A quiet day... spent most of the morning sending photographs to my colleague in Canada, so he can help me decide which ones are suitable for the website, and doing publicity for the Fifth York World Naked Bike Ride. Oh, and washing up!
In the afternoon I planted about 20 sweetcorn plants in the raised bed... I needed to remove the old purple sprouting broccoli plants (which I fed through the shredder), and removed lots of American Land Cress which had self seeded itself all over. I left the self seeded perennial Spinach Beet and the self seeded Rainbow Chard. Then I broke up the hard ground with a fork, and sprinkled a sack of riddled compost all over this, and created a sort of grid of planting holes around the Chard and Spinach. I put a dollop of riddled compost in each of these and dug it into the base of the hole, then popped the sweetcorn into them, and watered them in. I hope we don't have any late frosts!
I did a load of pruning too, a renegade beech hedge, some unruly loganberry which has got to the wrong side of a fence and is making access to a water butt difficult, and I took a low hanging branch off the walnut too. All this was shredded and put in a tumbler with loads of waste fruit and veg stuff.
So, a busy day... too busy to remember that I should have gone to a lecture at the University at 6.30. I remembered at 10pm, too late to do anything about it. Duh me.
Showing posts with label pruning. Show all posts
Showing posts with label pruning. Show all posts
I had real difficulty getting to sleep last night... must have lain awake til 4am but eventually I dropped off. Next thing I knew was Gilly awakening me at 10.30. Breakfast and a bit of housework, including preparing a home-grown Chinese Yam for tonight's meal. It needed as many of the hair-like roots removing as possible, which I did by scraping it with a knife in a stream of water, and then I sliced it into rounds about a centimetre thick, for shallow frying on the woodstove.
I didn't get dressed til after lunch, and then went out to deal with last year's brambles and loganberries; the fruited canes need cutting back and then feeding through the shredder to make a woody layer in the latest compost heap.
As it was getting dark I cycled down to Country Fresh and bought mushrooms and bananas, and picked up 4 sacks full of compostable stuff. On the way back I had another root around in the skip, and found a red plastic tray, a glass chopping board, an unopened in-date box of Kellogs bran flakes, a cycle helmet in its box and an orange reflective jacket with Royal Mail on the back. Also a load of wine bottles which I brought back for my kerbside recycling box. There were loads of bundles of leaflets and flyers too, presumably meant for delivering, but I had no space for them. The curtain twitching neighbour did a lot of twitching. I waved at her.
As I cycled away, the twitcher's husband overtook me in his car and was aggressive towards me, accusing me of making an obscene gesture to his wife. I'm glad he didn't bop me one... he certainly had enough testosterone flying around. Some people obviously think skip-raiding is wrong.
Anyway, I was so pissed off with this show of stupidity that a bit later, when Gill asked me to go and buy soya milk, I got that and revisited the skip, and got all the leaflets and flyers and completely filled my trailer with them... all for recycling not landfill. I might have only taken 30 or 40kgs worth out of a one tonne skip, but in my book, every bit counts. I don't know if the nosey neighbours saw me or not, and I don't really care.
Tea was good; Gill did a rice stir fry thing, topped with Chinese Yam 'chips' and it was very satisfying.
Enjoyed a quiet evening with Gill once the boys had settled, and we watched a bit of 'Celebrity Big Brother' which we're half-watching, and enjoyed it when Davina went into the house.
I did quite a bit of research on the computer tonight, about a new business opportunity I'm working on. Exciting!
I didn't get dressed til after lunch, and then went out to deal with last year's brambles and loganberries; the fruited canes need cutting back and then feeding through the shredder to make a woody layer in the latest compost heap.
As it was getting dark I cycled down to Country Fresh and bought mushrooms and bananas, and picked up 4 sacks full of compostable stuff. On the way back I had another root around in the skip, and found a red plastic tray, a glass chopping board, an unopened in-date box of Kellogs bran flakes, a cycle helmet in its box and an orange reflective jacket with Royal Mail on the back. Also a load of wine bottles which I brought back for my kerbside recycling box. There were loads of bundles of leaflets and flyers too, presumably meant for delivering, but I had no space for them. The curtain twitching neighbour did a lot of twitching. I waved at her.
As I cycled away, the twitcher's husband overtook me in his car and was aggressive towards me, accusing me of making an obscene gesture to his wife. I'm glad he didn't bop me one... he certainly had enough testosterone flying around. Some people obviously think skip-raiding is wrong.
