Pruning

It's getting towards the end of winter, which makes it time to make sure we've pruned many of the plants. The new fruit and ornamental trees need formative pruning, and the fruit bushes in the kitchen garden all need annual attention.

So, today, we have:

• Cut back all the laterals on the apples and pears below 1.75m (only one is this tall, in fact, so it mostly just meant cutting back all the side shoots). The oldest apple tree, which came with us when we moved in, is now tall enough to have it's leader cut out at the 1.75m mark (or so). All the laterals below this have been trimmed back, and it's got a few lateral shoots at that height, which we'll now train in to become the main lateral framework of the tree.
• Not done anything with the plums or cherries. We're leaving them another week or two, to minimize the risk of silver leaf infection.
• Taken out some of the old wood on the oldest blackcurrant, and a few dodgy looking stems on the other two.
• Tip pruned and shortened side-shoots on the redcurrants and whitecurrants.
• Taken out damaged wood on the blueberries (still too small to take out old wood).
• Tidied the gooseberries: they're particularly bad at branches flopping onto the ground, so this always needs quite a lot of work -- they're also bad at growing into the path.
• Undertaken major work on the three established apples that were already on the hillside. None of these has ever been pruned, we think. One of them isn't too badly formed, but the others are over-grown 'bush' forms. The first just needed a low, unbalanced lateral taking out, and is now pretty neat. The other two both had errant cross-cutting stems, rubbing branches, and dead wood: they're now both considerably better, but will never win prizes for training. Never mind: they should, at least, be healthier, stronger, and better bearers!

Apart from that, we weeded a few beds, chopped down and dug in the green manure, and potted up some new arrivals: four hostas ('Canadian Blue', 'Fire and Ice', 'Touch of Glass' and 'White Feather'); six mixed astilbes; and a dwarf red Japanese azalea.

I forgot to mention some acquisitions from the garden centre during our week of trench and hole digging: three kaffir lilies (the outside variety Schizostylis coccinea, not the houseplant, Clivia miniata, which we also have); an Australian mint bush; and a number of heucheras (two Dayglow Pink, two Can-Can, two Marmalade, and a Paris). All very cheap and out of season...we couldn't resist.

Orchard

The orchard has now been planted: seventeen fruit trees, and a further five ornamental deciduous trees. Later, we'll add the Scot's Pines, and there's space to add another 2–6 full size trees (that is, some more ornamental or fruit trees) over the next couple of years.

Each tree is in a decent planting pit, with extra compost and sand mixed into the soil. They each have a 6' post (2.5" diameter), and a metre of chicken wire, wrapped into a tube, secured around them with a pair of bamboos (to protect the main stem from deer).

The four plums and one walnut are tall enough to have their leader cut, ready to start growing laterals at that height as standards: most of the rest need to grow on for another year or more. In the next few weeks, we'll trim back any laterals they all have, to encourage the main stem to grow taller and thicker. The aim is to have a clear trunk up to around the 5'6"–6' mark, and then a framework of branches above that. Standards take up more space (but there's plenty of that), but have high yields, and aren't as vulnerable to deer -- in the case of the walnuts, it's also to reduce squirrel nut-theft...

Panorama of the orchard, from the kitchen gate (© Ian 2013)

Trenches and Pits

Finally, the drainage trenches and planting pits are complete. It's been a hell of a day, and we only managed to finish the last half-dozen holes, and the ditches they needed: we're both tired, the ground's soaking, and the last area of ground is full of stones, including a few mammoths.

At last, they're now all done (subject to checking as we plant that they are draining well), and we even managed, on Wednesday, in the snow, to start clearing the patch that the sweet chestnuts and willows will go in, in the first clearing above the tree line.

The lower portion of the hillside looks a mess, currently, with heaps of spoil mud, soggy paths, and gaping holes. But tomorrow we can start planting.

Mud

We've been spending almost all of the last seven days digging. The hillside, we discovered, is far wetter than expected, and needs serious drainage in order to be sure that our fruit trees will thrive. With some interruptions (a visit to my parents' on Monday; snow on Wednesday; things like that), we've been working on digging the necessary drainage trenches, and the planting pits for the trees.

Needless to say, this has been non-trivial. We're almost there, now, and just have another half-dozen pits (and whatever trenches are required for them!) to go.

It's been a muddy, hard, squelching job, and I shall be very glad when it's done. At the moment, the hillside doesn't look like much, with bamboo canes marking the future position of trees, and then only muddy ditches, wet spoil heaps, and muddy tracks where the grass has broken down under foot.

Land Drains

We had hoped to spend the weekend planting fruit trees on the hillside. However, when we came to dig the holes, we found the ground is waterlogged, and not draining at all well. Certainly, it's been wet for the last month, with 10" of snow, followed by 3" of rain: but the ground is downright boggy at the foot of the hillside—and waterlogged even up the slope. The problem, basically, is compacted and humus-poor soil of only 8" depth, on top of impermeable clay.

We've had to change our plans, therefore, and have spent the past two days digging twelve planting pits (a quarter of the total needed), and land drains. There's one herringbone arrangement linking half a dozen of the pits, and a second trench draining two more: these lead to a newly built culvert in the wall flowing into the road-side ditch. Three planting pits further up the hill have trenches leading away from them, to make sure that these pits don't submerge. These are just open ditches at the moment, but in time we'll hope to make them covered drains, possibly leading on to the lower system.

Another six or so holes further along are going to need the same treatment: we've dug the ditches to bring two of them down to a spinal drain, which leads partway to the wall (the rest of the length, and the culvert, will follow). Three above this will definitely need to be linked in; possibly one further.

All in all, this means another weekend of drain digging, at least, and then a glut of planting. We think we can still get everything planted by the end of the month, but it'll mean a bit of a soggy slog!

In more pleasant news, we've sown some more achillea (Summer Pastels, and Cloth of Gold); some Snow in Summer, and aquilegia 'Royal Purple'. We also started the vegetable sowing, with a pot of each of beetroot, leeks, and spinach.

We also need to pack up our Corolle seed potatoes, as they've been recalled: I've ordered some Kestrel tubers, as a replacement.