Sunday 16 January 2011

Winter duties

Happy New Year folks, first blog entry of 2011. Possibly one of few or many... time will tell.

Last few days I have tied up and pruned my apple tree "jonagold". It is still in the 15 litre ex paint bucket and doing well, I have put a new small piece of wood at the top and at the bottom and then tied in the branches, I also trimmed them back.

"Jonagold" is known for being a vigorous tree so it will need more trimming back during the year but hopefully the bucket size should constrain it to a large degree.

The mistake I made last year was leaving to many apples on that all eatable size but not as large as the apples could have been, so this year the apples were will be thinned out with more passion. I left around 20 on last year, this year there will be less left on



Last weekend I also planted up my garlic builds. I had them in the greenhouse and they were all starting to show green growth. These are the best of the ones I had grown myself last year.


This is a close up, its a beauty in my opinion.







The weather in Wakefield today is cold 5to10 degrees I estimate but fine.

Click here to view my gardening forum

8 comments:

  1. 5 to 10 degrees I am guessing F. If it is C, I am jealous!!!!! We are now into the -10 o C type weather for a few days and we have .5 of a meter of snow. all Yuck. So for the moment we are having the winter you probably think we have for 6 months of the year !!! just kidding there.
    I always wanted to do a fruit tree like what you have done with your apple. I have seen them in France and I feel in love with that style as soon as I seen it. I actually looked at my new apple after reading this and it is doing well for it's first winter. At least it is still alive!!!

    Nice to see your first post of the year and I hope that there will be many.

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  2. O I forgot to mention your garlic it looks great. I planted mine out side in September. Thy should be ready in June or there about. I have to get a green house made here. I would sure get my moneys worth out of it if I did.

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  3. It has been warm in Wakefield today and I've been stuck in work. If not working I would have spent some time in garden and then gone for a nice long walk down the woods. Stupid work!

    Garlic and apple tree looking good. If my pear tree overfruits this yar I may thin it out to get bigger fruit and trim some branch off the top to encourage outwards growth. I'll try to post some pictures on the forum when I get round to it!

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  4. H Reg, good to hear from you and Happy New Year, hope your boy is doing well abroad.

    The tree if I am honest happened by accident. I bought it approx 12inch high I think 4years ago now and its first Winter was very very ropey but then it started to grow and I started messing, I am big on messing. I cant leave much alone and I have to poke and such. I started to train it and it looks fantastic, I will say I am very proud of it. well done on the garlic to, I wish I had got mine in that early, I am so lazy some times but better late than never. by the way it is celsius. Thats awesome you have 1/2 metre of snow, I love the stuff. I do appreciate it is not conducive to driving,working and general life though ;-) Good luck with the greenhouse, I love mine for pottering about and achieving as little as possible. its looks good and keeps me happy. what more could I ask for. Get one put up, you wont regret it ;-), post pictures when you do. your shots are always the best

    hi Ian, shame about work, been there today to but it pays the bills I keep saying and we are lucky really, there are lots on the dole. Cant wait to see the pear tree piccies, I would strongly suggest pruning and trimming fruit, I always find it hard but you do get superior produce, bigger and sweeter. I even needed encouragement from Reg this year before I would do it

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  5. O how true that one was. I have to keep reminding myself for what is best for the plant that will even be better for me. I took off all my apples this year as soon as they started as my plant was a first year. I have to admit it is so hard to do and I close my eyes when I do the snip. Can I be so bold as to say circumcision on this. I think it is about the same when you do it !!!!!!!
    The rewards will be so much better if it is done for the first couple of years.
    O yeah that Celsius temps, I feel nothing for your chill !!!!! :) We had - 30 o C to-day with the wind Chill added. But to-marrow will be +4 o C with rain. So not all is a deep freeze here all the time.

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  6. LOL. you may be so bold. very funny. minus thirty!!!! I thought we had it bad here last month when it dropped to minus 10, I had to start wearing two pairs of socks and two woolly hats it was that bad, I even considered thermal underwear and that is pushing it, I would not have left the house if it ever got to minus thirty!!! stay inside is my rather weak advice.

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  7. O man all that was way to funny. Thermal underwear and all!!!!!We here have done it all. To-day was + 5 o C and all was cool. Still it is amazing how we here in southern Canada can vary so much in our weather temps. I opened all the windows in my house to-day to let the fresh air in. I had to laugh when I did that as I was thinking of you freezing in those cold temps of + 5.

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  8. LOL. I really do like my creature comforts. Opening the windows!!! it would never happen in my house ;-)

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