It's all about the edge

How would you like this as your front door?

Here is the cottage garden entrance and the front door to the ruin. It is looking rather pretty!








 
One of the most diverse and plentiful environments is that of the edge, the between. Between the forest and the plain, between the lake and the shore. When we create different milieu in our gardens we encourage diversity of flora and fauna.

Photos - On the left the lavender path early spring... on the right middle spring.


The trees are looking great, still babies of course. I have been out fighting the aphids and thrips and so on, and thinning out the trees that have fruit - almost crying at the same time, but I know it's best for the tree. Thanks again to our sponsors, I think of you each time I am out doing the rounds. Remember, there are always more trees to plant and sponsor! Just email us!

I am interested in a layered orchard, so some of the trees will be standard-sized, then coming down to dwarf (mainly M111 and M106 rootstock) and I look forward to planting bushes between them. Here is a graft that appears to have taken, unfortunately a lot of them appear to have been knocked off, possibly by the chickens. We did do them a bit late anyway, so next spring I will try again.

Most exciting is the discovery that there is a well on the property! This was not certain until now. And we will have to wait and see if it fills all summer, as I shall certainly use it in the greenhouse - already dreaming of doubling the size of  the greenhouse towards the path! I will have to pump it out of the reservoir, but it will cost hardly anything and the aim will be to run it from solar panels and a battery.

The weeds are growing faster than I can keep up with, I simply chase round the ones that are about to flower and try to give an advantage to the favoured plants. The garden is producing, the peas are not so good this year, but the lettuce makes up for them. We are still eating greens from the garden, and potatoes - I dig them up as and when - which I believe I may never have to buy again - wonderful! Left and right are photos of the greenhouse about a month ago.

I just shared a strawberry with a slug (those little slimy characters always pick the best ones) and it was a taste sensation. I am still dreaming of having enough strawberries to make jam - maybe this year will be the year of strawberry jam. (I did cut off the slug-attacked bit)

I am sitting here listening to the frogs (we know a song about that click here:), which have moved into our pool (you can listen to our resident frogs here and the local frogs here), which is being converted into a pond. It has been a learning process - I have dropped a few stones and a whole pot full of plants has fallen to the bottom. Hopefully once the conversion is completed we will be once again able to swim in there. The system is a reed-bed filtration system. I already feel much better about it than when we were constantly chucking chemicals into it. Yuk. Of course, the edge between the pool and the garden is an exciting project too - which plants and trees should be planted there, taking into account the shade, the amount of autumnal fallout and so on.

Here are the ants on the sticky tape that I put round the trunk of the baby tree to help it fight the aphids: ants farm the aphids for the sugar that they steal from the flowers.














 And here are the aphids on the right if you look close enough! Can you zoom in?

On the left are the ladybirds whose babies will feast on the aphids!







 I must mention the worms, who are doing a wonderful job, just to remind you of how easy it is to encourage the worms in your garden here is an in-bed worm 'farm'.







The Pool area in transformation, thanks to Tana for the pots into which I can re-pot the plants I haven't dropped to the bottom of the pool.


The cucumbers are coming on nicely

On the left same as on the right but half an hour of weeding difference between the two.

And just for fun below are the thrips also caught on sticky tape!

Grafting fruit trees

Today, Sunday 11th March 2018  I grafted about 15 fruit trees. Talk about feeding future generations! I have waited so long to try this out, and it has fulfilled all my expectations. Of course, it will take a couple of weeks to see if they have worked or not, but I have everything crossed and well, why shouldn't they!
So Patrick the local lad mentioned in other posts accompanied Ivor and me to the old farm, where there are plenty of wild cherry trees and almonds that have grown from seed.

One day when we had a load of wwoofers and helpxers I sent them off almond picking and they came home happily showing off a trunk full of almonds (literally). However, I had omitted to remind them of the bitter almond. So we were faced with trying each almond, or throwing the lot out. After poisoning myself with cyanide a few too many times, I threw them onto the garden in several spots thinking to myself that maybe some would grow. And they did. And now I am grafting onto them. So perfect. Lesson to be learned, when picking almonds always try one from each tree as bitter almonds are rightly named.

The cherries have grown from seed too, either from cherries we ate or perhaps wild animals. The two older boys argue over who spat out the seed that grew into the cherry tree next to our old kitchen hut - it bears tasty cherries - and today I grafted from that tree onto one of the wild cherries. It may be our very own variety - we will have to name it! sabien?  fabix? random spit cherry? ha ha.

Patrick has suggested that we leave the rootstock that we have planted this year to establish themselves and then we can graft them next year. I still plan on visiting the apple trees in my mum's back garden to take grafts!

Today we also grafted pear and apple onto hawthorn! Excellent stuff. Oh, and apricot onto almond too.

Most of the photos show the crown graft, but we did try one chip bud graft (at least I think that is what it is called in English, will check):

Doesn't look like much, but apparently they are the most successful grafts!


Wednesday  14th March, son number two's 17th birthday, I grafted all on my own. Well, Alex and Ivor came with me, Alex attacked the clematis and brambles, freed a couple of trees and cleared where the old sheep tunnel was, and Ivor filled the water butts from the source, and 'helped' generally.

I only cut myself twice! I grafted cherry onto wild cherry, and then just for fun, onto one wild cherry with three trunks just behind where the old kitchen used to be, I grafted cherry, almond and apricot (from left to right in the photo)! Makes me shiver.