Anyway, I was so pissed off with this show of stupidity that a bit later, when Gill asked me to go and buy soya milk, I got that and revisited the skip, and got all the leaflets and flyers and completely filled my trailer with them... all for recycling not landfill. I might have only taken 30 or 40kgs worth out of a one tonne skip, but in my book, every bit counts. I don't know if the nosey neighbours saw me or not, and I don't really care.
Tea was good; Gill did a rice stir fry thing, topped with Chinese Yam 'chips' and it was very satisfying.
Enjoyed a quiet evening with Gill once the boys had settled, and we watched a bit of 'Celebrity Big Brother' which we're half-watching, and enjoyed it when Davina went into the house.
I did quite a bit of research on the computer tonight, about a new business opportunity I'm working on. Exciting!
I had a late start as at 2am when I'd finished watching Cell on BBC4, I went down the garden to lie on the trampoline to watch Perseids, and saw two good ones plus what I think was an 'Iridium Flare', where a satellite's solar panels briefly reflect sunlight. It was travelling South East between 2am and 2.30am.
Then I came in and Gill and I went up to the loft where we have a Velux window, and we saw a dozen good meteors between us... lovely!
But it meant we didn't get to bed til 3.30am.
So, a late start but I got up when I heard the phone, and it was for me, a Fiddlesticks booking confirmation. After this I had a very busy day... I did a lot of harvesting... poppy seeds, spinach, a courgette, some small but yummy 'Pink Fir Apple' potatoes, and whilst a young friend was here, I used the large stepladder to pick tiny pears from the huge tree mid-way down our garden. These usually ripen at the end of August and are eaten by wasps and starlings before we can get to them. So I picked what I could, dropping them to the waiting hands of the willing child helper, who caught 80% of them.
I did a bit of pruning too, some of the finished fruiting spurs of the loganberries which were sticking out a long way into the shared passageway, and a vigorous ivy. And I did some chainsawing and splitting.
Gill did a delicious tea with some of the crops... I enjoyed the spinach, tomato and Bulgar wheat portion of the meal best. But Gill's quiche was a close second. Or maybe it was the blackberry and loganberry crumble with custard which was the best bit?
At 7.30 I cycled fast into town as there was a York in Transition meeting at The Hansom Cab in Market St. This was an unstructured meeting to follow up the discussions that YiT members had at their weekend at Nook Barn a few weekends ago. I enjoyed this meeting as it flowed freely and everybody contributed, it was lively and good humoured, with 9 of us attending. We addressed the criticism that YiT was a 'Church of Transition' and just met and discussed worthy issues but didn't DO anything. We reviewed the big events we've organised, the many smaller events, the satellite Transition groups which have spawned from us and are being nurtured by us, and debated what we should be doing in the future and how we should do it. A few firm conclusions were arrived at, and we decided to have the next YiT meeting in the pub as it was obviously the right place to attract good numbers of people and have good communication.
I got home at 10pm with a sack of Country Fresh compostables and 6 bags from Gladys, who rang earlier to ask me to collect her garden clippings.
I spent a long time during the evening preparing pears... some I stewed in red wine and mead, others I cut into 6 slices and put for drying.
Then I came in and Gill and I went up to the loft where we have a Velux window, and we saw a dozen good meteors between us... lovely!
But it meant we didn't get to bed til 3.30am.
So, a late start but I got up when I heard the phone, and it was for me, a Fiddlesticks booking confirmation. After this I had a very busy day... I did a lot of harvesting... poppy seeds, spinach, a courgette, some small but yummy 'Pink Fir Apple' potatoes, and whilst a young friend was here, I used the large stepladder to pick tiny pears from the huge tree mid-way down our garden. These usually ripen at the end of August and are eaten by wasps and starlings before we can get to them. So I picked what I could, dropping them to the waiting hands of the willing child helper, who caught 80% of them.
I did a bit of pruning too, some of the finished fruiting spurs of the loganberries which were sticking out a long way into the shared passageway, and a vigorous ivy. And I did some chainsawing and splitting.
Gill did a delicious tea with some of the crops... I enjoyed the spinach, tomato and Bulgar wheat portion of the meal best. But Gill's quiche was a close second. Or maybe it was the blackberry and loganberry crumble with custard which was the best bit?
