Pictures Just Pictures: NURSELING TREES ABOVE POUNDBURY BYPASS

Thursday, March 5, 2009

NURSELING TREES ABOVE POUNDBURY BYPASS

Lucy Corrander - Nurseling Trees Above Poundbury Bypass - 12th February 2009

This is another Collaborative Post with VP at

Vegplotting.

Click here for the post on Poundbury

Scroll Down for a Bigger Picture

21 comments:

Hermes said...: A happy sign of good things to come, though I wish they would be a bit more adventurous with the species used sometimes.; March 5, 2009 at 7:41 AM
Lucy Corrander said...: Morning Hermes . . . what would you suggest for other species? I could mention it when I next speak to someone at the Duch Office (see VPs post).

Hey Hermes - what's the weather like with you? It's tipping down with snow here and the schools are closed and I'm just about to set out for a walk to make the most of it (it's so rare here!).

Lucy; March 5, 2009 at 7:46 AM
Hermes said...: Morning Lucy,
we had a flurry of snow yesterday but just overcast this morning. Hardly any wind.
As to trees I am always mixed in my own mind between planting more native species and the ornamental types. At least here the planners seem to use only a limited number of species.

This web site is interesting in this debate:
http://www.scottishtrees.co.uk/
though what may grow in Scotland is not always suitable here of course. Say hello to VP for me, I love her blog.; March 5, 2009 at 8:27 AM
VP said...: Crumbs, that bund is really steep isn't it?

Thanks for all your hard work Lucy and thanks to Hermes too for another useful looking website.; March 5, 2009 at 8:40 AM
VP said...: PS Hermes' comment's reminded me I need to write about planting trees on coalmine spoilheaps at some point...; March 5, 2009 at 9:34 AM
VP said...: Another PS!

I suspect part of the answer to your question re why the trees are only planted on one side of the bund is that the slope's very steep on the road side, so they're needed to to help stabilise it.

The other side's not so steep, so they haven't spent money on planting more trees there even though they could get a grant to reduce the cost of doing so.; March 5, 2009 at 9:38 AM
Hermes said...: There is a Poundbury forum - I wonder if anyone knows there ?

http://poundburyforum.proboards.com/; March 5, 2009 at 10:40 AM
Dot O said...: Nice picture! Another reminder that we in the states do have spring to look forward too.... and I cannot wait to go for a walk without fear of slipping and breaking something.; March 5, 2009 at 12:56 PM
Robert Hill said...: I just love your pictures...; March 5, 2009 at 1:22 PM
Sujomi said...: I read the post at Veg Plotting - very interesting...one of the public plantings that is done in St. Louis are daffodils. It is so beautiful in the spring to see that pop of yellow when driving down the city highway. Now I'm going to have to make a trek over to take some shots to post.; March 5, 2009 at 2:45 PM
Lucy Corrander said...: Hello VP.

I'm not sure Prince Charles needs a grant . . . !

On the other hand, the Duchy is looking after these trees for five years, then handing them over to the care of the council so I expect that has a backward impact on what they do now.

The steepness raises another interesting point . . . I mean, since they built it from nothing, they could, presumably, have chosen to give both sides the same gradient.

Lucy

Lucy; March 5, 2009 at 2:48 PM
Lucy Corrander said...: Dot - we are going backwards and forwards here. When I took the photo of Poundbury Bypass (12th February) spring seemed just round the corner . . . yet, today, snow has caused an accident on the big hill between Weymouth and Dorchester so the road between them is closed . . . and a tree has fallen on the main railway line so there are no newspapers in either town . . . though there's a thaw as I speak so, maybe, we'll be back to spring by evening!

Not that we get snows like yours!

Lucy; March 5, 2009 at 2:53 PM
Lucy Corrander said...: Thanks, Robert.

Lucy; March 5, 2009 at 2:54 PM
Lucy Corrander said...: Suzy . . . daffodils in St Louis . . . sounds really romantic.

Let us know when you post your daffodil photos.

