It's been a while, but last month I planted two new trees in the garden. When I replaced the shed with a polytunnel I opened up some space at the back of the garden. I replaced the south facing fence last year and realised that the strip behind the tunnel, about 1 m wide and 3-4 m long, would be ideal for some trained fruit trees. The hard thing was choosing what to place there.
Because the fence is south facing I chose a dessert pear cordon for one of the trees. I went for a Nouveau Poiteau pear on Quince C rootstock. The description is as follows: Dessert pear. Pick October. Use November. Flower Group E. Fruit russetted, flesh sweet, very melting, rich flavour. It should be fine for pollination as there are two other group E pears in the garden and a group D (althouth that one is a triploid). Hopefully it will enjoy the sheltered spot. The other tree I chose was a quince cordon. This form for a quince doesn't seem very common but I am hoping it will be fine. I have another larger quince tree (Agvambari) at the other end of the garden which has been disappointing so far. The Agvambari is supposed to be self-fertile, but I am hoping the new cordon will help with pollination. I chose Serbian Gold for the cordon on Quince A rootstock. The description is: early ripening,, very productive, healthy tree. Sounds good. Both trees were from bought from Agroforestry Research Trust which has a really good selection of trees that are well suited to UK forest gardens. Worth a look if you haven't already.
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I try to keep track of all of the output from the garden. I'm interested to see how much a small edible forest garden can produce on a domestic scale and in particular how long it takes for the garden to develop to its full potential. There are lots of other great things about growing a forest garden, but when I was planning my garden I found it difficult to get numbers on productivity. Hopefully these records might be useful to someone else going through that process. The plot above shows the total output from the front and backgarden over the last five years. The results are dominated by a major harvest of potatoes in 2011 when I turned the whole of the front garden over to growing them to clear it. The next plot shows the total output, not including the vegetables. This starts to make more sense now. The output in 2012 was particularly bad, but the trend is for a gradual increase since planting in 2008, although 2014 has been down a little on last year. The apple harvest this year was very poor, only 5.1 kg compared to 13.7 kg last year. Most of the apples this year were from the early Redsleeves with the others failing. I have heard others say that it was a poor year for apples in general. In addition, I grafted over the last third of a remaining apple tree and the earlier grafts are still too young to be in production. The two standard apples are also not really fully mature yet, although they did produce well last year. Pears were also down a little from 5.3 kg to 3.7 kg. This year saw did see quite a lot of mulberries though, a promise of more to come as the tree gets bigger. The next plot breaks down the fruit production into tree fruit (top fruit) and soft fruit. This makes clear that the tree fruit definitely took a hit this year. The soft fruit was about the same as last year. Raspberries were by far the most prolific (8.4 kg), then redcurrants (2.5 kg), blackcurrants (1.3 kg) and loganberries (1.2 kg). The garden produced lots of variety of fruit in quantities around a kilo. A nice surprise was the Japanese Wineberry which yielded 0.47 kg, which is a lot of the very small berries! The total fruit output was down this year compared to last, but the hazelnut harvest was a real succes, up from 1.8 kg to 6.1 kg. Rhubarb also did well, up from 3.9 kg to 7.1 kg. This year was characterised by very early soft fruit harvest, with about half of the raspberry crop coming in June. The plot above shows the breakdown by month. It shows a slightly more even distribution than previous years. My hope is that as the fruit trees mature the later part of the year will start to fill in. The polytunnel will also extend the production later in the year and in the early months. It's already producing a lot more salad than last January. The last plot shows how the different crops have been harvested through the year. Garlic and Babbington leeks are some of the first crops, then rhubarb, followed by the soft fruit then the top fruit and nuts. The last harvest in December was of some potatoes and oca from the polytunnel. This isn't the whole story of course. Last year, when the apple harvest was better there was fruit to store into the winter months, extending the time when produce was available. This year, it is only frozen soft fruit and hazelnuts that have made it this far, but they are definitely welcome.