At 7.30 I cycled fast into town as there was a York in Transition meeting at The Hansom Cab in Market St. This was an unstructured meeting to follow up the discussions that YiT members had at their weekend at Nook Barn a few weekends ago. I enjoyed this meeting as it flowed freely and everybody contributed, it was lively and good humoured, with 9 of us attending. We addressed the criticism that YiT was a 'Church of Transition' and just met and discussed worthy issues but didn't DO anything. We reviewed the big events we've organised, the many smaller events, the satellite Transition groups which have spawned from us and are being nurtured by us, and debated what we should be doing in the future and how we should do it. A few firm conclusions were arrived at, and we decided to have the next YiT meeting in the pub as it was obviously the right place to attract good numbers of people and have good communication.
I got home at 10pm with a sack of Country Fresh compostables and 6 bags from Gladys, who rang earlier to ask me to collect her garden clippings.
I spent a long time during the evening preparing pears... some I stewed in red wine and mead, others I cut into 6 slices and put for drying.
A nice quiet morning... watched Countryfile as usual and did assorted emaily things.
Soon after 1pm I got myself on my bike and heading over to see Barry Potter and his orchard... he's right on the other side of town but I bombed along and arrived in just under 30 minutes very hot and sweaty, but not late!
Quite a few others turned up, all local and all interested in apples, orchards or cider making... or all three! Barry's garden on Knapton Lane, like many other areas just on the outskirts of York (including our garden) is on the site of an old orchard... planted at least 100 years ago, and with many of the old trees still standing and fruiting.
Barry has got quite a big garden with at least 6 large apple trees, and he's carefully pruned them and kept them in good shape. We learned a little about different sorts of pruning and what it does for the tree, and management such as tying long shoots down to horizontal to get fruiting buds to grow. He showed us how he keeps his harvest and his grafting experiments. There were three sorts of graft he's succeeded with... bud grafts where just a tiny bud and bit of bark is transplanted, a stick graft where two twigs of a similar size are put together, and a rather wonderful experiment where he'd grafted many twigs onto a large existing tree, onto the trunk and into cut ends of large branches... amazing! He also showed us a pear he's grafted onto hawthorn stock and explained about the various rootstocks available and the different vigour they confer to the scion, or bit grafted onto it. I was transfixed... I'd love to have a go at grafting and may do next summer. But this winter I have to prune all my apples!
Then we moved to Jane and Tony's garden... on first look it's just an ordinary semi but behind is a large 'market garden' which has taken over much of the interior of the block, and they have loads of greenhouses and beds, all very productive. My Vigo fruit press and apple crusher had been installed into one of the greenhouses with a display of apples, all named, and some delicious apple cake, apple and tea bread, apple pie and apple flapjack. A group of us set to and chopped the apples for juicing in two and popped them into the crusher, which when held down by two or more people, can be operated by another person rotating the wheel and toothed rollers. Soon the press was full of pulp and I got the boards on top and the screw-threaded ratchet thingy going round, gradually increasing the pressure and squeezing out over a gallon and a half of juice.
I left before it got dark as I wanted to see how the crop of sweet chestnuts was getting on outside Manor School. There were some down, but it's just a bit early and this year they are a bit smaller than in previous years. Still managed to collect about a kilo of them... good for a nutloaf. Came home via Museum Gardens where I was too early to see the illuminations but I may pop down later after tea, if I feel like it...
And I did... after 10 I made myself go and see the artworks in Museum Gardens... and I'm so glad I did. See Ross Ashton's website for an idea of what it was like. The piece was about 15 minutes long and was a trip through some of the collection of objects and artifacts in the Yorkshire Museum, from fossils to tapestries, masks to stuffed animals, plus images of DNA and magic numbers like Pi, lightning, computer code, books, and LOADS more... all set to music, strange sounds and poetry. Two screens were used, the front of the Yorkshire Museum and the ruins of St Mary's Abbey. I do wish I'd been able to persuade my children to come and see it.
Soon after 1pm I got myself on my bike and heading over to see Barry Potter and his orchard... he's right on the other side of town but I bombed along and arrived in just under 30 minutes very hot and sweaty, but not late!
Quite a few others turned up, all local and all interested in apples, orchards or cider making... or all three! Barry's garden on Knapton Lane, like many other areas just on the outskirts of York (including our garden) is on the site of an old orchard... planted at least 100 years ago, and with many of the old trees still standing and fruiting.
