Gardening.........
 |
| Author | Posts |
|---|---|
|
Member
Posts: 62
Location: West Yorkshire
Offline
|
Hello there, I see lots of you put gardening as one of your interests.
I work as a professional horticulturist on a country estate and have several years experience. so if any of you wish to put your horticultural "Gardeners questions" to me, please feel free! teenyweeny. We are all on here to help each other. 
|
|
|
|
Member
Posts: 1177
Location: Surrey
Offline
|
Oh yes, I can think of a question to start with:
If you plant an orchard from very small bare- rooted trees, how many years does it take until you can expect a crop? I guess you can find 3 apples on a 3 year old plant, but when does it start to produce fruit to fill a bucket? |
|
|
|
|
Moderator
Posts: 547
Location: Kent
Offline
|
Hi, How and when is the best way to prune a gooseberry bush. I had a go at pruning mine last year and obviously did it wrong as the bush only produced 3 gooseberries!!
|
|
|
|
|
Member
Posts: 62
Location: West Yorkshire
Offline
|
ORCHARDS........
planting apples.....you can buy 1, 2, 3 year old bare roots or container grown., and on a variety of rootstocks which control the size. crop size depends on this and also, on 1. what variety they are and 2. whether they have the right pollinating partners. container grown plants (with right poll. partners) and 2/3 year old bare roots, should produce fruit the next year, and the following year, a significant increase in yields, however, fruit needs thinning to improve the quality (better than quantity) this works whilst trees are still small (and if grown on dwarfing rootstocks). area around young trees should remain clear of grass whilst trees establishing. |
|
|
|
|
Member
Posts: 62
Location: West Yorkshire
Offline
|
GOOSEBERRIES,,,,,,,,,,,,,
pruning depends on how they are grown- 1. on a "leg", which is a straight stem with crown of stems on top 2. as a bush the "leg" grown types, keep stems clear and reduce size of top growth produced that year (AFTER cropping) by about half, reduce long whippy stems by half (August/Sept) for bushes, after cropping reduce growth by half and long whippy stems as per above (aug/sep) then for both types, in December (when dormant)cut out all dead, diseased, crossing, lowest growing stems right back to main stems. for bushes, the idea is to keep middle open (as if a goblet shape) to let in light and air, take out all stems in this area and leave outer stems, reduce these by half. cut out all thin, whispy, inward growth and take out completely about one quarter of the fruited stems on established bushes remember to feed with sulphate of potash in spring and mulch well problems with sawfly? you could spray but my old pests tutor said best way to deal with this is, mulch well in late summer, sawfly lay eggs in mulch, remove this mulch in late winter and burn, or throw away, replace mulch with new. |
|
|
|
|
Moderator
Posts: 547
Location: Kent
Offline
|
Many thanks, that's a great help. The gooseberries are grown as a bush so I will set to at the weekend and sort them out, and put some mulch round them.
|
|
|
|
|
Member
Posts: 62
Location: West Yorkshire
Offline
|
tip for the week........
make sure you protect all your tender plants (all those you replaced after last winter.......!!!!) wrap with fleece, hessian, move to a sheltered spot (if feasible) mulch well.....(eg. dahlias) use pot feet (or strips of wood, polystyrene) and..... pray!. |
|
|
|
|
Member
Posts: 1177
Location: Surrey
Offline
|
Hi teenyweeny, still owe you a "thanks" for your advice. Funny, I was not actually calculating 3 year old bare root trees into the equation, nor the fact that they are all different depending on circumstances.
I recently became quite interested in "Forest Gardening" as a way of taming nature whilst leaving everything as natural as possible. Is that just a fad or does it have a wide follwing? |
|
|
|
|
Member
Posts: 62
Location: West Yorkshire
Offline
|
on the subject of "forest gardening".....
this is not a new concept, in UK it found some grounding in the 60's, as a way of providing an eco-systemic way of producing crops of different types, eg. tree fruits, veg, etc, all living in harmony with each other. I have personally not had any experience on this subject but have visited a "forest garden" which has been established over 10 years in "old sleningford hall", ripon. as a professional gardener, to grow crops, I like neatness, straight lines and order and this method falls within none of these remits, but to produce significant crops, there is still lots of work involved. again, on a personal level I was not impressed with the overall untidyness of it all and it did not "feel" right to me, but thats only my opinion. ecosystems need time to establish to work properly, for the balance to become right, but the same amount (maybe more?) is required for the same return as conventional methods. 
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Member
Posts: 1177
Location: Surrey
Offline
|
I can understand why a professional gardener would have a preference for neatness and increased crops, that is your priority of course. I have over the years, as an enthusiast, discovered "muddling" and it is liberating. I confess with my sort of knowledge I would probably no get better results even if I tried. I felt quite attracted to the idea of "forest gardening" even if I discovered it a great many decades later than it was first promoted!
This leads us to the question "what is gardening"?. It is a form of controlling nature, but it seems there is no rule how much nature needs to have been controlled before it has deserved the term "gardening". |
|
|
|
|
Member
Posts: 62
Location: West Yorkshire
Offline
|
.......and quite often, I use the excuse of "gardening" to sneak outside and potter around doing not much of anything!
|
|
|
|
|
Member
Posts: 1177
Location: Surrey
Offline
|
yes, it's good for the soul! When I read the book "The Change" by Germaine Greer, she said that the middle-aged woman either discovered God or gardening. So true and worked for me: let me out there and scratch around and plan what will be next.
|
|
|
|
|
Member
Posts: 62
Location: West Yorkshire
Offline
|
I used to work for "The Man", for 22 years......indoors all day every day.....then, I saw the light! 5 college years and a student loan later.....
I have been a full time gardener now for 8 years and it rocks, used to hate winter now love it! even the snow |
|
|
|
|
Member
Posts: 62
Location: West Yorkshire
Offline
|
Here is my gardening tip for the week.
Now is the time to prune your deciduous trees, cut out all dead, diseased, dying, crossing branches. Willows can be cut back hard, so can hazel. Careful with beech trees, trimmed branches can die back to the trunk, best to take these back from the start. Do not prune any Prunus trees during winter due to their susceptability to Silver leaf disease, these should be pruned in early summer (cherry etc). Trim holly anytime except during extremely cold weather but other evergreen hedges should be left until late spring. (Yew in August). |
|
|
|
|
Member
Posts: 225
Location: Pembrokeshire
Offline
|
 Like your posts Teeny. I live amongst a mixed woodland & like to keep this character in my gardening. Have been 'playing' with living willow creations but would like to use more colour variation. Do you know any details re: names to look for?Also, I love the old fashioned rambling & climbing roses but this area isn't conducive to them. I never quite know what bits nor when best to cut back. 
|
|
|
|
|