Sunday 25 November 2012

More Trees

As I alluded, we intend to add a number of trees to our new hillside: some utility species, but also enough fruit trees to make a productive orchard on the lower half-acre. These arrived a couple of days ago, and so we've heeled them in to 'keep' until we can clear ground for them. They'll be fine where they are until the spring, so as long as we've put them in their final spots by the end of February (or so), they won't notice the fact that they're in the vegetable garden while dormant.

There are fifteen fruit trees:
  • Apples:
    • Pixie
    • Lord Lambourne
    • Fiesta
    • Falstaff
    • James Grieve
    • Charles Ross
    • Blenheim Orange
    • Bramley's Seedling
  • Pears:
    • Concorde
    • Beth
    • Conference
  • Plums/damsons/gages:
    • Victoria (two of these, as they're great)
    • Oullin's Golden Gage
    • Merryweather Damson

Five ornamental trees:
  • Purple birch
  • Plum 'Spring Glow' and Pissardii
  • 'Royalty' crab-apple
  • Cherry 'Royal Burgandy'

And then thirty willows (ten each of scarlet, osier, and golden); twenty 'Midwinter Fire' dogwoods (some of these are for the garden); and ten sweet chestnuts.

Yes: we have a lot of ground clearing and digging to do...

Sunday 18 November 2012

Brushcutting with Sigrid

We had a day out yesterday, visiting the media museum in Bradford, in celebration of a fosterling's birthday. Good fun; the exhibits are interesting, and we saw a polar documentary at the Imax.

Today's been a getting-things-done kind of day: some wood stacking, for one thing. We also dug up the older of the two strawberry beds, taking out all of the Honeoye, Cambridge Favourite, and Florence that we put in three years ago (and then lifted into raised beds). They've not fruited brilliantly this year, as you might expect, but the Cambridge and Florence have always disappointed. So, we've replaced them with 25 new ('fresh') Honeoyes, and we've taken the extra step of planting them through weed-suppressant membrane. That should help reduce weeds, but also prevent runners, which lead to a congested and confused bed. Combined with a bit more management of runners (ie, removing most, and deliberately potting the ones we want), this should see better yields.

As we're reusing the same bed, we dug out a good amount of soil, and replaced it from soil that's been in the vegetable garden (that is, un-strawberried), and mixed in plenty of compost. At the same time, I spread compost around the rhubarb: I'll probably add some more later in the winter.

Lastly: my new brushcutter (a Husqvarna 135R, which I have christened Sigrid (shorter than 'the brushcutter', and she's Swedish)) arrived this week, so I gave her a try out. I've trimmed the verge outside the house (with strimmer attachment), and tried out the blade for clearing the hillside. Barely made an impression, in some senses, as there's half an acre to get through and I only did ten minutes' work, but I'm confident it'll do the job well. Strimming the verge was considerably easier than the last time I did so, with an electric strimmer. But that's the advantage of a 1.4kW petrol brushcutter, compared to a 350W electric model, I suppose! The right tool for the job makes such a difference...

Friday 9 November 2012

Confirmation

Reading these entries, one might realise that I've been buying a lot of trees recently. A pair of walnuts, and twenty-five Scot's pines: and a large order of other trees that won't arrive until next month (more on that later).

And this without making clear where they're all  going to fit, given that although the garden is large, two dozen pines do take up a fair bit of space.

I haven't wanted to commit this to paper, as it were, until it was all finalized, which, pleasingly, it was, last night, with a Land Registry confirmation of title. A couple of months ago, our long-resident neighbour, Bob, put his house on the market. We'd known it was coming, as he'd mentioned planning to move in January, and had been waiting to find his next house before putting the Barn on the market. Since moving here, we've had in mind that we'd like to own the land in front of the house, as it's underutilized (it's scrubby moorland, really, with some trees), and very prominent from the front windows.

Fortunately, Bob was amenable to a sale, and so in mid-September, we purchased half of the field (the half directly outside the house), with Peter and Sara purchasing the other half (directly behind them). Each half is about 1.4 acres: ours is roughly equally split between very rough grazing, trees with some clearings, and gorse and heather with a few holly trees. When I say 'rough', I really mean it. It's boggy, tussocky, and full of patches of poor grass, brambles, quick and black thorn, and gorse. With a lot of love, I hope to turn it into an orchard, probably with orvine lawnmowers.

The trees, once the clearings are reclaimed from the bracken, should be lovely to visit, and we intend to add a few trees to the mix: sweet chestnuts and willow, for example, which have a lot of utility value. The top patch is much too steep for most uses, but I hope one day to erect a few beehives, and collect honey from the heather and gorse.

The view from the top is splendid, and I'll take a photo when I can.

So: plenty of space for all those trees, as well as, hopefully, a greenhouse and a summerhouse hidden in the trees. The woodland clearings are ideal for turning into little sanctuaries, and with some spring bulbs and dogwood will be lovely in the early part of the year. A proper orchard, with plenty of fruit trees, will get us that bit closer to keeping ourselves self-sufficient in fruit.

Now we just need to clear the weeds, and start to make the land properly usable again.

Tuesday 6 November 2012

Another Walnut

Last year, at about this time, we bought our quince tree ('Serbian Gold', or 'Lescovac'), at our favourite local garden's Christmas launch evening. We typically go to this every year, even though it's early to start Christmas by my reckoning, because they inexplicably give a 15% discount for the evening. Not just on Christmas stock—on everything. Baubles, wellies, perennials, fertilizer: the lot.

