Kitchen Garden Forum

Whilst strimming around the shrubs that border my vegetable garden last week, the cord of the strimmer damaged the bark on a small holly tree. The cord removed about an inch of bark all around the stem, which is about as thick as a pencil. Do you think a life-saving repair could be successfully carried out by grafting a piece of bark off another holly tree on to the damaged area?. ~~Sammy~~

Duct tape ASAP, before it can dry out.

As it was last week I fear you are too late.
Wait and see though, it may well regrow from below the damage.

You have probably done yourself a favour mate, Holly and Pyrocanthus should by law not be allowed to be planted within 100yds of vegetable gardens.
From someone who tends other peoples gardens.
Arthur.

Hi Arthur,

You quote the following,

Holly and Pyrocanthus should by law not be allowed to be planted within 100yds of vegetable gardens.

Can you please tell me why

Kind regards

Kevin

Have you ever tried weeding anywhere near a holly bush? When the leaves fall and start to dry out it they are very sharp and when you grab them by mistake it bloody hurts. There may of course be other reasons...

If the strimmer has removed the bark and the green layer all the way around the stem then it will die.....end of story.
Sorry.

Chantal wrote:Have you ever tried weeding anywhere near a holly bush? There may of course be other reasons...

Yes indeed says the man who when learning to ride a bicycle at the age of twelve or so rode straight through a rather large holly bush.

Mind you I also used to roam around barefoot (oh the shame of it ) rather alot as a child and used to venture down our "nutwalk" one third of which was holly each side and overhead. Used to stop after that bit and pick the leaves out of my soles.

Holly leaves rot slowly and the skeleton of the leaf hands on complete with spikes after the skin has gone.

Kevin,Chantal has answered the question perfectly. Until you have inadvertently picked up a dry holly leaf or a bit of pyro while thinking your just grabbing a weed then it's difficult to describe the pain.

Hi Arthur,
Gorse is even worse 'cos the spines go in and fester by the next morning at least with Holly and Pyracantha the spines are large enough to come out without breaking. Even worse is Blackthorn and when hedging you can handle that with leather gauntlets and it even goes through them!

I see somebody has already suggested Duct tape which seems to be a cure-all for just about everything. Do you know that it will even get rid of warts and veruccas? Just stick it on, cover it up with some pink elastoplast if it's in a visible area and you're worried about cosmetic niceities and leave for 3 weeks.Replace as necessary. My medical student nephew told me about this and it works. If you Google "Duct tape, warts & veruccas" you'll get chapter and verse, although what this has to do with repairing the bark of a holly bush I'm not quite sure.