It has been a brilliant year for apples and pears in the forest garden, both in terms of the weather and because the trees are starting to mature and bear fruit. I wanted to capture aome of the variety in the fruit so I've been doing my best to take portraits of some of this year's crop. First up is fruit from the Blue Pearmain apple. I have a small double cordon trained around an arch. The tree is still small but this year bore its first fruit. There were two fruit, one of which was enormous - weighing in at 380 g. Unfortunately by the time I picked it it had a hole in the top, probably from bird damage. The other was half the size and weight but still larger than many other apples. The apple gets its name from the blue bloom it has, which just about comes across in the photos. My book (The New Book of Apples by Joan Morgan and Alison Richards) says that they are best used from December to February, although they have lasted as long as May. Seems like I will have to wait a while to taste this one. Next is a pear from a tree that pre-dates the planting of the forest garden. I don't know the variety. The tree is narrow and tall - about 5 m high. It crops only moderately well and unlike the other trees in the garden it bore a little less than last year when it was one of the only pears or apples to bear a crop. The fruit this year were of good quality though. They take a couple of weeks to ripen once they have been picked but have a good flavour. If anyone wants to hazard a guess as to the variety I would be very interested. One of the two trees that I am growing as a standard is a Tydeman's Late Orange. The tree is a fast grower with long flexible branches. This year is the first year it has cropped more than a couple of apples. As the name suggests the apples are for use late in the season from December until April. The idea was that this would provide apples that could be stored and would see us through the winter. This photo shows a couple of problems I have had with the tree that I've mentioned in other posts. I broke off one of the main branches whilst bending it down in cold weather in the winter - bad idea. Also, despite my thinning the apples one of the branches broke under the weight of the fruit. It remained partially attached though and the fruit developed on the branch nonetheless. I will prune it out in the winter I think. The fruit had some scab earlier in the season and I picked out the affected apples. Most of the remaining fruit looks very good apart from a few which have been partially eaten by tree climbing snails. You can see an example in the middle at the top. My apple book says pick mid-October but some of the fruit was starting to fall. I guess the season is earlier because of the warm weather. I have been picking for the last week and a half and finished picking the last ones today. In terms of size they are what I think of as average apple size. The other standard apple is a Court of Wick. The tree is growing more slowly than the Tydeman's Late Orange but seems to be healthy. It bore only about 10 fruit this year and the fruit are smaller than average. They have a flattish shape and have an attractive colour with some russeting.The season of use is October to December. The idea was that this tree would complement the season of the later Tydeman's Late Orange and the earlier Redsleeves to give apples from August through to April. Lastly the pears on a slightly newer cordon were ready for picking. These are of the Concorde variety. The tree was really productive, producing nearly as many fruit as the large tree. There were some fruit last year and the flavour was excellent. They are not yet ripe. There are still a few other fruit to be harvested. I'll post some more photos soon.
There was some stormy weather last night. Lots of rain and strong winds. Looking around today quite a few pears had been blown down. Luckily I had picked about 20 of the ripest yesterday. I've been keeping a record of the produce in the garden and the pears are nearly catching up with the rhubarb in the most productive stakes. You can see the tally at the bottom right of this page. I spent some time yesterday building a simple rack for ripening the fruit out of the wooden base from a washing machine and some bamboo canes pinned to it. I've hung it up inside so that there is plenty of air circulation and so no rodents can get to them. I will probably need something bigger when I get more pears and apples, but it will do for this year.
