Arborist Blog

Tree Mysteries Explained

Recently a valued client got in touch with this photograph of a Prunus Amanogawa (Cherry) tree. Strangely, shoots had begun to grow out the side of the root stock and he queried what to do…

Branch Pruning / Target Pruning

Target pruning is how we prune trees in a way that enables them to heal. Pruning a branch causes wounding to any tree. Just like human skin, tree wounds will heal themselves if treated in…

I’ve become slightly obsessed with bringing nature indoors! It’s this reconnecting and living in harmony with our earth that I feel is so important. Checo, Operations Manager at Newcastle Tree Services, is dedicating some…

Wood Wide Web

As an arborist I look to trees for guidance, lessons and better ways to live when attending to my human life. Research originally undertaken in Oregon in the last decade has discovered a Wood Wide Web directly beneath our feet!

Finding Myself

People ask me “why did you become a tree surgeon?” The reason is because in 2008 my best friend died in a fire. I was shocked, my heart torn apart and living was about to get much harder. I have found time and time again that difficult and often awful events like when my best friend…

Community Pruning

I believe in using community to connect with our earth as a way to heal and create peace within our lives so the other Sunday I attended my village fruit tree pruning in our village orchard; one of two prunes undertaken each year, guided by Tom, an archaeologist…

Time to inspect your trees!

I love the time of year when I start to notice weird and wonderful fungal brackets growing on trees. Each bracket is different from the last and there are literally hundreds of different fungi growing on all species of tree across the world.

Inonotus Hispidus

Some days are often mundane and boring. During these times its important for me to stay open to possibilities. I consider myself lucky because when I spy some tree fungi my neuron’s light up into overdrive. Recently I was walking through the grounds of St. Nicholas Hospital in Newcastle and…

Dead Man’s Fingers!

The earthern fingers of an unfortunate woodcutter, grasping for light and air? Fortunately not. This is a fungus called Xylaria polymorpha, also know as Dead Man’s Fingers. Checo, our lead climber, found these black, club shaped…

A Walk in the Woods

The weekend is time for me to leave the city and reconnect with nature. My phone is turned off for much of the weekend and I spend it with family and close friends. I’m looking for meaningful connections, with people and with myself. I find one of the best places to do this is through being outdoors…

Shaggy Scalycap

This Pholiota squarrosa AKA Shaggy scalycap is living happily in the stem wound of this Acer pseudoplatanus (Sycamore) photographed last weekend in Barrowburn, Northumberland, UK. This parasitic, straw coloured mushroom has a shaggy hair effect on its cap and stem. It has gills on the underside and can be found growing…

It tastes like Chicken!

This is Laetiporus sulphureus, also known as Chicken of the Woods. I found this fungus growing on an Ash tree (Fraxinus excelsior), Summer 2014 in the Lake District, by Bassenthwaite Lake. This fungus grows on a wide range of broad-leafed trees and conifers, from early Summer through to Autumn.