Gerry, I recently asked you about the best ways to get my shelter belt of trees growing after I incurred many losses through failures. You recommended adding more trees from pots (not bare rooted) as they would survive the harsh winds better. You also recommended spraying off weeds from the base of the existing trees and giving them a boost with some fertilizer.Just to update you, your recommendations were spot on. I did plant some pines (from pots) into the areas where there were failures and I sprayed and added fertilizer (7-6-17) to all the trees.I guess along with the great rush of growth that April offers, the results have been instantly positive.As the trees are breaking out of dormancy they are soaking up the fertilizer and without the weeds to compete against, they are getting a great start to the year.I should have been less ambitious when I planted large bare-rooted trees to begin with. The strong Atlantic winds just hammered them, leading to numerous failures and severe die-back Those that survived now look shrubby, not like what trees should look like. From here onwards, I'll stick to your advice and plant from pots and take more care of the trees I plant.
I have a large area of ground around my summer house. Space is not a problem! In order for me to develop a substantially large garden in the future (up to 2 acres) I have to firstly establish a good shelter belt. I have chosen (so far) pines with a mix of broadleaves such as Sycamore, Ask (Fraxinus) and Alder. The pines were only 2ft tall when planted (from pots) and the broadleaves were approx 3-4ft bare-root at planting. They were planted two years ago and despite some failures are just doing OK. Slow but gradually growing despite the occasional battering from winter storms. Do you have any suggestions ragarding adding other trees to this shelter belt? I would like to add at least another layer to the leeward side of this current planting in order to beef up the shelter belt and not have it grow as just a linear planting. But am I being too impatient? I would like to vary the mix of trees (coniferous & broadleaves) but the site is still very prone to damage from the severe Atlantic storms thay come form the south-west. Advice on choice of trees, planting patterns and maybe the need to be more patient?