The wind also blew down about 20 apples from the existing apple tree at the end of the garden. Two thirds of them were maggoty and rotten before they hit the ground. It confirmed what I had suspected that the tree suffers quite badly from codling moth and probably sawfly. Last year I got almost no useful fruit from the, but blamed apple scab which was my own fault due to too frequent spraying with seaweed solution. It got me thinking that it is time to do something about it. If I don't do anything I pretty sure that the pests will transfer over to the newly planted apple trees once they bear fruit. My neighbour also has a large apple tree - it had a great crop last year but this year has almost none. It is probably due to no pruning last year, but it made me think that biennial bearing could be useful pest control strategy for an isolated fruit tree - breaking the life cycle of the pest organism and reducing numbers considerably. I couldn't find anything on the internet, but I suspect I may have read that somewhere? Because I have a number of young apple trees if I am going to reduce the number of pests I will probably need to do something before they all start bearing. I'm not interested in using pesticides but I have a few possible courses of action: 1. Control measures like picking up all the dropped fruit (I do that anyway), and tying sacking around the trunk to catch overwintering moth larvae. 2. Removing all the blossom and fruit next year to break the life cycle of the pests. 3. Grafting over the apple tree to a new variety. 4. Remove the apple tree completely and perhaps replace it with a different fruit. This might seem a little drastic, but I suspect I have too many apple trees in the garden to be trouble free. On the downside I would probably disturb my asparagus and strawberry beds nearby. I'm favouring option 3 at the moment. The tree is well established so would give the new variety/ies a head start. The tree wouldn't bear fruit for a year or two so it would also achieve the same result as 2 (although I may have to leave a nurse branch). I don't know what the current variety is but I suspect it is relatively early bearer and I would rather have a keeper. There are some great videos on YouTube with examples of grafting technique and orchard management here by Stephen Hayes. Definitely worth a look. As for what varieties, I would probably use scions from the one or more of the other trees in the garden. A different variety would be nice, but I am not sure where to get the scion wood from and the other trees I have would be the easiest option for now. I don't have to decide until I begin pruning the trees as any grafting would be done in early spring. If anyone has any experience of doing something similar or other ideas I would love to hear about them. One of the key design goals for my garden was that it should be low-maintenance. Exactly what that means I never defined, but my ideal is a garden that I can tend when I want to but that can do without any attention for a couple of weeks if I'm away or too busy. So going away for two weeks holiday in August was a chance to put it to the test. I have to admit that I was a little nervous. Would the garden live up to my expectations? Would everything be dead when I came back? My main concern were the plants in containers. In the interests of low-maintenance I only have a few. I've got two blueberry plants because they can't grow in the chalky soil here and I have two courgette plants that someone gave me. I've also got a squash and a cucumber growing out of my compost pile and some plants in raised beds. The rest are growing in the ground. In preparation for going away I put the blueberries in the kids paddling pool and gave them a really good water because they like to be damp. I also watered the other pots and compost piles. I watered some of the trees too, especially the couple that have only been in the ground since last winter. I came back home this weekend and was really relieved to see that everything was still alive. The leaves on one of the blueberries are looking a bit red but are ok. The rest of the garden is doing great too. The slugs have eaten some of my dwarf beans I tried to grow, but that would have happened if I had been around anyway. A couple of courgettes had turned into marrows weighing 2.4kg between them. Judging by the containers around the garden there must have been a couple of inches of rain which must have helped. I spent some time doing a few jobs in the garden that I have been meaning to do for a while, but nothing that couldn't have waited. So it looks like the garden passed the test.
One side effect of being away and leaving the garden unoccupied is that a squirrel was in the garden today. One of the cats chased it away, but I think it must have found the hazelnuts. There are still quite a few on the tree, but I think I may have to pick them soon if I want to try any this year. Today I spotted a fallen pear nearly full size. I tried a few of the ones on the tree and eight (1.05kg) came away easily. They were fairly hard so I will leave them to ripen on the windowsill. Looking back at my notes from last year they started to fall in mid-August then too. There are definitely more on the tree this year which I think is due to the other pear cordon helping to pollinate them. I did an experiment and hand pollinated the right hand side this year to see if that helped. I don't think there are any more on that side, if anything there are less - perhaps because it is further from the other tree. I don't think I will bother next year and will leave the bees to do the work. It's supposed to be low-maintenance after all. The flowers on the pear trees are all gone now. The base of the flowers (the ovaries?) swelled up, on some more than others. More recently the smaller ones fell off, leaving one or two small swollen fruit in each cluster. I'm hoping these are the pollinated ones and will develop into mature fruit. So far it's too soon to tell whether the branches I hand pollinated have more fruit than the rest. Once the fruit get bigger it should be easier to tell.
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AboutA blog following the development of a small edible forest garden in Salisbury, Wiltshire, first planted in winter 2008.
AuthorA forest gardening enthusiast with an interest in growing food sustainably, locally and with minimal effort. More blogsAnni's Perennial Veggies
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Check out the resources page for lots more forest gardening websites, books and videos.
