Well, the eastern half of the country is experiencing the heaviest snowfalls since the early 70s and temperature records are being broken all over the place. I think it has reached -15 Degrees Celsius in parts of the midlands. With all this in mind I have decided to put off buying saplings and seedlings for planting.
The Planting season is long so I hope that there are decent stocks left after all this arctic weather.
On Sunday last (October 17th) I visited Knocksink Nature Reserve near Enniskerry in Co. Wicklow. Now is the best time to get out and collect seeds and as Autumn is coming late this year there are loads of leaves still on the trees but with shades of yellow, brown and red to mix the colours.
It was a short enough drive from Dublin, but, a word of warning, don’t rely on Google maps to get you there, it brought me about a mile in the wrong direction. Once you arrive there’s a small amount of parking available. Read the rest of this entry »
This week I downloaded a great app for the iPhone called “Identify Tree”. It’s an app that allows you to identify trees bty using a key of images of the leaves. It costs a paltry 79 cent to buy, very much worth it in my opinion.
Tags: App, Identification, IPhone
I’ve been inactive for quite some time, not many weekends spare to devote to guerrillia forestry unfortunately. But a lot of nurseries don’t have native trees (around 1-2 feet high) grown yet. I’m reliably informed that around October would be a good time to stock up and start planting. So I’ll organise some activity for Autumn. In the mean time I’ll be posting related news and stuff.
A few months back I found an initiative for planting millions of trees in South America, I couldn’t remember what it was so I did a Google search for “Plant a million trees”. Well, it seems like planting multiples of a million trees is what all the cool kids are doing these days.
On Sunday March 14th I finally planted some trees. The holly and birch seedlings that I got in December have been planted! Hopefully they are the first of many. I’ve placed a marker on the Google map in the full article to indicate the location. I left the specifics out to protect the trees from being disturbed. Read the rest of this entry »
Cool, just found out about this. The Irish Independent are running a competition this week March 8th – March 13th. it’s in conjunction with the Native Woodland Trust and they are giving away 500 hundred native trees and assorted wildflower seeds. There’s one winner per day and they get 100 trees each. I’m entering and hopefully I’ll win but it’s a long shot. It would get Guerrilla Forestry off to a fantastic start.
It’s an old style collect the tokens and post them in type of competition. You fill out a form and send in 3 tokens and that’s it. So get the independent and enter. Good luck!
Tags: Competition, Irish Independent, Native, News
It’s been the coldest winter since the sixties here in Ireland and the only forest I’ve visited in 5 months was in December just before Christmas. I would have loved to get out and get some photos of snow covered forests but there was no guarantee of being able to get back home the conditions were so bad! I was down in Wicklow getting a Christmas tree from Coillte headquarters. I also picked up a holly and a birch seedling which will be the first trees I’ve planted in the name of Guerrilla Foresty. Though I’ll wait until warmer weather as they might not survive the winter we are experiencing.
Tags: Glen of the Downs, Oak, Semi-natural, Wicklow
I happened to be in Kerry for the Halloween weekend, so I took the opportunity to visit Killarney National Park. I was told about some native oak forests in Derrycunihy which is near the well known viewing point called “Ladies View” Which got it’s name after a visit from Queen Victoria’s ladies in waiting in 1861.
Tags: Derrycunihy, Holly, Killarney National Park, Native, Oak, Woodland
On bank holiday Monday October 26th I went for a short walk to get out of the house. I was accompanied by my better half who knows a good deal more about trees and plants than I do. We spotted a good range of species about. During the trip we spotted Scots Pine, Black Pine, Sycamore, Field Maple, Ash, Hawthorn and Blackthorn, Elm, Horse Chestnut, Holly, Irish Yew, English Yew and possibly some Rowan. I successfully identified some of them but needed help with most. I plan on having identification tips on the website when I’ve gathered some knowledge. There were plenty of berries on the Irish Yew so I picked around 12.
Tags: Crab Apples, Irish Yew, Seed collection
To get the ball rolling I decided to get out there and visit a semi-natural woodland. Primarily for practice at identifying trees. I chose the Clara Vale nature reserve in Co. Wicklow . I brought the wet gear (essential) and a field guide to help with the identification.
After a short drive to Rathdrum in the lashing rain, I headed up the road to Laragh on the lookout for an entrance to one of the forests. I missed them all the first time around. Eventually I spotted a sign for the Clara Vale church which I knew was near a forest to visit.
Tags: Clara Vale, Oak, Scots Pine, Semi-natural, Woodland