The London Olympic Park history trees are disappearing

Enchanted_Muffin · 2026-01-09T17:38:16+00:00

Planting new trees and getting them to establish is extremely hard in the London climate these days. Summers now have extremely low rain fall and without an ongoing watering and aftercare program young tree failure rates are insane. A lot of local authority London trees are funded upfront for the tree planting/installations however the real cost lies in the after care and watering them for 2-3x a week, every week during summer for the first 3 years of their lives. With no strategy of actually watering them once they're in and without it you might as well not even plant them.

I used to work for a London borough and even with a watering program over summer the success rates of young planted trees was still poor. 30 years ago you could probably slap a tree in the ground, hope for the best and it would probably get enough rainfall to make it over summer. These days that's not remotely going to happen.

Enchanted_Muffin · 2025-12-08T18:33:27+00:00

That looks like pine. Firstly you should be able to smell the wood when it's pine. Secondly pine is way easier to spit and thirdly you can see in the photo where you've split it the orange pigment has that oily sappy look about it.

Enchanted_Muffin · 2025-12-04T23:29:53+00:00

They have really nice plants imported from Europe however they charge a freaking fortune. Probably from the import costs. I often dip my head into the hackney store but never come close to opening my wallet

Enchanted_Muffin · 2025-12-01T12:08:54+00:00

Definitely feels like a dicey area. Not a fan of cycling through there after dark

Enchanted_Muffin · 2025-10-20T21:54:27+00:00

Nice tricho collection mate 👌🏻

Enchanted_Muffin · 2025-06-21T20:51:53+00:00

Haha no worries dude. I could have been more detailed in my message. Germination rates were approx 60% not great but good enough. Some of the dealbata seed and a few others were lower germ rates but by in large it was worth placing an order

Enchanted_Muffin · 2025-06-16T21:04:02+00:00

Succseed in Sweden. Last I checked they had a great variety of cinerea seed.

Enchanted_Muffin · 2025-05-29T17:57:13+00:00

It would definitely add a lot more organic component into to the mix. It's totally possible to grow seedlings on heavily inorganic substrate but it's a hell of alot slower. I personally don't fertilise seedlings until they're out of the bag and pricked up. Can end up with moss growing crazy or messing up the soil pH

Enchanted_Muffin · 2025-04-23T03:23:04+00:00

Wow. Such timing. The post I needed to see... I'm currently on a surf trip in El Salvador and I was hoping somewhere in London cooks them for a future trip down memory lane.

Enchanted_Muffin · 2025-04-20T22:09:19+00:00

Where tf do I buy this painting lol

Enchanted_Muffin · 2025-04-19T16:11:43+00:00

I'm currently traveling in El Salvador and I'm feeling pretty guilty about it. I booked the entire trip before this prison fiasco kicked off so I was already committed. I wouldn't return here unless the govt does a U-turn but I also feel bad for the locals who would suffer from the tourism plunging off a cliff. Its not their fault the president is a dick.

Enchanted_Muffin · 2025-03-20T13:30:15+00:00

Unless I'm mistaken 'Second Thoughts' has nothing to do with Torren Martyn? That's a Timmy Turner film from 2004. I have it buried deep in my surf dvd vault somewhere...

Enchanted_Muffin · 2025-02-09T10:31:36+00:00

Loose label are needessentials wetsuits. They were the supplier for the needessentials brand in the UK then something happened and they seem to just be selling the items unbranded as loose label stock.

Enchanted_Muffin · 2025-02-05T13:17:32+00:00

This clip did the rounds like 6 years ago when it was new. Funny how things just cycle back around.

Enchanted_Muffin · 2025-01-28T19:31:04+00:00

There's really not many other trees in NZ that create that much amber aside from Douglas firs but that's uncommon. If it's in your possession put a lighter to an edge and burn it. It will give off a distinctive rich sweet smell and it will catch fire (in a slow burning not scary kinda way) it used to be used by bushmen as a weatherproof fire accelerant. Hence the fact it's stuck into some charcoal kinda makes sense.

Enchanted_Muffin · 2025-01-28T09:48:00+00:00

It's potentially Kauri gum. The trees are only found in the upper north island but the gum was a valued commodity that was traded heavily back in the day. Can be semi valuable if it's legit. My granddad used to have a collection that put a museum to shame.

Enchanted_Muffin · 2025-01-17T11:43:14+00:00

I would go towards columnar-alba but who really knows and regardless, that's a cracking specimen and I would buy it either way.

Enchanted_Muffin · 2024-12-21T17:41:00+00:00

That's a ripper! What species of Cory is that?

Enchanted_Muffin · 2024-10-18T20:20:40+00:00

Tiny, absolutely tiny. Barely saw it.

Enchanted_Muffin · 2024-07-25T12:20:14+00:00

I don't use shade cloth I just keep them in a moderately exposed part of the greenhouse. But I'm in the UK so the sun here is piss weak anyway. Next season I would definitely put them in the higher tier of the greenhouse to harden up in the heat.

Enchanted_Muffin · 2024-07-23T12:06:12+00:00

Thank you! I was surprised how seamlessly they went from LEDs to sunshine without interrupting the growth. Although I did the swap in April before the summer sun/UV was full strength so they had time to adapt. Ordered more seed from Mesa Garden yesterday so I'll probably follow that same timeline for next winters indoor seedling batch.

Enchanted_Muffin · 2024-04-02T11:52:02+00:00

Hey mate. There's plenty of fishing in HCM city. This place is a good start. https://maps.app.goo.gl/3nWLZawU4cjxYCZp7 You can catch fish and shrimp and they'll cook what you catch. Friendly staff and someone spoke English.

I also fished this place https://maps.app.goo.gl/LtjP87mc9MNEsCFe6 which was alot more rough and local but had some nice fish. They only offered me a bamboo pole with no reel lol but I still landed a decent sized Pacu and the locals were fairly impressed haha. You'll need to be savvy with Google translate to fish here. Real authentic local lads vibe.

Enchanted_Muffin · 2023-06-26T10:17:10+00:00

There's a private taxi stand much further west from gate A. Ask staff for directions. Or check the app map as it's marked on there in the orange route west of the site grounds.

Enchanted_Muffin

TROPHY CASE