Details of my young forest garden are here and photos here. Produce 20161 Jan - 31 Mar
0.640kg Babington leek 0.417kg Cabbage 0.742kg Celeriac 0.005kg Coriander 0.343kg Daikon 0.003kg Fennel 0.091kg Garlic shoots 0.005kg Goji berry leaves 0.259kg Lettuce 0.002kg Mint 0.020kg Pak choi 0.233kg Parsley 2.100kg Potatoes 0.041kg Radish 0.006kg Red veined sorrel 2.069kg Rosemary 0.888kg Ruby chard 0.002kg Thyme 0.065kg Winter purslane 1 Apr - 30 Jun 0.008kg Alpine strawberries 0.555kg Babington leeks 0.003kg Basil 0.989kg Beetroot 1.987kg Celeriac 0.019kg Chillis 0.076kg Chives 0.466kg Cleavers 0.227kg Coriander 0.075kg Courgettes 0.034kg Fennel 0.045kg Garlic shoots 0.004kg Gooseberries 0.048kg Holly leaves 0.006kg Lemon balm 0.541kg Lettuce 0.005kg Lime leaves 0.012kg Mint 0.108kg Nettles 0.440kg Oca 0.295kg Parsley 0.003kg Radish 0.241kg Raspberries 2.570kg Rhubarb 0.052kg Rocket 0.001kg Rosemary 2.338kg Ruby chard 0.022kg Sage 0.099kg Spring onions 0.464kg Strawberries 0.001kg Sweet violet 0.064kg Wild garlic 0.001kg Winter purslane 1 Jul - 30 Sep 0.030kg Alpine strawberries 22.360kg Apples 0.003kg Basil 0.317kg Blackberries 0.706kg Blackcurrants 0.595kg Blueberries 0.085kg Chillis 0.002kg Chives 8.255kg Courgettes 0.003kg Fennel 0.205kg Gooseberries 2.674kg Hazelnuts 0.429kg Japanese wineberries 2.404kg Jostaberries 0.209kg Loganberries 0.025kg Mint 0.167kg Mulberries 0.006kg Nasturtium 0.004kg Parsley 4.068kg Pears 4.097kg Rapsberries 3.988kg Redcurrants 0.016kg Rocket 0.522kg Rosemary 0.026kg Spring onions 0.837kg Sweet cherries 0.234kg Tayberries 2.142kg Tomatoes 1.229kg Whitecurrants 1 Oct - 31 Dec 2.263kg Apples 0.317kg Chillis 2.697kg Courgettes 0.060kg Mashua 0.030kg Mint 0.250kg Oca 0.080kg Parsley 0.581kg Pears 1.360kg Potatoes 0.011kg Rocket 0.056kg Rosemary 0.050kg Sage 0.651kg Tomatoes Produce 20151 Jan - 31 Mar
0.187kg Babington's leek 0.031kg garlic shoots 0.005kg mint 0.560kg salad 1 Apr - 30 Jun 0.021kg alpine strawberries 2.074kg Babington's leeks 0.017kg basil 0.975kg blackcurrants 0.434kg cabbage 0.016kg chives 0.095kg coriander 0.009kg dill 0.156kg garlic shoots 0.443kg gooseberries 1.801kg kohlrabi 0.297kg lettuce 0.015kg lime leaves 0.035kg mint 0.033kg mustard leaves 0.231kg nettles 0.089kg onion 0.470kg oregano 0.013kg pak choi 0.013kg parsley 0.626kg peas 0.107kg peppermint 0.871kg purple sprouting broccoli 4.219kg raspberries 1.406kg red onion 0.048kg red-veined sorrel 1.751kg rhubarb 1.618kg ruby chard 0.324kg spring onion 1.157kg strawberries 0.577kg sweet cherries 0.242kg tayberried 0.001kg thyme 0.160kg wild garlic 0004kg winter purslane 1 Jul - 30 Sep 0.003kg alpine strawberries 0.002kg apple mint 37.964kg apples 0.033kg basil 0.753kg blackberries 7.207kg blackcurrants 2.441kg blueberries 0.073kg cabbage 0.039kg celeriac 0.019kg coriander 6.329kg courgettes 15.960kg cucumber 0.012kg dill 0.466kg french beans 0.312kg garlic 1.447kg gooseberries 12.822kg