The Phantom Planter

 I have one acorn from this mighty oak tree germinating right now. Amazing to think that this is what tiny acorns grow into one day! Its old trees like this that we all need to get out collecting seeds from and growing up for phantom planting.  I climbed inside this oak and was able to hold my arms out by my side and still not be touching the tree. Oaks when they come into their last years of life start to hallow out from the inside out. They basically melt back into the ground to where they came from. 300 years growing, 300 years standing proud and 300 years to die is what some say is the life of an oak tree.  This oak is over 1000 years old. Think of the life its supported over that time. When you plant trees its a good deed that just keeps on giving.  I challenge you all to phantom plant a tree  Peace and love  The Phantom Planter and Wee Betty

 Love these 2 plum trees by the side of the road at Seaforde layby on the way to Newcastle. These pics were taken yesterday and check out the flowers on these beauties!  If the bees do their work all these flowers will turn into plums.  I think a week ago they would have been even better, I cant get time to get around seeing them all in flower as I've that many. Facebook memories are amazing though for keeping me up to date when they flowered in the past years. You can notice that they dont always flower at the exact same time every year. Phenology is the word for these seasonal differences.  I phantom planted these plum trees about 8 years ago and they have thrived ever since.  I have fruit trees phantom planted at lots of laybys from Belfast out to Newcastle. This is me and wee Betty's regular route to the Mourne Mountains and for years now we have just been phantom planting fruit trees as and where we can along the way. And thats exactly what we did yesterday...

  Today is the anniversary of the passing of my wee mum. 14 years ago today on Friday 13th of all days she passed away. (She always was a bit of a witch) What reminded me of her anniversary was I seen a few swallows yesterday when out and about. The day she passed I remember I was at by buyers of anything-sellers of everything superstore and right when I got the call to say she had passed I walked outside, looked up, and there was all the swallows just arriving from their long journey from the other end of the world. These wee birds would have nested in my warehouse every year. Seeing these wee birds arrive that day was very comforting for me as for many years I used to love watching these wee birds come and live in my warehouse. If my wee mum could see me now! At the time when she passed I was right at the peak of my old dodgy life. Buddha or trees was not even a thought in my head.  I was the richest I had ever been money ways, but I was in the hell realm in my mind.  N...

 Most of you know that I took my son on a weeks bootcamp training out in Tenerife last week. We intermittent fasted every day only eating 2 meals a day, one at around 1pm and another about 6pm. We trained hard everyday in the outdoor calisthenics gyms first thing in the morning. Then it was up to the mountains doing workouts with rocks. In the afternoons we swam in the sea and hung out on the beach stretching. This past week my son has been saying how much his physique has changed with just one week training fasted. He says he's carried on this intermittent fasting from he's came back. Eating all the right foods and training harder in the gym than he has ever trained. My son grew up seeing a lot of bad stuff around me, bad habits and lifestyles that he seen as just normal. He then went off the rails himself for many years, got into all sorts of drink, drugs and trouble. Give me a boy and I'll make you a man is a quote thats so true. We dont realise how much our parenting ef...

 Me and Wee betty was out yesterday with my new battery mower cutting a rectangle out around 88 heritage Irish apple trees we phantom planted on council green space a few months ago. Still loving the fact that all these trees have been respected by the local community and all the running dogs seems to know to avoid them too. My plan is to keep going back and keeping it cut around the edges like this so when the council mowers come along they'll know just to keep cutting around the outside of this little orchard. This is a prototype for me that I'm experimenting with in planting up island type fruit forests on open green spaces around council estates. If this all goes to plan I think these mini orchards of heritage Irish apple trees should be all over housing estates. Only one way to find out if this works and thats by doing. It's how I always roll, Do - Believe and stay Enthused.  We all need to get out and do our bit for the community and nature. Look after you, your commu...

 Bought myself a battery lawnmower, so if you see a man with a mask on out cutting grass around the streets don't worry its only The Phantom Planter out looking after his trees! I bought it mainly for the kind of phantom planted orchards you can see behind Wee Betty in one of the pics. 88 heritage Irish apple trees we phantom planted here a couple of months ago. These are phantom planted on council green space in the Belvoir estate South Belfast.  I've phantom planted them all in a massive square shape and I'm going to keep a border cut out around the entire square so that when the council grass cutters come out they will not have to come close to the trees at all and hopefully just continue to cut around the square. This is a protype wild heritage orchard that I'm experimenting with. I'm thinking these types of orchards could be planted up in housing estates all over the city. Some estates in Belfast have massive unused green spaces like we have in our estate that ...