Category Archives: Gardening Tips

Pollinating Apple Trees

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Most apple trees are, to some extent, self-infertile and so heavier crops occur when they are pollinated by other, compatible varieties. Generally, different varieties of apple trees that flower at about the same time will cross-pollinate one another although there are some that both need a pollinator and refuse to repay the favour.

These are “Triploid” apples, so called because the minimum number of apples required (including a triploid) so all bear fruit is three; two pollinators to pollinate one another, either or both of which will also pollinate the triploid.

Confused? You need not be there is a really clear cross pollination chart for apples on the Apple Pollination page on our main site. However, you can make your life simple (and your garden more beautiful by just planting one of the pollinating crab apples. Traditional orchards would include 1 crab apple for every 40-50 fruit trees.

Malus John Downie or Malus Golden Hornet are outstanding for this purpose. These flower freely and will pollinate any apple in an orchard. John Downie has big fruit for a crabapple and  Golden Hornet also makes lovely, fragrant crab apple jelly.

Watch your fruit trees grow and enjoy!

Ways to save water – Part 2 (with thanks to Ian Drury)

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Continuing the theme….

1. Don’t cut your grass so short. If you let your lawn stay a bit longer – raise your lawnmower’s cutting height – your grass will be less thirsty

2. Aerate the lawn so water reached the roots of your grass more easily. Scarifying in autumn is also beneficial.

3. Make sure that any new plants you bring into your garden are happy in drier conditions.

4. If you water too much, you will see plants flagging as their roots drown. So do make sure that you do not overwater. You can tell is the ground is dry or not by scratching into the soil about 2-3cms with a finger. If it is damp to the touch, there is plenty of water there already.

5. An easy way of telling if pot plants and hanging baskets need watering is to lift them up (not the big ones obviously). Dry compost weighs virtually very little ……. while wet compost is heavy.

Watch your plants grow and enjoy!

Dead and Dying Yew Hedges and Trees

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Dying Yew HedgingEnglish Yew has a reputation for being indestructible, and given fair treatment, there are yew trees planted today that will still be alive when mankind (if we survive) will have escaped the solar system.

At the same time, and like any living organism, english yew can die prematurely, but because it is tough you may be able to save your tree or hedge with swift action. Here are a few reasons why yew dies when it should not.

Dogs and Cats kill Yew Trees and Hedging

Well sort of. Actually it is what comes out of the back end of dogs and cats that kills younger yew trees and hedging. Cats like to excavate holes in pretty much the same place and carefully bury their excrement. It is a bit like topdressing with raw lion dung. Not a good idea and, from the tree’s perspective, slow poisoning.

Dogs are worse, in that where one dog pees, others are sure to follow. And then the first one comes back to mark their marks marking his mark, and then they return…. and yews do not like uric acid on either their roots or leaves.

Yew dies by drowning

English Yew grows just about anywhere – there is a lovely yew hedge by the river Wylie that is flooded whenever it rains. But then the ground drains. The moral of the story is that you can plant a yew hedge in any kind of soil as long as the roots do not sit in water for extended periods of time. Dig a trench in solid clay and fill it with lovely compost and top soil and you have created a death trap for your hedge. The clay does not drain and the trench will fill with water and stay that way. So if you are planting on poorly draining soil either ensure there is drainage, or DO NOT PLANT IN A TRENCH. Clear the ground, and plant bare-rooted stock in slits which you close up firmly when you have finished. There is an excellent planting video on our site which shows the technique.

Salt

The salt that is spread on roads whenever there is a hysterical reaction to the possibility of freezing conditions is bad for all plants. Full stop. If your hedge is in a place where thawing ice, snow or just rain will run off, then think about a wall or fence. Most plants hate salt. If your hedge will not suffer from run off, but gets splashed, go out the day after the thaw and wash it with a hose until it has been in the ground for at least 12 months. Given our climate you probably will not have to do this at all.

Root Rot

Root rot is caused by a number of organisms most notably Phytopthora. Some form of pythopthora exists in all soils ( a bit like cold germs in tube trains…). Just because it is there does not mean your yew plants will die, like most diseases it needs the right conditions to cause damage. It is always best therefore to improve the soil with organic matter to help drainage and to encourage new root growth. Expensive plants like yew are also helped if you use a mycorrhizal additive – it is not cheap but the benefits are considerable.

Honey fungus

As with phytopthora there are a number of forms of Honey Fungus, not all of which are dangerous to plants. However the ones that are kill any tree or woody plant whose defences they penetrate. Yew included although the number of reported deaths of yew cause by honey fungus is very few as it is extremely resistant. Honey fungus travels underground and attacks trees and hedge plants through their root systems. If you cleanly trim off any broken bits of root with secateurs before planting, and if you improve the soil with organic matter, you reduce the chance of a honey fungus attack.

Watch your hedging grow, and enjoy

Ways to save water – Part 1 (with thanks to Ian Drury)

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The likelihood is that water becomes increasingly scarce. The weather may feel wetter, but as we build more (and we do) the area of land covered by housing, roads and industrial estates stops being “porous” and instead is drained into reservoirs or straight into the sea. Therefore less water is absorbed by mother earth each year making the ground drier….. If your water is metered, that makes your life more expensive and if there is a hosepipe ban natural reserves of water may be inadequate to support your plants.

So here is a fairly random list of things that can be done to make your garden less dry…..

1. Do not have concrete, paved or other surfaces to your paths that cause water to run off. Use gravel over landscaping fabric, pebbles, bark chippings etc so that rain fall is absorbed into the earth and does not run off in a flood to the nearest drain.

2. A hot tip is to stop watering your plants. Well almost – do not water until the plants look a bit distressed (the leaves tend to flag a bit). Then water well. Stressing plants like this makes them send their roots deeper where the soil tends to stay damp longer….

3. When you are preparing your vegetables in the kitchen, do them in a bowl, not in the kitchen sink. Peel your potatoes, scrub your carrots, wash your salads, but whatever your do – KEEP THE WATER. And use it in your garden.

4. Always water plants very well immediately after planting. Then apply a good thick mulch (2″/5cms) of almost anything that is organic and non toxic. Mulching not only ultimately improves the soil, but it also helps retain water.

5. Build in a watering system when you plant trees and shrubs. You can get fancy with purpose made irrigation systems, but if you sink a flower pot up to its rim right next to each shrub, you can fill that with water. The water gets to the roots and the weeds have none of it. Variations on a theme include sinking 2 litre soft drinks bottles (pouring end down) and with the bottom cut off (you get the same end result but these are probably more effective with trees. In both cases, once the plant is truly established, either take the pot/bottle out of the ground or fill it in.

6. Pretty obvious, but why not install rainwater barrels (butts) at the bottom of each of your drainpipes so you catch rainwater off your roof. Most DIY and hardware shops now supply a fitting that goes onto your downpipe that diverts rainwater until the barrel is full and then, cunningly, lest the rest flow down your your drains…