Could you net at least part of your cobnuts, so the pesky squirrels don't get them all? Would really annoy me to see them all go to those beasties... (Probably not even red ones!)

[fran]

Hi and Welcome from just a bit further down the A12

[MuddyWitch]

WElcome to ISH

Hubby & I are such confirmed tree lovers we have a few dozen saplings in pots, reasdy to take with us when we flit. I was over heard, whilst gathering 'helecopters' from a local sycamour, to say 'I want your babies'!

MW

[battybird]

Hi and welcome to ishers!

[Millymollymandy]

Hello and welcome!

[Treelover]

wow, thanks for all the kind welcomes! i've been a bit preoccupied - or is that TREEoccupied - by my neighbour's sycamour which had got rather out of hand so i've been thinning it for her [i don't have a large enough garden to have sycamours taller than eight inches; they get relegated to bonsai; i use horse chestnut to screen the noise and dirt of the road and that's enough big trees!]
re the cobnuts; i don't have a huge crop so i haven't bothered to net, but thanks, Ina, that's a brilliant idea and i shall try that next year. i already have a load of proto-catkins though i suspect that the winter will do for them. i bought a twisty hazel but it keeps throwing off straight suckers which can be separated and replanted to coppice so i have the best of both worlds, though only the twisty one is producing nuts as yet - and they grow straight, because i planted some to see. it's nice to meet other tree lovers who are possibly as insane as me about trees! Yes, the squirrels are greys, but really they've naturalised and seem to live in reasonable harmony with the other wildlife, occasionally disappearing inside one of our cats who has a penchant for squirrel meat. the birds ignore them - except the woodpigeons - and feed readily on our feeding station beside the squirrels[working on the principle that if i stuff them with peanuts they might leave my cobnuts alone!!!]
The hubby has a new name for me this week - 'The Memsahib'; because as i disappeared into the depths of the buddleia to give it its yearly haircut he shouted 'Ram Das, if the memsahib isn't back by lunchtime send out a search party'. I couldn't reach, at the time, to poke him. Our garden is sort of wildlife oriented and i'm looking forward to reading more about wild foods - herb lore i'm familiar with but i have less knowledge than i'd like about wild foods though i DO keep the nettles under control by treating them as a vegetable as well as a welcome haven for sundry butterflies. funny, isn't it, how you can get a lovely crop of nettles without too much trouble and other veg take longer and show less for it! we have a very sandy soil and it dries out if you take your eye off it for two minutes, despite the springs that feed the main Ipswich aquifer in the neighbourhood. it's another use for trees; nice bit of leaf mould.
again, nice to meet everyone and thanks for the welcome!