hazelnuts 0.967kg Japanese wineberries 2.390kg jostaberries 0.205kg lettuce 0.001kg lime basil 0.848kg loganberries 0.018kg mint 0.203kg mulberries 0.005kg oregano 0.041kg pak choi 0.004kg parsley 2.010kg pears 0.006kg peppermint 8.529kg raspberries 6.138kg redcurrants 0.005kg rocambole 2.198kg ruby chard 0.024kg sage 1.605kg sour cherries 0.191kg strawberries 0.843kg strawberries 0.651kg tayberries 0.001kg thyme 15.138kg tomatoes 0.977kg whitecurrants 1 Oct - 31 Dec 0.117kg chilli peppers 0.018kg coriander 0.022kg courgettes 6.716kg cucumbers 0.008kg dill 0.223kg french beans 0.115kg hazelnuts 0.025kg lettuce 0.002kg mint 0.065kg parsley 0.524kg pears 1.412kg ruby chard 0.072kg spring onion 6.489kg tomatoes Produce 2014
1 Jan - 31 Mar
0.308kg Babington leeks 0.034kg garlic shoots 0.001kg parsley 0.004kg red veined sorrel 0.011kg rosemary 0.025kg sage 0.016kg thyme 1 Apr - 30 Jun 0.010kg alpine strawberries 1.350kg Babington leeks 0.104kg blackcurrants 0.012kg chives 0.210kg garlic shoots 0.092kg gooseberries 0.006kg lemon balm 0.529kg loganberries 0.015kg oregano 0.006kg parsley 0.035kg peppermint 5.655kg raspberries 0.177kg redcurrants 0.051kg red veined sorrel 7.180kg rhubarb 0.120kg salad 0.006kg salad burnet 0.896kg strawberries 0.509kg tayberries 0.084kg wild garlic 1 Jul - 30 Sep 5.121kg apples 0.008kg alpine strawberries 0.857kg blackberries 1.190kg blackcurrants 0.904kg blueberries 1.840kg garlic 6.102kg hazelnuts 0.467kg Japanese wineberries 0.716kg loganberries 0.313kg mulberries 3.742kg pears 2.752kg raspberries 2.349kg redcurrants 0.054kg rocambole 0.050kg sage 1.655kg sour cherries 0.021kg sweet cherries 0.298kg tayberries 0.242kg whitecurrants 0.078kg worcesterberries 1 Oct - 31 Dec 0.113kg salad 0.382kg oca 0.200kg potatoes Produce 2013
1 Jan - 31 Mar
0.024kg garlic shoots 1 Apr - 30 Jun 0.326kg Babbington leeks 0.222kg blackcurrants 0.363kg garlic shoots 0.147kg gooseberries 0.002kg lemon balm 0.121kg lettuce 0.004kg lime leaves 0.058kg mizuna 0.121kg oregano 0.010kg pea shoots 0.015kg peppermint 0.223kg raspberries 0.020kg red veined sorrel 3.900kg rhubarb 0.400kg salad 0.005kg salad burnet 0.008kg shitake mushrooms 0.076kg strawberries 0.013kg thyme 0.136kg wild garlic 1 Jul - 30 Sep 0.101kg alpine strawberries 13.653kg apples 0.276kg blackberries 2.816kg blackcurrants 1.380kg blueberries 0.159kg broad beans 0.965kg courgettes 1.340kg garlic 1.808kg hazelnuts 0.118kg Japanese wineberries 0.493kg loganberries 0.008kg mulberries 4.368kg pears 0.036kg peppermint 1.143kg potatoes 0.063kg quince 9.226kg raspberries 0.699kg redcurrants 0.223kg rocambole 0.150kg salad 1.448kg sour cherries 0.064kg spearmint 0.660kg spring onions 0.863kg strawberries 1.622kg sweet cherries 0.156kg tayberries 0.721kg whitecurrants 0.010kg worcesterberries 1 Oct - 31 Dec 0.938kg pears 0.095kg quince 0.091kg oca 0.242kg mashua Produce 2012
1 Jan - 31 Mar
