Quite a Site...

Stumbled across Kaizen Bonsai - a great site with some very interesting videos (the above link goes straight there), most of which provide inspiration and show a large variety of techniques. Features Yamadori (trees collected from the wild) quite heavily too... Love it...

On the Sill...

So here's the tree in its new "habitat", south-south-east facing windowsill, seems happy there so far but it's early days yet...

The entire wall is mostly covered in windows and theres plenty of fresh air - unless it gets so hot outside as to be uncomfortable without air conditioning. Will obviously need to turn the tree on occasion to ensure even growth on the front and back side...

Now for some seeds...

I've just ordered some seeds (from seedsense on amazon), a nice variety of coniferous and deciduous trees. 

Think I will be taking my time in planting them out, some might even be saved for next year. I've arranged for some outdoor/indoor space where I can plant and grow these so hopefully will go decently.

From what I've read and heard, it's best to plant the seedlings out once they've developed some strong roots. I'd rather not have them growing in the relatively low quality soil in the area I have access to, but will definitely experiment somewhat. Will try different feeding schedules, different soil compositions, etc... Quite a few of the seeds are in 10 packs and I'll be ordering some more, hopefully will be able to provide some interesting insights.

Another Couple of Books...

Put in another order on Amazon for a couple of books that seemed to review quite well:

Bonsai Secrets: Designing, Growing, and Caring for Your Miniature Masterpieces

and

The Secret Techniques of Bonsai 

Neither is too expensive and look like they'll provide a decent addition to the knowledge that I'm slowly building... Hopefully they'll approach things from different angles.  

Does anyone have other books that they found intersting/insightful?

After a Trim and a Good Nights Rest...

Here's how the tree looks after yesterdays trim, first from the back and then from the front. It currently lives on the windowsill (I have limited outside space at the flat, will see if I can convince my parents to house some of my collection if it grows substantially enough, my Father is a big plant lover so shouldn't be tough), I'll have pictures of that later...

Anyway, heres the tree from behind:

And from the front:

What do you think?

Moss, Gotta Love the Moss...

Again, maybe I'm ignorant as to how difficult it is to lay moss (from what I've read it's not that hard), but I am swayed by a healthy looking layer over the soil of a Chinese Elm. I'm sorry but it just looks so lucious...

Somewhat interesting floating root feature too... I like the thickness of the trunk, wonder if there's an easy way of calculating the age of the tree without "chopping" it down and counting the rings...

The First Book...

So, this is the book:

Bonsai Pocket Encyclopedia by Harry Tomlinson, great little read.

Has the basics on Wiring, Trimming, Cutting, Propagating creating Jins and many other topics. Descriptions and pictures of all the common styles and simple, easy to understand information on over 75 different species, including the Chinese Elm, though the example they show is underwhelming...

Maybe I don't just understand the complexity and intricacies of Root-over-rock...