Who am I?

My name is Ashley Peace. There I am in the picture, hugging a Scots pine in Scotland's Glenmore Forest Park. I live on the edge of the Peak District, near Sheffield, England. I enjoy photography, walking, camping... and nature in general. I'm at my happiest wandering around the local countryside on hot, sunny days. But enough about me. Let's talk trees.

Why treeblog?

Good question. Back in October 2006 I attended a careers fair hosted by the University of Edinburgh. I visited the Forestry Commission stand, and was given a free packet of Scots pine seeds as a promotional gift. Along with some cider gum and grey alder seeds, I planted the Scots pine seeds on the 28th of March 2007; they became treeblog's first ever trees!

A few days after the careers fair, and because of my free Scots pine seeds, I'd had the idea for a blog focussed on the development of a number of trees all the way from seed. I toyed with the idea for a while, and in November I registered the treeblog.co.uk domain and secured some hosting. It wasn't long before a functional blog was up and running. Test posts were posted and elements of the design were tweaked over the winter. I intended to start the blog proper by planting some seeds when I was home during during the Christmas holidays, but I waited until I was home after my second semester. In the meantime, the blog was launched officially on the 14th of February (Valentine's Day), and a few weeks later the first seeds were planted!

What is the point of treeblog?

Simply put, treeblog is a blog about trees. But more specifically, I aim to focus treeblog on the life and development of a number of individual trees belonging to a number of different species. treeblog will follow these trees right from the seed or nut stage. treeblog will document the planting of these seeds. When (if) the first seedlings emerge, treeblog will document that too. And as (if) these seedlings grow and develop into saplings, treeblog will be there to record and document all that as well! So far as possible, treeblog will follow the lives of these trees.

What about the treeblog trees?

The first set of seeds (Set A) was planted on the 28th of March 2007, and is made up of three species: cider gum (Eucalyptus gunnii), grey alder (Alnus incana), and Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris). See their progress with Photo-timelines or read all Set A treeblog posts! Set B was planted on the 14th of March 2008, and was made up of four species: downy birch (Betula pubescens), dwarf pine (Pinus mugo), European beech (Fagus sylvatica), sweet chestnut (Castanea sativa), and weeping beech (a variant of European beech). Read all Set B treeblog posts... but be warned that Set B was an abject failure: only one seedling appeared, a downy birch, and it died.

The most recent set has been more of a success. Set C was planted on the 11th of March 2009 and consisted of three species: downy birch (Betula pubescens), rowan (Sorbus aucuparia), and sweet chestnut (Castanea sativa). The sweet chestnuts I gathered from the same tree as I did those planted in Set B; unfortunately I incorrectly stored them over winter (again), so none germinated (again). Third time lucky? The rowans I planted incorrectly, so I exhumed them and replanted them as Set C(r) on the 12th of May 2009. I didn't pretreat the seeds so they probably won't germinate until 2010, if at all. I collected the rowan berries from two different trees, one of which has since blown over and been removed. The downy birches germinated en masse. There are too many for treeblog to keep track of them all, so just twenty-six were picked to be followed. One has since died. Read all Set C - and Set C(r) - posts orfollow their progress with Photo-timelines.


Last updated on the 11th of July 2009