0.050kg fennel 0.009kg garlic shoots 0.030kg goji berries 0.050kg rocket 1 Apr - 30 Jun 0.004kg alpine strawberries 0.480kg cabbage 0.323kg garlic shoots 0.050kg lemon balm 0.002kg loganberries 0.050kg mint 0.402kg mushrooms 0.360kg potatoes 0.730kg raspberries 0.030kg red veined sorrel 0.130kg redcurrants 4.000kg rhubarb 0.540kg rocket 0.020kg sorrel 0.134kg strawberries 0.007kg tayberries 01 Jul - 30 Sep 0.020kg alpine strawberries 0.180kg apples 0.552kg blackberries 0.178kg blackcurrants 0.711kg blueberries 1.020kg garlic 0.201kg gooseberries 0.263kg hazelnuts 0.051kg Japanese wineberries 0.028kg loganberries 3.354kg pears 1.610kg potatoes 0.910kg raspberries 0.353kg redcurrants 0.063kg sour cherries 0.049kg strawberries 0.014kg tayberries 0.192kg whitecurrants 1 Oct - 31 Dec 7.690kg Jerusalem artichokes 0.211kg oca 0.010kg peppermint 0.820kg potatoes 0.010kg thyme Produce 2011
1 Jan - 20 Mar
Firewood Rosemary Sage Chives Salad burnet 21 Mar - 31 May 0.035kg chives 0.070kg lemon balm 0.005kg nasturtium leaves 0.017kg raspberries 4.060kg rhubarb 0.060kg rocket 0.020kg rosemary 0.280kg sage 0.070kg salad burnet 0.050kg sorrel 0.065kg spearmint 0.429kg strawberries 0.012kg sweet fennel 0.003kg tayberries 0.010kg thyme 1 Jun - 31 Aug 35.2kg 29 different crops: 0.030kg alpine strawberries 8.884kg apples 0.492kg beetroot 0.258kg blackberries 0.377kg blackcurrants 0.337kg blueberries 0.010kg chives 7.095kg courgettes 0.001kg fennel 0.946kg garlic 1.481kg hazelnuts 0.001kg Japanese wineberry 0.007kg lemon balm 0.005kg mashua leaves 0.004kg nasturtiums 0.100kg pears 0.005kg peppermint 11.920kg potatoes 1.130kg raspberries 0.262kg redcurrants 0.005kg rocket 0.064kg salad burnet 0.460kg sour cherries 0.024kg spearmint 0.558kg strawberries 0.311kg sweet cherries 0.086kg tayberries 0.087kg whitecurrants 1 Sep - 31 Dec 11.633kg apples 0.040kg aronia berries 1.299kg beetroot 0.036kg blackberries 2.472kg courgettes 0.034kg hazelnuts 6.205kg Jerusalem artichokes 4.250kg mashua 1.801kg pears 37.135kg potatoes 0.371kg raspberries 0.024kg strawberries 0.044kg whitecurrants Produce 2010
A record of produce from the garden in 2010. I expect this list to get much longer in later years.
1 Jan - 20 Mar 2010: Firewood - kindling and small logs for wood burner Herbs - rosemary Vegetables - 5 leeks Greens - Handfull of sorrel, salad burnet and dandelions. 21 Mar - 4 Jun 2010 3.600kg rhubarb 0.250kg sorrel rosemary salad burnet mint chives rocket a few strawberries 5 Jun -> 1.120kg garlic 1.063kg raspberries 3.430kg rhubarb 0.165kg strawberries 0.104kg sweet cherries 0.065kg tayberries 0.130kg gooseberries 0.029kg alpine strawberries 0.100kg loganberries 1.710kg sour cherries 0.486kg blackberries 0.039kg blackcurrants 0.220kg blueberries 3.264kg courgettes 0.240kg lettuce 8.375kg pears 3.820kg potatoes 9.300kg apples 0.076kg hazelnuts See archives from October 2009 below for last year's produce. Archives
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