Monthly Archives: September 2008

Crabapple (& Rowan) Jelly

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You can always tell when a crab apple is ripe. Pick one and bite it. If you scream it is not. But if your face just wrinkles up as if you were sucking a lemon, then it is probably about right…. Crab apples really are some of the bitterest fruit around.

But they taste fantastic in the right place. As do Rowan berries (of which there are are a fair few this year). The raw rowan berry is rather mealy and sour – edible but it tastes grotty. However the two together plus a bit of sugar make a jelly that knocks spots off anything that ever first saw the light of day in a jam factory. You can also make this jelly with crab apples by themselves (we tend to make up a batch of each). Crab apples are full of pectin so this is one of the easiest jellies to make – here is how:
Ingredients

This recipe is scaleable but this quantity of ingredients will yield roughly 1.5kg of jelly
3lbs (1.4kg) crab apples
3lbs (1.4kg) of rowan berries (not necessary but they make and interesting variation)
Juice of 1 lemon
Sugar
Jelly bag or Muslin (or mythical felt hat)

Instructions

Wash the Rowan berries and remove any stalks. Put them in a pan, add half the lemon juice, just about cover with water and bring to a fast simmer. Carry on cooking until they are REALLY soft.

Do exactly the same with the Crab Apples (including adding the other half of the lemon juice). Perfectionists peel the apples, but we can’t see why.

If your (scalded) jelly strainer/muslin/hat is big and strong enough, put the contents of both pans in together and leave to strain for at least 4 hours. Otherwise do them separately and mix the juices afterwards.  You can squeeze the bag, which will give you more juice, but your jelly will be cloudy although the taste is unaltered.

Measure the strained syrup into a heavy pan, heat gently and add 1lb (450g) sugar for each pint (575/600g) of liquid.

Stir well until completely dissolved. Then bring it to the boil and cook fast until setting point is reached.

Skim, pot, seal and dispense to friends in the usual way.

You can experiment with this recipe – try adding cloves, or rosemary or lavender or ginger (not all at once). Outstanding with brandy as well….. Oh yes, and a friend of ours who always makes too much cider, boils up her crab apples in cider and then follows the recipe. Stunning.

We think the best crab apples for this are:

Malus hupehensis for red jelly,

and Golden Hornet for golden jelly

Enjoy

Beware the Ides of September… Trees & Storm Damage

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I had this all ready written about 2 months ago (because it was going to be topical now) and then forgot it. Hopefully the warning will go unneeded (as opposed to unheeded).

The Autumn equinox passed almost unnoticed (apart from it being the nicest day of the "summer" so far). But the equinox in September is every bit as dodgy as the one in March. Remember poor old Julius Caesar and "beware the Ides of March"?

From a tree perspective the greatest risk at an equinox is of severe gales during the period from three weeks before to three weeks after the 21st September. With climate change there is a suspicion that these storms tend to happen later. So the high risk month is October (as in 1987 and again in 2000 and in 2007).

There is not much you can do at short notice, but I would advise giving your trees a quick visual check. What you are after is the sight of a bare branch without leaves. (Unless it is a long suffering chestnut) your trees should still be carrying a good bit of leaf. Bare branches are dead or sick, and dead or sick branches are the ones that tend to come down in a storm. Let prudence be the better part of valour and take any suspect limbs off before they fall on your house or you..

With younger trees that have been staked for the whole of this year and are growing well, get rid of the stake. You need a good reason to leave them staked. Stakes are just crutches; temporary supports and should be done away with as soon as possible. A young tree can’t bend as much in a storm if it is staked and tied, and so is more likely to snap. If it has to be staked, LOOSEN the tie, so it can move more in the wind.

When the stormy season is past, and the planting season is on us, I will put up a post that gives you a few hints as to what longer terms steps you can take to minimise the risk to trees in a storm. But for now, here is hoping for gentle winds.

Relax (if you can) and watch your plants grow!