Lucy; March 5, 2009 at 3:04 PM
Girl Tornado said...: Lucy, what a great shot... I love the purply haze in the sky, and all the green you can see here. A sure sign that spring IS coming... here in Kansas, we should hit 84 degrees today, BUT it is a very windy day. To be expected here many days... but I am looking forward to perhaps sitting outside and soaking up the warmth this afternoon! :); March 5, 2009 at 4:39 PM
VP said...: Hi Lucy,

I'm speculating here, but I think the steepness on the road side is to stop the noise going over the bund. On the other side it doesn't need to be so steep because the noise has been contained and they make it a gentler gradient so that there aren't issues with slope atability.

Interesting that the Duchy are going to look after it for 5 years before the council takes it over. I wonder if that's standard for estate/village development and handing over to the local authority? Yet another public planting question I have on my list. The whole relationship between the initial developers and the local authority seems to be very hazy as far as my research thus far goes!; March 5, 2009 at 8:43 PM
Lucy Corrander said...: Hi Oz Girl.

Seeing green is certainly good!

And I'm quite pleased with the sense of distance in this photo too.

Thanks.

Lucy; March 5, 2009 at 9:24 PM
Lucy Corrander said...: Hello again VP.

I don't think one can generalise from this.

As I understand it, this is the only stretch of main road within a wide area that isn't looked after either by a county council or a company called 'Connect Road Operators'. I'm not sure, either, that there is clarity over what will happen to it at the end of the five years . . . whether it will automatically be handed over to the council or whether the management of it will be open to re-negotiation.

There is a bit of land close to where I live which was planted (wonderfully) with bushes and sown (wonderfully) with wild flower seeds when houses here were newly built . . . then the builders who built the houses and the housing association which owns them and the council which had taken responsibility for an adjacent road . . . all quarrelled about who now had responsibility for its care . . .

Incidentally, I was standing in the middle of the length of planting when I took this photo. If I had taken the picture in the opposite direction . . . the trees stretched that way too.

Lucy; March 5, 2009 at 9:35 PM
Lucy Corrander said...: Hermes - if I were responsible for planting, I'd probably fill the whole embankment with gorse. I have no idea whether it would be of any interest to nesting birds but there is nearly always some of it in flower . . . and when most of it is out at once, it can be really dramatic . . . especially when there is a very blue sky . . . and it's so cheering!

Thanks for the information about other sites too.

Lucy; March 5, 2009 at 9:39 PM
Anonymous said...: Subjectivity. Most people note the plants and trees. For me this is an image of a hideous monstrous strip of tarmac severing the land, blighting the quiet pleasure of the eye and the ear. Some Victorians thought the same way about railways - but a railways is far less land greedy and far more intermittently noisy. Road traffic tears the air for miles around. I look to the end of the age of the car - a device whose much touted freedoms are accompanied by great collateral harm to the landscape. Brilliant picture.; March 13, 2009 at 6:54 AM
Lucy Corrander said...: Simon - I printed out your comment, I enjoyed it so much.

I think this was, in part, because I had had one of those nights when I'd been waking up off and on thinking how I will have wasted my life if I don't see something of the world before I die.

I have been (briefly) to France, Switzerland, Italy, Germany and Tcheckoslovakia and to each of the nations of Britain and Ireland - and that's it . . . and a very long time ago.

And the cruel thing is, if ever I were to be able to see somewhere else, I would worry in case I'm doing something wrong in travelling there because I'd probably have to fly (I've been in a plane twice, so far). Being 'green' can be very painful.

(What's more, I'm becoming more rebellious. I really DO think I will have squandered my time on earth if I don't take a look round at it while I'm here.)

And then I read your comment . . . and I thought how, for me, this photo is actually one about distance. I look straight to the hills beyond.

And I also thought . . . but Simon travels . . . why complain about cars when you fly in planes?

Lucy

P.S. And I still like your comment. I've never owned a car and cars make me cross. Within a very short distance of this bypass, a new road is being built over the ridgeway between Dorchester and Weymouth. Ancient woodland is being torn down to let it through. Once you get to Weymouth, there's nowhere further to go except into the sea so it'll just be extra space for more traffic jam.

At the same time . . . because I don't have a car, I've seen very little of my own county, which is frustrating and sad.

P.P.S. I agree - this photo isn't just about the nurseling trees!

L.; March 13, 2009 at 8:57 PM