Garden Pictures Chat Corner

25 liters so far and by tomorrow morning another as much should come

Karsten I’ll blow hard so more gets to you

We had rain in the last weeks including snow, it’s still not enough. What should come by tomorrow evening would be better if spread over days. Earlier it felt like someone tipped a bucket over.

Ares, that’s a start. What kind of shrubs do you have there in the row?

We had to plant 6 native shrubs, mixed with some others. These are privet, 2x Portuguese cherry laurel, lilac, hazel, spindle, star magnolia, moneywort, forsythia, chokeberry, white meadowsweet, holly, serviceberry, and rowan. So far most of it is still manageable, but I think in a few years we’ll see why some of these are called large shrubs.

Today it was nicely warm and little wind. Went sailing on the Baltic Sea this evening still in a T-shirt. Water is already a good 13-14 degrees, moving in the right direction, soon there will be the first short swim. From 15 I’ll quickly go in. K.

In the regions Bergisches Land and Sauerland, it is questionable whether the spruce will survive as a native tree. Dryness causes the trees to produce little resin to defend themselves against the bark beetle. In addition, the winter was too mild. We ourselves do not have spruces, but the area will change visually.

Spruce is becoming rarer in Germany; it simply gets too warm for it. I once saw this in a documentary a few years ago, back when it was still the future.

The spruce is becoming rarer in Germany, it simply gets too warm for it. I also saw this a few years ago in a documentary, back then it was still the future.

It is a harsh present. In our forestry cooperative, there are some severely affected forest farmers. There is so much wood on the market that prices are completely down and sometimes there are no buyers at all. Partly, beetle-infested wood goes to China. Isn't that absurd? Meanwhile, the forest farmers have to remove the beetle wood to prevent the catastrophe from becoming complete. That's how it is when you always think one more year will be okay. Then comes 2018 and nothing works anymore. It's always the same pattern. And we want to keep burning coal in NRW... A very flat learning curve.

My uncle had worked at the forestry office until 20 years ago; even back then he said that coniferous trees are not the future, especially not pure spruce forests. It was not without reason that there were almost only beeches here in the past, and the name Buchonia did not come from nowhere.