All Things Wood…

Posted:16 January 2018

January/February is the ideal time to look at the bare bones structure of your garden, and to make some decisions about what stays, what needs moving, and what just has to go – especially when it comes to trees.

We recently had a tree taken down at the Garden House as it was doing considerable damage to a flint wall – and as we hate to waste anything, our minds were very much on the resulting wood and what we could do with it.

We also really enjoyed reading the Firewood poem (below) by Celia Congreve (first published in The Times, March 1930).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is what we did with a limb from a birch tree; candles for dark evenings!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                                 Here is our tree all ready to be seasoned for next year…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our wood ready stacked for keeping the Garden House warm over the next few months…

 

Traditional Firewood Poem by Celia Congreve

Beechwood fires burn bright and clear

If the logs are kept a year;

Store your beech for Christmastide

With new-cut holly laid beside;

Chestnut’s only good, they say,

If for years ‘tis stored away;

Birch and fir-wood burn too fast

Blaze too bright and do not last;

Flames from larch will shoot up high,

Dangerously the sparks will fly;

But ash-wood green and ash-wood brown

Are fit for a Queen with a golden crown

 

Oaken logs, if dry and old,

Keep away the winter’s cold;

Poplar gives a bitter smoke,

Fills your eyes and makes you choke;

Elm-wood burns like churchyard mould,

E’en the flames are very cold;

It is by the Irish said;

Hawthorn bakes the sweetest bread,

Apple-wood will scent the room,

Pear-wood smells like flowers in bloom;

But ash-wood wet and ash-wood dry

A King may warm his slippers by.

PS. If you are looking for a tree surgeon then we would recommend John Wilding of Wilding Tree Care 07860 348618