What’s
going on?
The recent strange weather has certainly played havoc in
the garden. The early dry spring set every thing in motion about two to three
weeks early; in our yard we have a fan trained apple tree
With early flowering clematis climbing through it and
already it has climbed the height of the trellis. Gardeners in the southwest
experienced more frost damage to established shrubs and plants because of the
earlier warm weather and then a return to the norm, this will probably cause no
lasting damage as young foliage will be soon replaced with the vigorous growth
brought on by more seasonal weather as the year moves on.
Dittisham plums has for many along year been the talk of
the town in high summer when baskets of them appear for sale at many a garden
gate in the village from were they hale and is believed to have been unique to village for several hundred
years. The plum was only ever grown in the area, and indeed is named after
it.
One
potential theory to its origin is that they have their basis in the German
“Pflaummen Baum” Plum, and trees bought from Germany by monks in the
middle ages. A contrasting theory is that the plums arrived by sea and
either dumped in the village by a sea captain unable to sell his cargo or
washed up the River Dart from a wreck, salvaged and planted by villagers.
The thought is should the Dittisham plums go the way of
the Cornish pasties, (no not to be taxed by the chancellor) and the Melton
Mowbray and achieve Protected
Geographical Status.
Any way now is
the time to turn our attention to pruning our plumb trees and other stone
fruit.
Plum trees do not require as precise pruning as apples and pears, but still benefit from initial training and the thinning of old wood to ensure they produce as much fruit as possible. Plums are pruned in early spring or mid summer to avoid infection by silver leaf disease.
The bush is perhaps the most popular method of training and pruning and creates an open-centred tree with a clear stem of 75cm (2½ft). Its ultimate size will depend on the rootstock it is grown on.
The overall aim of pruning is to create an open-centred tree. This begins with the same formative pruning as apples and pears. Pruning is mostly limited to removing crossing, weak, vertical and diseased material.
Jobs
for the month
- Sow French beans,
runner beans, squash, cucumbers and pumpkin seeds directly into prepared
beds outside. Be alert to late frosts
- Sow sweet corn
outside in blocks, at 45cm (18in) spacing, with two seeds per hole. The
strongest seedling can be selected later.
- Sow purple sprouting
broccoli for harvesting next winter.
- After all risk of
frost has passed, plant out tomatoes, courgettes and pumpkins that were
previously sown under cover.
- Young plants can be
planted out once conditions are suitable, and once they've been
acclimatised to the colder outdoor conditions over a week or two.
- Earth up potatoes when the shoots are
9in high, in order to prevent the new tubers going green. Earthing-up is
the drawing up of soil around the stems of the plants, leaving just 2inof
shoot uncovered so that the plant has enough foliage to continue growing.
- Start to remove side
shoots from cordon tomatoes as you see them. The side shoots develop in
the leaf axils, and if allowed to develop will sap the energy of the plant
and reduce the quality of the yield.
- Thin out sowings of
Florence fennel made last month. The final spacing should be 8in, with
18in between each row.
