THOUSANDS OF BABY TREES

I remember thinking, long long ago in my guitar making days, that it would be wonderful to have a tree nursery.... and that's as far as the idea got. So it's wonderful, after all these years, to be helping out on a very special project growing native tree species from seed gathered in the wild: DARROCH NURSERIES.

Moving seedlings outside to get used to the weather - they still have some protection from the wind though

Thousand and thousands of baby trees - the Scots pines in the foreground are from seed Elana gathers in the Cairngorms. I was amazed when I first heard she actually climbs the trees to get the cones at the right stage (because the tree will be able to scatter its seed further if they start higher up).

You would see Elana to the right of the tunnel if we weren't being dazzled by its newly cleaned cover.

Potting up acorns that have developed their root shoot after some months in the damp compost on the left. I'm familiar with these as they pop up in the polytunnels at Perth Community Farm - thanks to the tree planting exploits of the squirrels.