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Over the past few weeks we have been wrapped up in a flurry of tree planting. It is the very tail end of the planting season and, as I am mostly pretty disorganised, things that should have been done earlier in the season are being done now

there and for that one night Aynho became the capital of Royalist England. The second is that many of the houses along the main street have thriving apricot trees trained against their walls*.Apparently this is a practice that has been going on for hundreds of years

Last year we made a momentous decision. After many years of buying real Christmas trees to decorate our home over the festive period, we decided to buy a fake one.Previously we had endless scenarios like this:"Are you going to get the tree

The woods around us consist mostly of ash trees (Fraxinus excelsior), and every autumn we have a few weekends of frantic leaf collecting (particularly frantic around the chicken run). The trees seem to shed leaves at random – one tree

nurseries of apple trees. The idea being that families (presumably in those canvas-covered wagons that, in Westerns, are always being arranged in defensive circles) would then turn up, start farms and need apple trees. He had some odd ideas (although

Once upon a time, many years ago, there was a field hedge near my house. A hedge consisting of about 60% hawthorn, with other shrubs added to make up the difference. At one time it was laid, trimmed and maintained but today just two trees remain

of our trees find themselves right now. Trees in bud.I thought of it after my wife pointed out how extraordinary the buds of the ash tree looked. She is right that they are initially charcoal grey and then open into strange purplish flowers like miniature

garden is really too small then plant them in somebody else's (if necessary under cover of darkness).Update: read James's follow-up blog on trees for small gardens, Trees for small gardens 2.

This time of year the crab apples are at their most impressive: the trees are laden with little yellow or red apples that hang on until long after the last leaves have fallen. These are really useful smallish trees, not just for their colourful

Evergreen trees and shrubs are tricky. They are a very important part of our gardens at this time of year, but they need to be used with great care and a light touch.I'm thinking about this at the moment because I'm planting a new woodland for a