Lighting Trees

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Uplighting is the most commonly used garden lighting technique, for shrub borders and trees especially. By uplighting trees, one exploits a unique opportunity to add vertical emphasis and drama in a garden lighting scheme. Trees with an open habit allow light to fully display the branch structure, while the contrast of colour between subjects can be emphasised. The light coloured bark of a silver birch, the coppery stems of Prunus serrula Tai-Haku, the golden fern-like foliage of Gleditsia triacanthos “Sunburst” or the subtle green and white striped bark of Acer pensylvanicum are all examples of good lighting subjects.

For trees with dense canopies and darker foliage, uplighting rarely works well on its own. Uplighting through the central branch structure and crosslighting the canopy from a second source is one alternative; really dense canopies, such as conifers, can only be lit from outside. Where there are several trees in a view, avoid lighting them uniformly (unless you are lighting an avenue). Light some from the front and others from the side to provide contrast.

Lighting a house wall to silhouette a tree in front is an interesting effect if the tree has an open structure. Alternatively a spotlight in front can project the shadow of a tree onto the wall behind, a good way of using a small acer to create a big effect in a newly planted garden. Try to “fit” the lamp beam to the tree shape to avoid wastage of light and energy by studying the lamp beam diameter and the pool of light it provides at a given distance. To uplight small to medium size trees, use one or more a tungsten halogen lamps of 50 – 75 watts and a beam angle to suit the tree – 24 degrees for a slender silver birch, 60 degrees for a weeping tree and 36 degrees for most tree shapes in between. A site that provides useful helpsheets on subjects such as choosing the right lamps for your spotlights and uplighting trees is www.garden-lighting-tips.co.uk.

Trees can be good lighting platforms in relation to shrub borders, as well as a way of lighting terraces, driveways, paths, steps and seating areas. A favourite technique is “moonlighting” down from low power lights fixed in a tree to shadow the lower branches and foliage onto the ground below. This provides a subtle, dappled lighting effect over a tree seat and is also a creative way of integrating the lawn into the lighting scene or lighting a path or drive in a rural garden. For moonlighting, or if you are spotlighting a feature from a tree, use a dedicated tree spotlight on a tree or surface-mount, with a glare shield to hide the light source from view and a brown or “bronze textured” powder-coat finish which blends well with tree bark. You can find more advice on designing lighting for trees and on choosing the right lighting products at www.lightingforgardens.com.

Top Tips for Tree Planting

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The tree planting season is nearly upon us, so it is time to brush up your tree planting technique. By the way, most of this applies to shrubs, hedging, roses and fruit as well.

1. When your plants arrive, trim roots and stems that are damaged. Clean cuts lessen the chance of disease.

2. When you dig your planting hole, reserve the topsoil for when you are filling in around the roots. The less good stuff will go back in the bottom of the hole…

3. It is good to improve topsoil with well rotted compost or manure. It works wonders for the structure of your soil. Adding sand, grit or even straw improves the drainage of clay soil.

4. Always make a small “molehill” in the bottom of the planting hole to put the roots on. This, quite simply, stops them becoming waterlogged and rotting before they have started to grow away.

5. Square planting holes prevent roots from “circling” and so are better for root development.

6. Use mycorrhizae . These friendly fungi are an incredible help to the establishment of a tree.

7. Always step back from the tree before returning soil to make sure you have planted it so it looks its best. It is going to be there for a long time and you don’t want to spend the rest of your life saying ” if only…”

8. Try to make some provision for watering. We generally bury a bit of drainpipe or drainage hose while we are planting so that it is really easy to get water down to the roots while the tree is establishing.

9. Backfill around the roots using the improved topsoil.

10. Guard your tree. Not only do rabbits and deer take chunks out of it, so do strimmers and lawnmowers.

11. Use a stake and a good tree tie to stabilise your tree. You can get rid of it after the second year. Always tie the tree low down otherwise the head can snap off in a gale.

12. Give your tree a good mulch after planting or use a hemp mulch mat which is biodegradable. Either will reduce weed competition (the mat removes it entirely) and both help water retention.

Sit back and watch your trees grow