Good morning from La Vigne, my abandoned #vineyard in #bugey #france. I’ve identified 36 species of trees on this three hectare plot. None planted in the seven years I’ve been here. Just indigenous. The box #buxus is being killed by #boxcaterpillar and the #spruce by spruce bark beetle. And #ash die-back is just starting. But others seem ok including my favourite silver #birches pictured here. Wishing you a good Sunday. PS don’t know if you followed the #johnmastodon chat yesterday - 🤩.

#gardening #boxcaterpillar destroyed a hectare of mature box #buxus trees on my abandoned vineyard in #bugey #france. Felled it through tears and made a zen garden. But the box reappeared so now I topiarise it and use organic spray plus pheromone detectors. The moths disappeared because they had eaten all the box in the region but they’ll return!

@OxgardenZ yay #gardeningmastodon #gardening I’m making a #meadow on my abandoned vineyard in #bugey #france and after 5 years have succeeded in diversification. Eight wild #orchid species which I previously posted. Also made a Zen #garden which I’ll cover in a separate post. Suffer from drought on limestone. Vegetable potager too but #boar ravage it. #Organic and no irrigation. Also have deciduous forest and conifer forest which is being killed by spruce beetle. #boxcaterpillar also…