Barry has got quite a big garden with at least 6 large apple trees, and he's carefully pruned them and kept them in good shape. We learned a little about different sorts of pruning and what it does for the tree, and management such as tying long shoots down to horizontal to get fruiting buds to grow. He showed us how he keeps his harvest and his grafting experiments. There were three sorts of graft he's succeeded with... bud grafts where just a tiny bud and bit of bark is transplanted, a stick graft where two twigs of a similar size are put together, and a rather wonderful experiment where he'd grafted many twigs onto a large existing tree, onto the trunk and into cut ends of large branches... amazing! He also showed us a pear he's grafted onto hawthorn stock and explained about the various rootstocks available and the different vigour they confer to the scion, or bit grafted onto it. I was transfixed... I'd love to have a go at grafting and may do next summer. But this winter I have to prune all my apples!
Then we moved to Jane and Tony's garden... on first look it's just an ordinary semi but behind is a large 'market garden' which has taken over much of the interior of the block, and they have loads of greenhouses and beds, all very productive. My Vigo fruit press and apple crusher had been installed into one of the greenhouses with a display of apples, all named, and some delicious apple cake, apple and tea bread, apple pie and apple flapjack. A group of us set to and chopped the apples for juicing in two and popped them into the crusher, which when held down by two or more people, can be operated by another person rotating the wheel and toothed rollers. Soon the press was full of pulp and I got the boards on top and the screw-threaded ratchet thingy going round, gradually increasing the pressure and squeezing out over a gallon and a half of juice.
I left before it got dark as I wanted to see how the crop of sweet chestnuts was getting on outside Manor School. There were some down, but it's just a bit early and this year they are a bit smaller than in previous years. Still managed to collect about a kilo of them... good for a nutloaf. Came home via Museum Gardens where I was too early to see the illuminations but I may pop down later after tea, if I feel like it...
And I did... after 10 I made myself go and see the artworks in Museum Gardens... and I'm so glad I did. See Ross Ashton's website for an idea of what it was like. The piece was about 15 minutes long and was a trip through some of the collection of objects and artifacts in the Yorkshire Museum, from fossils to tapestries, masks to stuffed animals, plus images of DNA and magic numbers like Pi, lightning, computer code, books, and LOADS more... all set to music, strange sounds and poetry. Two screens were used, the front of the Yorkshire Museum and the ruins of St Mary's Abbey. I do wish I'd been able to persuade my children to come and see it.
Awoken by a phone call from a friend who's lonely at the weekend since his family has broken up, so I told him about York Green Festival tomorrow and he'll come down sometime in the afternoon. Then there was another phone call from a Fiddlesticks enquirer... and another phone call after that! It's so busy that it's almost like we have a Freefone number!
However the boys went out to play so Gill and I had a bit of time together after which I cycled round to the bread shop and then cut one of the hedges at the bottom of the garden. Over lunch we watched an old Time Team on More 4, and I did emails.
During the afternoon I did a huge pile of pruning.. holly, laurel, privet hedge, and shredding... almost a cubic metre of the stuff...
At about 5pm, cycled down to Rowntree Park to help put up marquees, with Baz and David, Bob and Richard, and advice from Liz who was tipsy (Baz's friend). The solar cinema was being put up with assistance from Sarah and I left at nearly 7pm.
Back home for a small tea and a cold shower as was extremely hot and sweaty... not suitable material for a party, which is where I was off to next. Will was having a 'wellness party' following too much time unwell, and it was an excellent party, with quite a few folks I knew and some I didn't. Drinks, food, music, then some games, and then I did a little balloon show which was fun for all concerned.
Home at about midnight.
However the boys went out to play so Gill and I had a bit of time together after which I cycled round to the bread shop and then cut one of the hedges at the bottom of the garden. Over lunch we watched an old Time Team on More 4, and I did emails.
During the afternoon I did a huge pile of pruning.. holly, laurel, privet hedge, and shredding... almost a cubic metre of the stuff...
At about 5pm, cycled down to Rowntree Park to help put up marquees, with Baz and David, Bob and Richard, and advice from Liz who was tipsy (Baz's friend). The solar cinema was being put up with assistance from Sarah and I left at nearly 7pm.
Back home for a small tea and a cold shower as was extremely hot and sweaty... not suitable material for a party, which is where I was off to next. Will was having a 'wellness party' following too much time unwell, and it was an excellent party, with quite a few folks I knew and some I didn't. Drinks, food, music, then some games, and then I did a little balloon show which was fun for all concerned.
Home at about midnight.
