30 more apple trees getting planted today

 Heading out here today to plant 30 more apple trees in our Lisnabreeny community orchard. Also going to take as many willow cuttings as possible from existing willow trees around our orchard and stick them into the wet areas of the field to try and dry it up over the years ahead. 

Willow thrives in wet areas and is perfect for sucking water out of fields. The bottom of our orchard is always saturated so some willow will be perfect for here.

We are also lucky to have so many other willow trees around for cutting material

Willow cuttings are so easy to do, just cut any sized branch off a willow tree and poke into the ground and this will grow into another willow tree with about 99% success rate. 

First time I seen this happen I was amazed!

Its amazing how trees in general suck water from the ground keeping it firm. 

I notice it all the time when out walking after heavy rainfall. If your walking in a field its like a swamp, then you walk near some decent sized trees the ground is practically dry and firm.

Irelands boglands are a perfect example of this, these bogs only came about due to deforestation. Many people dont know this but the bogs are not natural. They have only came about due to our ancient ancestors chopping all the trees down. These days they even kill the trees that grow on the bogs to protect the bog. I couldn't believe it when I seen this. One ecologist took great pride in calling all the self seeded oak trees that tried to grow from a bog "weeds" as she pulled them out by the roots manually from the protected bog.

You know it always baffles me that there are so many conservation groups setup for protecting thousands of acres of these boglands but in our whole Emerald Isle there is not one natural forest conserved that even comes close to the size of these protected bogs. Even though the trees were here first. You would think at times there is some deep dark war on trees. Any species or plant life that comes about due to deforestation seems to be more precious and protected than the trees that were naturally there first.

I get messages now and again from ecologists telling me off for what I'm doing, saying I could be harming the ecology of the area. 

I say to them, whos ecology are we going by here, what time line in history are you trying to mimic. When we had wolves? When we had bears? Or when the whole island was forest before man even arrived here. Or the ecology that comes about after farming and deforestation?

You know whats really sad, there are about a few hundreds acres at max of pure natural Atlantic rainforest left on the Emerald Isle. Breen oakwood in County Antrim is one of the few pockets left anywhere on this island which is natural. I mean natural as in it hasn't been planted by humans. It's grown from the earth on its own back.

Many of the Glens are natural too as it was near impossible to farm them.

I'm not an ecologist, I have no education at all in nature. 10 years ago I didnt even know what an oak tree looked like. I'm an ex underworld hood who stepped out of the ratrace and onto the Buddha pace. I have learned and observed nature through love and passion. My views and opinions are through connection and exploring.

I'm here to stand up for and speak for the trees, otherwise our Islands may sink one day with all the rain we get.

Get planting and chanting guys and do your bit for the trees. 

I challenge you to phantom plant a tree 

Please do support our work on the link below. 

https://gofund.me/cd32105bb

Peace and love

The Phantom Planter and Wee Betty