it's a pruning weekend

Foinavon - My plum tree is usually laden that heavy that i have to cut 4 x 2 and prop up various branches   No need this year, i have had 3 carry bags full so far and probably a bag full fall and spoil on the ground.

I have got two apple trees, they look like having the best year ever in terms of size and quality of the fruit, and we have been here nearly 30 years.


People should beware if they knock at my door at this time of year, because they will be leaving with a bag of fruit whether they want it or not LOL 

Sounds good ST, blackberry and apple pie is nice at this time of the year.

it's also been a record year for grapes

Don't remember a year when my gooseberries haven't fruited ST. Some years are better than others and sometimes mildew is a problem when they become overcrowded. Birds will eat them even before they are fully ripe so they need to be netted in good time. I never cut them back as hard as you appear to have done, just keep the centre open as you would with blackcurrants and trim out old or dead wood. You can even train them in espalier form if you have the patience.

Garlic....plant your garlic now......(Monty Don - he knows his onions!).

Foinavon - gardener......respect.

It'll be another month before I plant my garlic I reckon.

Been out with me telescopic plucker picking the best of the apples this morning before the gales hit. All-time best crop here in Zummerset imo. Will spread them out to dry, then wrap each one in bit of newspaper and save them in a box under the stairs. The under-stairs space has an open entrance to avoid condensation.

I also picked up a tomato house in tesco's last week for £4 My missus will go mad if she knew what I'm planning for my back driveway

Thanks Foinavon, it would have to be in a large pot so it's moveable. Espalier trees seem to be branched sideways but I'd need less space than that so I'd like to tie the branches downwards like a willow tree (would that work?)

The word I was trying to find but couldn't is Cordon
Some information about growing them in this link
http://www.ashwoodnurseries.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=233

You need to get rid of perennial weeds such as couch grass, bindweed, mare's tail before rotovating otherwise you will chop up the roots which will re-grow compounding the problem. There are three ways of doing this.
1) Mulch with heavy duty black plastic. This will take up to 12 months to be completely effective.
2) Dig out the roots manually. Only you will know if you can do this in your time frame
3) Spray with weedkiller.

If you opt for (3) then best to do it effectively the first time so that it won't be needed year after year. The current favourite for places where food is to be grown is glyphosate and if you buy the concentrate you can control the strength of the spray solution. Do it on a dry day when rain is not expected preferably for 24 hours. At this time of the year it will be at least a couple of weeks before you know if it has been effective.

post in, wire fence round, 12 chickens left to do their thing.


wont be ready by October - 6 months prob' but weeds gone and fertilised in one - organically!

A couple of good alternatives there, no shortage of ideas on Betfair!

I had the wife and her best friend down on the allotment only the other day.

After an abysmal week the warm weather is back for a few days.
Hope you will all be making the most of it.
I managed to finish garlic planting this afternoon, 100 cloves in a 10x10 block. Also harvested half the winter squash as a precaution against vandalism which becomes more likely with the onset of warm dark evenings. The rest will be left to ripen until the arrival of the first night frosts.
Loads of juicy raspberries collected too, will be making raspberry and apple crumble tomorrow.
Plenty of jobs still to do including some digging and muck spreading. Will try planting field beans as a green manure in one of the beds. Has anyone any experience of growing these?

What do you have planned for this weekend?

Just dug up my first few spuds this afternoon ready for dinner tonight. Been getting through piles of potatoes I'd gleaned after the farmer had harvested his crops. Glad to say mine seem unaffected by all the rain. I think it probably helps that the seeds were ones the same farmer had left scattered on the footpath next to his fields, so they're resistant to the effects of rain. (I know this, because he'd used the same variety to sow a field next to the river in 2012. That flooded twice, yet the spuds which surfaced after ploughing back in March were still perfectly fine.)

Working my way through hundreds of apples from the tree, in all sorts of recipes - partridge breasts fried with apples potatoes and red onion the best so far. Was still getting a few leaves of rocket up to a fortnight ago, and there's still some toms and peppers ripening in the greenhouse, thanks to the lack of frosts. Apart from the spuds only a couple of rows of very late swedes still in the soil and hopefully growing. Got a bagful of corn cobs in the garage, also gleaned after harvest time, plus three bags of blackberries in the freezer compartment.

This is the time of year for game. I get mine from Taunton Farmers Market on Thursdays. £3 for 6 partridge breasts or £4 for 4 pheasant breasts.

One or two of the partridge breasts are sometimes small enough that you wonder whether a sparrow got in the way of the guns, but that's the way it is with game. They are excellent. The only problem with these wild birds is that they have little fat on them, not being corn-fed, so frying them in butter is a good option. Black pepper and rosemary work well for seasoning.

The pheasant breasts are rather bigger. I like roasting them in the oven, seasoned with black pepper and rosemary again, then topped with a bit of butter and wrapped in smokey bacon to provide the juicyness. They're much thinner than chicken breasts, so only need 15 mins in a fan oven at 180C. I do them in a dish with bits of windfall apple around them.

Looks like i have picked the last of my Tomatoes today.   A bowl full of cherry toms and half a dozen Moneymaker.