Around the edge of the garden are some established fruit trees and bushes, among some flowering shrubs and other trees.
There are some old blackcurrant bushes, I am going to give them a heavy pruning, they did produce some fruit but not much and quality was poor.
I have no idea what apple tree this is, last year I did do some pruning and tidied it up a bit,
This year it has a collection of fruit on it not a vast amount but a big improvement on last year,
There are also 2 plum trees that I did not notice last year, they don't look in great shape
The ground beneath everything in this border is very congested with weeds and compact
I am clearing he ground beneath them and will top dress them with some Alpaca poo, I will prune all the fruit trees and bushes and come spring will give them another feed, if there is no improvement next year then it may be time to have them out and re-plant with something else.
The fruit bushes in the fruit cage are doing OK and the orchard fruit trees I planted down at the bee hives are doing fine, next year should see the starting to fruit.
Diary
Thursday October 28th 1982
Cut up more wood from hedge in field and piled up tree rubbish ready for bonfire.
Rep called from Young's, took order and left
2x5lt Blue marking fluid
1x2.5lt Nemtrem
Should have gone to view sheep from Elgen, but after rep left it got too late and dark.
Isn't it great discovering things, even after two years. We look forward to getting our friut trees in next month and the harvest they will hopefully bring. I am going to pick and store the cooking apples from our tree this week so we don't lose them. We spied a blackberry bush creeping through from next door so hope to get some fruit off that, too.
ReplyDeletePerhaps your plum trees aren;t getting enough light. It looks like they are pretty "enclosed" with plants on either side...?
ReplyDeleteI have been so thankful for the fruit trees that were here when we bought our place. They've needed some care but they are established and seem to be hardier than what we've tried to plant since then. I have one plum tree that only produced two plums this year. Disappointing! It was supposed to be self-pollinating, but I'm thinking it it needs some companions for pollinators anyway.
ReplyDeleteI inherited an established plum tree when we bought our house over 30 years ago. It seems they roughly have a 3 year cycle in that 1 year a decent amount of fruit, the 2nd year a less decent crop and the 3rd year almost nothing. The weather in spring makes a lot of difference too. Hope you get a good year next year! - Tam
ReplyDeleteOur very best plum tree is one that my brother in law planted many years ago as a plum stone. This year it has had so many plums on it that we have been totally unable to deal with them all.
ReplyDeleteVery timely post for those of us who have inherited fruit trees and haven't a clue what to do with them :)
ReplyDelete