The recent UK-wide cold-snap will have been really good for our fruit trees – here’s why.
Category: Longer Articles
Wassail, Wassail, With a Jolly Wassail!
It’s twelfth night – or one of them – which can mean only one thing in the orchard: Wassail!
How to: Pick Apples and Pears
Top fruit harvest season is here, so it’s time for a guide to picking apples and pears the safe and careful way.
How To: Thin Out Apple and Pear Fruitlets
Fruit thinning is an essential operation to carry out to improve your chances of better quality fruit this year and more fruit buds next year.
Gallery: Top-Fruit Blossom, Spring 2020
2020 has been a rather excellent year for fruit blossom. Here’s a gallery of some examples I’ve seen in various places.
The Norfolk Beefing / Biffin Dilemma
In which I try to work out whether I can justify the energy consumption needed to cook up a classic apple dessert…
Another Holly Mount Pruning Session, Feb 2020
A grey but dry and hugely enjoyable Sunday afternoon was well spent on helping to finish off this year’s winter pruning work.
Mature Apple Tree: Restoration Pruning
Here’s how I went about the first phase of restorative pruning on a mature apple three that has been sadly neglected for a few years.
Stepover Apple Trees: Winter Pruning
Here’s how I pruned three stepover trees on our allotment plot, leaving them until January rather than pruning in late summer as usually advised.
Pruning Session: Holly Mount Orchard, January 2020
On a grey and drizzly afternoon I spent a happy few hours helping to winter prune a few of the trees in Holly Mount community orchard.