The Fruit Garden is Alive….

March 25, 2012 by

…with lots of new growth. Yesterday, I had a few spare moments in the garden (with the sun on my back) and decided to have a look at how things were progressing. The weather has been very spring like recently: the sun is out, the birds are busy nest building (and singing joyfully at 5am), and the plants in the garden have woken from their winter slumber. This is what I discovered as I wandered.

Plenty of buds on the cherry tree, which hopefully means lots of cherries.Cherry Tree Buds
The first new leaves on the redcurrant…
New Redcurrant Leaves
…and blackcurrant bushes. It’s interesting that the blackcurrant leaves are much greener than the redcurrant.
New Blackcurrant Leaves
The blueberries are joining in too.
Blueberry Buds
And even our rhubarb, which is tucked away in a rather shady corner, has decided the new season is upon us.
Rhubarb Leaves Emerging
I just love these first new beginnings heralding the arrival of spring. Don’t leave it too long before you have a look though because things soon speed up, and in no time at all the plants will be in full leaf.


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Cherries are Splitting!

June 16, 2011 by

I know we desperately needed the rain, and the garden is looking much better for it.  I spent a good 3 hours planting beans and weeding at the weekend, and it was an absolute joy.  The soil was so easy to dig, and the weeds came up really easily, roots and all.  But it is not good for our cherries!

Split Cherry

The rain has come at exactly the wrong moment.  Lots of our beautiful cherries were just beginning to ripen, and now their skins have split, and the ants are having a feast!  We’ve picked and eaten a few but most just aren’t ripe enough yet.  It’s one of those things that we read about, but didn’t act upon.  But, you REALLY DO have to protect your ripening cherries from the rain.  Once the cherries are fully grown the skins stop growing, but water can still be absorbed through the skin, which causes the flesh to swell and the skins to split.  Now I wish we’d “potato bagged” our cherries.  Next year we will definitely be erecting a waterproof cover over our cherry trees (somehow!).  We probably need to do it this year, as we’ve still got a reasonable number that haven’t split yet and the rain just keeps coming!  We’ve only got a couple of trees so we should be able to sort something out, but it must be a nightmare for the commercial growers.  Surely they can’t protect all their fruit from the rain.

 


Filed in: Fruit Trees, Plant Care Tags: , ,

Potato Bag Tree!

May 30, 2011 by

Yesterday as we were driving along we saw a very strange sight.  It looked like a “potato bag” tree!  We only caught a glimpse but there were definitely several potato bags tied around the branches of a large tree.  A little further on, we suddenly figured out what it was.  The tree was a cherry tree (we’ve got a couple so we recognized the leaves) and this was their way of protecting the cherries!  Birds certainly couldn’t get to the cherries, and the heavy bags would also protect the fruit from any rain, and therefore prevent the fruit from splitting.  (Once cherries start to ripen, their skins stop growing and any moisture that is absorbed through the skin causes the flesh to swell and the skins to split.)  We’ve seen fleece “sleeves” being used but the potato bags were also a great way of protecting the cherries!  I just wonder whether the cherries need light to ripen – perhaps not.


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Stella Cherry Tree Blossoms

April 9, 2011 by

Only a few days from when I took the last photographs, our two cherry trees (Stella) have blossomed.  They look lovely….though I have to admit that I’m seeing slightly passed the flower beauty and starting to count the cherries!  If each of these flowers do turn into a cherry (rather than dropping off), then we’re in for a real treat!  We’ve got them in a fruit cage, which is essential…I can say from personal experience that if you don’t protect them from birds you won’t get a single one!  Blackbirds in particular are very very partial to cherries and have no objection to eating them when they are white, so you simply don’t get a look in.

Note the stake to the left of the image – young trees need staking to prevent wind from rocking them – easy to do with a bare rooted tree as you can drive the stack in before positioning the tree.

If you’re interested in growing cherry trees, then here’s a list of cherry tree suppliers


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