Collecting a forest of Pinus Nigra -Nigra's

[alpineart]

This is my day done , took longer than the rest due to the fact that the ground was as hard as a cats head and was loaded with spare parts from the excavators and compactors used when the water supply dam was built .

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. I discovered these 5 years ago when relatively small however an attempt to remove some was a waste of time as no roots other than the tap root was present .Just over 3 years ago i decided to chop top the whole forest group and trim back to shape .They have grown on rather ragged but with time running out they had to be removed .The water board has declared war on the area and intend to excavate all the pines and clean up the drains .I was granted permission to remove as many pine as required until they move in .This little task took the wind out of my sails

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. now its all over bar the shouting and on to the smaller trunks

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Who said is was going to be easy , this pine had grown into the teeth off a pig foot roller , the main tap root was removed safely however the others were broken off , 2 of the feet from a roller , a broken tail shaft and a 150mm universal yoke was uncovered during the dig . .Nick would love this idea .More to come

[alpineart]

With all the tree's removed its time to back fill the holes

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and head home to pot the trees up

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It took as much time to pot up as it did to collect this lot . They range in size fron 30mm trunks upwards of 50mm and on average are 700mm high

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Now all i have to do is kick back and become a throttle jockey for the after noon .Might just check out a few more on the bike .Cheers Alpineart

[Dario]

Hi Alpine, that ground did look extremely hard! The are a beautiful looking species of pine with a lovely rich green needle colour. I see what you mean by a forest group now...they looked great together in that setting.
What is a pig foot roller? and also a universal yoke? some sort of machinery?
Also, in the second picture of the newly potted up pines, to the far left are two bonsai. One is in a blue pot and the other looks like it is being repotted?...no pot?
What species are these and were you repotting them too?
I love motor bikes! Did you go looking for some more pines on the bike or had you had enough for one day?
They look great BTW, top work! What are your long term plans for todays pines?
Sorry for so many questions, but why is it that the pines you got yesterady were swimming in water and these ones today were in such hard ground. Where they far apart in a different area?
Sounds like you need to put your feet up and have a !
Cheers, Dario.

[alpineart]

Hi Dario , all the scrap steel was from machinery that obviously built the original water supply dam , pig foot roller is a compacter and the universal was from a propeller shaft from some type of machine .The large tree's in the background are the parent tree's some Pinus Nigra -Austriaca and some Pinus Nigra- Nigra , these are ear marked for clearing .The whole corner block is unclaimed by any authority in the area so basically they said go ask jo blo and yes you can .The plants on the ground were the wifes bonsai , i needed the pots , 1 is a Hawthorn the other 2 are Willows , i don't look after her tree's , she wont let me butcher them . They are dormant so they can sit all winter out of a container .I will out of the goodness of my heart pop them back into a pot , she thinks their dead .

This lot was directly beside the entry road the others were swimming in the table drain at the rear of the dam , designed to keep the runoff from entering the water supply , same clay 1 dry 1 waterlogged . Went to look at pines but i guess i was screwing the dial a little hard , they were just a blurr .Cheers Alpine

[Dario]

Thanks again Alpine!
Great to hear that your wife is also into bonsai. I am a little concerned that she thinks the dorment trees of hers are dead though
Never mind looking for more pines, you are MEANT to wind out the bikes...it's just too hard not too! Geez I miss riding! Used to have a Japanese fantastic and oh how I loved it when I hit the powerband, like a flaming slingshot!!
Oh BTW, what a gentleman you are for being kind enough to pop her trees back in a pot. The things we do for others hey
Dario.