The substance of being hollow

As you read this you are probably sitting in a room that is hollow; a building with walls and empty internal spaces, rooms. You could be in your work vehicle; a hollow structure with outside walls and an inside space, the cab. You may well be drinking from a cup, can...

Botanical tattoos

I was asked to give a presentation on tree pruning to a group of gardeners. Commercial Gardeners, so not passionate homeowners or obsessive vegetable growers, this was a talk to a single employer with 50 employees. For most of them being a gardener was a job title,...

Pruning – one size does not fit all

Even before the internet and televised sport there were armchair experts. When it comes to plants every man with a dog and retired lady who makes tea has a ‘how to’ on pruning; some of these are good, some of these are not that bad but most are just wrong.  In...

No secret to planting

I began my career as a horticulturist in the late 1980’s, it wasn’t intentional, it just kind of happened. In the 90’s I left the dirt and got into the trees and by the 2000’s I moved into education. During that time I had become involved in an American based...

The age of wisdom

Recently I have had cause to rue the age of the arboriculture industry here in New Zealand; rue not being word one normally would or indeed should use, but it seemed better than bewail or lament. Anyway, I was feeling a bit stink about the arboricultural industry in...