Nicholsons in the London Evening Standard!

On Wed 6th April North Aston was featured in the London Evening Standard: There was a full page article singing the praises of the Cherwell Valley for it's easy commute to London and value for money when compared to Chipping Norton... After waxing lyrical about Fritwell and Souldern, it goes on to say "A slight step up, in cost terms at least, is North Aston, which is unspoiled by more modern developments and exceptionally well-mainteained. it continues "it also has Nicholsons, a fabulous plants nursery, which is simple heaven for the horticulturaly inclined". We can't get better praise than that!!

Street Works Qualification

The Arb team go on yet another course! Matt and myself did our supervisor qualification for Signing Lighting and Guarding and Sam and Mike were doing there signing lighting and Guarding instillation qualification. We needed to update these courses because of the new requirements to have a "street works card" as of the end of April in order to put any cones out on the highway! This course will enable us to use temporary traffic lights and other combinations of signs inorder to safely guard of areas of the highway! We decided to send all of the Arboriculture team onto the course to ensure there training is up to date and in line with these new requirements. Nigel from Lux traffic management did a brilliant job of training us and we all had two fun days out playing with cones!!! We all passed so apologies if you see us out there holding you up in the roads of Oxfordshire in the near future.

First Country Gardens Event of 2011

On Thursday the 17th of March we held our first Country Garden Event of the 2011 seaon. This was a talk by the very well known and respected sundial designer and maker David Harber. And followed by a brief introduction to Alitex greenhouses.

David Harber Sundials

I had no idea that Sundials were so beautiful and complex. Not only is the concept of a sundial one of the oldest forms of time measurement in mankind, but the design is hugely involved: each sundial is individually made to be accurate depending on the site it is going in. Depending on the longitude, the sun shines at a different angle and hence the angles of the rings need to be correct to show the shadow - the most accurate sundial is accurate to 15 seconds!!David Harber has spent years perfecting the maths and has not compromised on the beauty and aesthetics of his product. A Sundial is a thing of beauty that is timeless.

Alitex Greenhouses

When you want to see a greenhouse that looks like the old Victorain Glasshouses yet has all the features of a modern greenhouse then Alitex is the make to look at. Hence their accreditaion with the National Trust. Their greenhouses are made of Aluminium - 90% of which is recycled - and are beautifully and sympathetically built.

The next event is on 21st April and has James Alexander-Sinclair speaking.

Tubex Tree Guards

'Know your product' - so the business mantra goes. It makes sense. It helps customers understand advantages and time savings when making comparisons with other products on the market.

In the spirit of this, Business Development Executive, Debbie Philippe from Tubex joined one of our teams for a day of tree planting in February - using their guards.


A highlight of this rather grey and misty day was when Debbie broke the shaft on a professional planting spade.....no we hadn't rigged it!

1080 trees and Tubex guards later we had the job completed.

Thanks for joining us Debbie!

Nicholsons in the Ardennes

Forestry Director Tim Shardlow has just returned from Belgium. He advised an Estate on woodland management with particular emphasis on 'pheasants and forestry'.

Reducing the visual impact of HS2

Whilst we have yet to hear whether or not the proposed High Speed line from London to Birmingham is going to go ahead, some people who live along the preferred route are beginning to prepare for the worst - but hoping for the best.

Nicholsons have planted some 500 native trees with associated hedging and fencing to help reduce the visual impact of any future High Speed rail line and construction work at Butlers Cross in the Aylesbury Vale. The plantation builds off an existing hedgerow, thickening it, and in keeping with the landscape of the Chilterns.

Sensitive and well considered planting of trees and hedgerows offer a great long-term landscaping solution for many situations, especially for medium to long distance views. Whether these trees and shrubs will ever be used to block a view over a high speed rail line - we don't know, but they will already be contributing to the local landscape and wildlife.

Forest Road Construction

Nicholsons Forestry team have recently completed the upgrading of a 500m access road from the public highway into the woodlands on one of our client estates. The work involved the digging out of existing material, the importation from a local quarry of 800 tonnes of stone, and the spreading and compaction of the stone to form the new road surface. We also constructed a turning area to allow road going timber lorries to get into and out of the site more easily and to facilitate the loading of timber that will be brought down to the turning area by timber forwarders. The cost of the work was part-funded by a Woodland Improvement Grant from the Forestry Commission, and the work was completed ahead of timber harvesting operations on the estate which are due to begin in early March.

Forestry Commission consultation halted

The Nicholsons Forestry team were pleased to hear that the consulatation on the Public Forest Estate in England has been brought to a halt. We feel this is the right decision at this time. Whilst we could understand the ethos behind the process, we had serious reservations with the proposals. Especially that there would be adequate protection put in place to secure the scale of access, recreational opportunities, biodiversity and landscape protection the Forestry Commission offer.

One of the issues raised in the Consultation was that the Forestry Commission is both a regulator (administering aspects of forestry law), and an operator in the business. We don't currently see a disparity in them holding both roles, and in some respects it is probably quite healthy and helpful. Provided the Forestry Commission are prepared to take heed of criticism levied at them by the private sector and their own regulatory arm, may they continue their good work.

We will be interested to see who will be sitting on the advisory panel (now being formed by the Environment Secretary), to report on forestry policy in England this autumn.

For DEFRA the press release see: - http://ww2.defra.gov.uk/news/2011/02/17/futureforestry/

This old warrior has come to us from a client's garden. It is an olive tree that has been lovingly pruned....then subsequently hoicked out by a digger and brought back to our yard. We are giving it the benefit of the doubt and have carefully replanted it in our heeling in bed. The olives that we sell in Nicholson Plants do hail from Italy and some of them while not nearly as old as this fellow are recipients of pretty harsh hair cuts - they seem to respond well to this treatment and flush back vigourously. We do take our olive trees in under cover during the winter which does preserve the leaf on the tree - if they are left out there is a danger in prolonged temperatures of less than -7c that they will suffer - at this point they need wrapping in horticultural fleece as will the pot.

Lets hope that the trauma enjoyed by this tree will spur it on to a new lease of life - watch this spot....

One Oak Project starts the Tree Planting

Nicholsons have been supporting the One Oak Project (http://www.oneoak.info/) which has been involved in the story of an Oak tree starting from its felling and the products that can be made from it. Seed had been collected and grown by Nicholsons and now it was time to start to plant the next generation.

On the site of the old tree a Sculpture was unveiled by the Duke of Marlborough (seen on the right of the picture), made from a bow of the tree. Local schools who have been involved with the project from the start then set about replanting with Oak Transplants having sung an Ode to Trees.