Well, that's too good to pass up, isn't it? So off we toddle, round the entire garden centre, and stock up on everything mundane we know we need. I confess to starting a shopping list of necessary-but-not-urgent things we need some months in advance.

The garden centre's loyalty card scheme also sent me a voucher for a half-price outside plant last year, which was the reason for getting the quince: although it excluded Christmas trees and houseplants, all other outside plants were eligible: and half-price off a fruit tree brings their normal ~£40 price tag down to the same region as a 2–3 year old maiden bare-root, but much larger.

They obviously didn't think this was a problem, though I'm sure most of the vouchers get used on shrubs and perennials in the £5–15 range, and so they sent me another one.

That, too, was too tempting to pass up.

We bought a walnut from RHS Harlow Carr in September, which was reduced by 50% at the end of the season (I'm still not really sure why, but there you go: it would have over-wintered perfectly happily, and they still have a number of apples and pears that weren't cleared out, as our visit two weeks ago demonstrated). The walnut variety, Broadview, is nominally self-fertile, but—like all self-fertile fruit trees—will still set more fruit if there's a cross-pollinator available. So I was delighted to find a Buccaneer in the nut aisle at the garden centre, nominally £39.99: but of course I only paid £20, which is still £10–15 less than I've found (cultivated) walnuts elsewhere. I'm delighted, of course.

There was also a sweet chestnut, which would have been nearly as good value (£18), but I'd quite like Marron de Lyon (which this wasn't), and it wouldn't have fitted in the car. The Buccaneer was a good 8–9' tall, and just fitted in: the chestnut was taller and bushier, and wouldn't have had a chance. But it would have been very satisfying.

Sunday 4 November 2012

Pond Practice

Our visit to Molly was partly with the intention of renovating her garden pond (the traditional exchange of labour for food and company!). She had a small pond, a few feet in diameter, and about a foot deep, but it wasn't entirely satisfactory. The fountain was unimpressive (it had to be turned down low, or it threw the water out of the pond), and it was rapidly out-grown by the plants.

So we dug her a new one.

Newly dug pond: ledge all the way round (bit bigger in top right, due to soakaway pipe) and with a wildlife escape ramp in the top left. The pond's 6'x8', and around 2' deep: there was about three barrows of rubble buried in the soil (© Ian 2012)

Half-way through filling up, before trimming (© Ian 2012)

Pond filled and fountain running. The edging will be tidied up after planting (© Ian 2012)

Of course, no trip to Ludlow is complete without a trip to the plant stalls on the market, and this time was no exception. We found a really lovely oak-leaved hydrangea (H. quercifolia): it has pretty leaves, with good autumn colour. It would hold its own, I think, as a deciduous shrub, but it also flowers (large, white, typical hydrangea flowers) in late summer. We also pinched some cuttings of a red-stemmed variegated willow, and half a dozen kaffir lilies (Schizostylis coccinea). Ample reward for pond digging, I think.

Oak-leaved hydrangea, along with willow cuttings (front left) (© Ian 2012)

Friday 2 November 2012

Beeston Castle

Uneventful day in the garden yesterday: wood stacking, turning the compost bins, and tidying the garden porch. The compost bins are doing well: the right hand (mature compost) bin was half-full, having been taking compost for it for things like the new shrubs. The middle bay is now ready, so that I turned into the rightmost bay. It is writhing with worms, and looks excellent.

The left hand bay has been filled over the last few months, and hasn't really got very far. Hopefully turning and aerating it will have helped, but I must try to pour some water on to it, and see if that helps. Even though it wasn't well advanced, I had to turn it into the middle bay, as it was full, as was the compost bin in the porch, as was the compost crock in the kitchen. This was unsustainable.

Having come in, we had a more exciting evening, and made our Christmas cake. Took forever to cook, as normal—about four hours twenty, while the recipe suggests 3–3½ hours. It looks delicious, though: I'll water it a few times over the coming couple of months.

Today we travelled down to visit Molly in Ludlow, and called in at Beeston Castle. Liz went there many years ago (and has no recollection of it): it's a 13th century (read: proper Medieval) castle built by Ranulf of Chester in the 1220s on ancient bronze age earthworks. It was siezed by Henry III on the death of Ranulf's heir, and was a Royal castle until it was thought obsolete in the 16th century. Its inner ward is on a peak surrounded on three sides by sheer cliff; the fourth side, connecting with the outer ward, is protected by a deep ditch cut into the rock.

It's impossible to take by storm.

The (modern!) bridge and inner ward's gatehouse, Beeston Castle (© Ian 2012)

View of the inner ward from outside the outer ward (© Ian 2012)

The castle was the site of siege during the Civil War: it started in Parliamentarian hands, was taken by Royalists (by stealth and treachery), and then invested by the Roundheads. A year-long seige eventually ended in November 1645: the Royalist garrison managed to convince their besiegers that their supplies were stronger, and negotiated good terms for surrender. They marched out with colours flying and with their arms; they left practically no food (there's a secure well, 100m deep, in the inner ward).

The Parliamentary forces slighted the castle, to prevent its reuse, and it's been a ruin since.

Later, an extra 40 acre ring of land was enclosed by a Victorian wall, and exotic animals were kept as an attraction, and there are some natural sandstone caves in the grounds.

View of the gatehouse to the inner ward (© Ian 2012)

View from the inner ward across to Peckforton Castle (a Victorian conceit, not really a castle proper) (© Ian 2012)

View from the inner ward: you can see up to 30 miles, to Liverpool, Manchester, the Pennines, and the Welsh mountains (© Ian 2012)

The 40 acres of wooded grounds have numerous oaks of a significant size (© Ian 2012)