Of course wrong time of the year for pruning but that’s fine with me. Todays job was to cut up a large limb off our walnut tree. Neither Aimee and I are fans of the walnut and the fact that they produce Juglone, a toxic substance that prevents many plants from growing under or near them is another reason we’re slowly cutting it down.
I am a big, big fan of trees and the walnut will be replaced. I do have a bunch of trees that I’m growing and will start to plant shortly, these include Oak (English and Burr), Dogwood, River Birch, Silver Birch and a couple of types of pine tree. They won’t all fit but I’m looking forward to planting a couple of oaks best of all. As a kid it was my favourite tree to climb, so I have a fondness for them. I won’t be around to see it in it’s prime, but I’m glad someone else will. What is the saying? an Oak lives for 300 years, the first hundred it grows, the second hundred it matures and the third it dies.
Last week I got up on a ladder and with a small electric chainsaw I started to cut the branch. My intention was never to cut through, just enough to snap it. I think I was maybe 30% through when I heard a loud crack so I beat a hasty retreat. It didn’t break, but you could see a split opening up, so this week I cut a bit more, not much maybe 8 -10 strokes with a hand bow saw and it started to spilt again. No it didn’t fall, but I didn’t want to risk injury so I decided to wait and let nature do it’s thing. We had storms on Wednesday and on turning up to the house on Thursday the branch had snapped. We weren’t really bothered if it fell on the garage, but as it happened it landed perfectly on the lawn. Couldn’t have gone better.
The following photos illustrate the deep rich color of the walnut heartwood which is why it’s such a popular wood amongst wood workers. As I recently bough a lathe, I may try and make something with these logs.
By the way I can highly recommend the great Bahco bow saws, a Swedish company who also used to go by the name of Sandvik. With a sharp blade you can go through a 6″ log in about three minutes, highly recommend for small jobs.
As I sit in the South of France celebrating our 40th wedding anniversary with my family I am amazed at all these things you are doing. There is no wrong time to prune really (obviously avoid shrubs into winter) just some times are better than others.
How are you going to deal with the other bough without hitting the garage. Ropes, volunteers and hope 🙏🏻
Thanks Chris and a very happy anniversary to the both of you!! This is about as a large a limb as I’m comfortable with so will be calling in experts to complete the task 🙂