When 5, which is 6 becomes 8

by | Aug 23, 2020 | Nature, Trees

I have a wisteria that grows and grows, but where it goes nobody knows. I train it and shape it to follow a plan but it still it grows to follow its nose… and I don’t know why. As a self-respecting arborist, I dislike vines – with the exception of grapevines and...

Be properly amazing

by | Jun 21, 2020 | Trees

New Zealand Arborists can’t prune. For some, a generic sweeping statement like that will be offensive, but some will agree. If you’re a kiwi arborist, and you’re offended, it’s probably because you can’t prune – this, you may well find offensive, yet others will...

Carbon in the time of Covid

by | Apr 1, 2020 | Trees

This actually has nothing to do with Covid-19 or Cholera, which the title is very loosely taken from.  If you cast your mind back a few months, the world was fixated on carbon-sequestration.  It seemed like every few weeks another tree planting programme was...

Henry’s answer to a complex problem

by | Mar 4, 2020 | Uncategorized

Henry Louis Mencken is famous for many things including saying; “for every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong. Henry was an American satirist and cultural critic who died 1950’s – by all accounts he was free with his opinion and took...

Zen and the culture of pruning

by | Jan 3, 2020 | Trees, Uncategorized

The Skype meeting was tedious and I found myself checking FaceBook. Checking FaceBook out of the corner of my eye; one can never look away from the camera during an online meeting. A discrete click, a sly scroll and ‘Pruning is cultural not scientific’, that’s worth a...