Tell Me Something............Anything!

[Macca]

They could just use drones, much cheaper, but then they wouldn't be able to give their mates rides at the weekends.

[struth]

start sending them to africa too.. probably worse than the ones trying to get in.

[Pigmy Pony]

I noticed while idly staring out of the window on the drive to Tesco (no I wasn't driving), that most if the trees en route (that had been planted in the last thirty years or so to make the adjacent warehouses less of an eyesore) were actually dead or dying. Almost all had their trunks covered in ivy, a sure sign that death is near. I'm sure trees used to last longer than that.

[struth]

I noticed while idly staring out of the window on the drive to Tesco (no I wasn't driving), that most if the trees en route (that had been planted in the last thirty years or so to make the adjacent warehouses less of an eyesore) were actually dead or dying. Almost all had their trunks covered in ivy, a sure sign that death is near. I'm sure trees used to last longer than that.

all the pollution mate. think what it does to us

[Macca]

Is that right about the ivy? I don't think ivy harms trees.

Probably the trees are dying due to some sort of disease that affects that variety, whatever it is.

[Pigmy Pony]

Is that right about the ivy? I don't think ivy harms trees.

Probably the trees are dying due to some sort of disease that affects that variety, whatever it is.

No I don't think the ivy is actually harming them, it's more a symptom of some malaise, rather than a cause. I might have heard it wrong, I'll do some research.

[struth]

ivy wont kill a healthy tree as such but will compete for the often scant resourses available. most of these trees were probably wrong type and badly planted in shit soil and then peed on constantly by pooches

[walpurgis]

Next door's large apple tree was inundated by ivy, the extra weight made the apple tree's trunk snap and it ended up leaning over my wall. Two years on, both tree and ivy seem to be surviving and annoying me. I'll chop it all back when things warm up, there'll be loads to hack off.

[Pigmy Pony]

ivy wont kill a healthy tree as such but will compete for the often scant resourses available. most of these trees were probably wrong type and badly planted in shit soil and then peed on constantly by pooches

I think they are all planted too close together, for maximum density as soon as possible. And as you say, competing for scant resources.

Where I grew up there were woods made up of huge beech, oak and sycamore trees. I had at some point climbed all of them, even knocking in 6" nails when the lowest branches were out of reach. Makes me cringe to think what would have happened if I'd slipped off one of those nails...

Then a few years later all those trees were felled and new trees planted. What were they thinking? Now forty years on and most of those trees look sick and many have fallen over.

[Macca]

looking at aerial photos of my area from the 1930s through to the 1960s and there's no trees or undergrowth at all where now there are dense concentrations of both.

Big churchyard and adjoining graveyard just down the road - both full of large mature trees - 50 years ago there was nothing in either.

Back when I first moved here they planted three saplings on a wide stretch of pavement. They were little trees for years, not sure when they became the big trees they are now but it seemed to happen almost overnight.

In the street next to mine there's a massive tree growing out of the rubble of a demolished building, must be 60 foot tall. Not there in the '60s either.