Posts

Lets get making our streets and estates into urban orchard for everyone to have free fresh food!

Our oak museum so far

-
Image
Here we go guys, 32 ancient oak trees all planted up in our spiral so far. Just a handful more to go to bring it up to the magic number of 37! Here is the list so far.... 1. Bowthorpe oak 2. Robin Hood aka Major oak 3. Parliament oak 4. Big Belly oak 5. Knighthood oak 6. Brimmon oak 7. Capon oak 8. Blenheim palace oak 4012 9. Remedy oak 10. King oak Blenheim palace 11. Clachan oak 12. Ketts oak 13. Brian Boru 14. Belvoir oak 15 .Chained oak 16. Magog oak 17. Allerton oak 18. QE1 oak 19. Old Knobbley oak 20. Fingeringhoe oak 21. Marton oak 22. Phantom climbing tree oak 23. Wyndham oak 24. Panshanger oak 25. Crouch oak 26. Domesday oak 27. Ufton oak 28. Darley oak 29. Druid oak 30. Majesty oak 31. Old Man of Calke oak 32. Birnam oak For many years now myself and The Paramili-Trees SAS ( Special Acorn Service) branch have been collecting acorns of all these ancient masters above. I have been germinating and growing the acorns myself and now so happy to get them all planted up in our oak s...
Post a Comment
Read more

33 ancient masters at our spiral

-
Image
 Was working flat out at our oak spiral all day yesterday getting the acorns planted up and building guards around them all.  We now have 33 different types of famous oaks here at our spiral, unreal! The gales coming across the hills yesterday while planting was epic. It really made my day being out in it just me and nature. Was pretty Shamanic.  All of the most recent batches of acorns sent to me autumn past by The Paramili-Tree SAS Branch ( Special Acorn Service) have all germinated.  Cant believe how many different iconic oaks we have from all corners of the UK and Ireland. We must have the largest collection of ancient oak genetics on these islands all planted up in a spiritual spiral formation at our Lisnabreeny Community Orchard. I will update my list today with all the names of the famous oaks we have and keep yous posted.  Cant wait to get this all done and dusted and take myself on holiday. Honestly guys I've taken on too much this planting season. A le...
Post a Comment
Read more

Our work so far!

-
Image
 This is the list of the the famous oaks we have planted so far in our spiral. Still have a many more big names to get planted here in the next few days. All these oaks have been grown from acorns collected from the famous parent trees below. 1. Bowthorpe oak 2. Robin Hood aka Major oak 3. Parliament oak 4. Big Belly oak 5. Knighthood oak 6. Brimmon oak 7. Capon oak 8. Blenheim palace oak 4012 9. Remedy oak 10. King oak Blenheim palace 11. Clachan oak 12. Ketts oak 13. Brian Boru 14. Belvoir oak 15 .Chained oak 16. Magog oak 17. Allerton oak 18. QE1 oak 19. Old Knobbley oak 20. Fingeringhoe oak 21. Marton oak This is going to be amazing when all finished. A spiral museum of oak trees preserving the linage and genetics of these islands oldest and most iconic oaks.  Feel free to support our mission guys. We dont get funding for this great work. Its all done out of love for trees and nature. Although at times I have to ask myself what am I at when most my life is consumed by The ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Acorns getting planted up today!

-
Image
 Today I'm going to sow all the iconic acorns I have directly into the ground at our spiral. All these acorns were collected by the Paramili-Tree SAS-(Special Acorn Service) members from all over the UK and Ireland and posted to me last autumn. All the acorns I got I put them into these pots in the pic. I buried them all nice an deep so no wildlife digs them up for a treat over winter. It will be exciting to empty these out today to see which ones have germinated. For me this is the simplest way to germinate acorns. Just collect straight from the tree and bury a handful nice and deep with soil. Come this time of year empty the pot out and plant or repot the ones that have germinated. Some big named oak trees in these pots, after today we're hopeful we'll have around 30 different famous oak trees planted up at our spiral. For anyone thats new to this page you'll see in the pic the spiral we cut out in the field. I'm planting this spiral up with acorns collected from ...
Post a Comment
Read more

A little bit of magic

-
Image
 On Friday when we were making the carparking spaces at our Lisnabreeny community orchard I had just paid a farmer friend of mine £70 for helping us out with his tractors and other machinery. He was reluctant to take it to be honest but I insisted as all that farm stuff is worth a fortune and would have cost us hundreds to rent it. Literally as soon as I give him the £70 a random guy stops in a van and says here take this as a donation towards helping out in the orchard. It was 70 quid he give me!!! That old saying a giving hand is a receiving hand came to mind. I couldn't believe it! Then last night I took a group of volunteers out for dinner as a way of saying thank you for all that they do for the orchards. The bill was £80. As soon as I got back home I opened up a message and it was a donation for £80!! You couldn't make it up!! Your donations mean a lot to me guys, it keeps my mission going forward. Past couple of days I've had a tree expert staying with me helping me ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Thank you for the donations.

-
Image
 Thanks for the donations yesterday guys, really do appreciate it. Takes a bit of pressure of me and lets me work more at ease with the trees. Going forward I think the only way is setting up a Trust and I pay myself a wage from the Trust. Get other people to do fundraising for the Trust and I can carry on planting and chanting and creating good content on here. Just recently I have been stopping and having a rethink at times, every orchard created takes up so much time and money to maintain. I worry at times about my financial situation. Its hard to try and raise money and at the same time do all the work that needs to be done. I never before wanted to go down the road of a Trust as its a lot more paper work and accounting, but its probably the only way I can carry on for the future. I hate making my posts about money. I just want to share positive content about what I do rather than having the begging bowl out all the time. Worrying about money also has a big impact on my daily p...
Post a Comment
Read more

Taking its toll

-
Image
 The majority of everything I do is funded by myself. Always has been right from the start.  Just over the past year creating our new Lisnabreeny community orchard with over 600 fruit trees in it has caused a massive strain on me financially. I've taken on too much if I'm going to be honest. If it wasn't for volunteers offering free labour these projects would fall apart.  Hate even coming on here with the begging bowl. Its not me guys. I have always worked for my own money so asking for donations is really not my character. I've just finished planting over 500 community fruit trees all round South Belfast and hundreds of other native trees and never mind all the maintenance of the thousands more planted. Now onto grafting more for next year. My work is never done. Please if you can support us on the link below.  https://paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=FAJZHB3TBXMSL I've a little savings account of my own. The day I have to break into it I'm gone. Back to wh...
Post a Comment
Read more