Nailsworth Gardener: Making Fruit Trees Into Espalier Ones, Hopefully. Friday 9.4.10

WELCOME TO MY POTTING SHED

You can't beat a dollop of mud a day to keep the Doctor at bay.

Why not follow me about as I garden for money and just for fun in beautiful Nailsworth and its' environs.

What's it all about?

My gardens, that's all and any gardening related stuff I guess you might be interested in.

Where do I garden?

My house is in the centre of Nailsworth. With the wind in the right direction, we get a strong whiff of curry as it floats out of the Passage to India and into our front garden. We never get this smell anywhere else on our premises, which is either a good thing, or a bad one, depending on your point of view. As you now know we have a garden, a small rectangle, at the front of the house, and a triangular courtyard garden at the back. Then there's the Garden Plot, right down in the heart of Nailsworth, which I rent from a local business. This is new as from Autumn 2009 and will take a lot of work to help it become productive. I try to garden for veges at my friend Debbis house and for fun with my next door neighbour.

It adds up to a lot of work. For a relaxing hobby, it's proving stressful at times, but, mostly it's heaven.

There are customers who like me to work for them right through the year, and others who I see during the summer months. This working more days a week in the summer than in the winter, of course. The way to keep the finances stable for me has been to teach on the days I don't garden. Works really well for me. The bills get paid, we haven't starved to death yet and we get to have fun ... sometimes!

Sunday, 11 April 2010

Making Fruit Trees Into Espalier Ones, Hopefully. Friday 9.4.10

Lovely evening, so I raced out and ran the last of the wires to tie the fruit trees onto. They have to be tensioned quite tight which generally means using a turnbuckle at the end of each run. Years ago we had a set of lights from Ikea, flying saucer style, low voltage. they were fab and lived at the highest part of our conservatory roof (inside). We don't live there now, Anyhoo, these lights stopped working after about 4 years. Some of the components had melted . We dismantled them and had to throw most of the set up away, keeping back anything that could be pressed into service in the future.

Here then are the very swish, aluminium turnbuckle assemblies. I've saved a few bob and it looks smart in an over engineered way.

Bet you're well jealous.

Having secured the wires, it was time to attach the fruit trees and give them another prune. Off I set. Slow and steady.

It was dimpsy when I finally wandered back into the house. Sadly, I'd run out of tape and, as a

result, had to leave the Peach for a bit.

Flowers

At last, the white Fritillary has fully bloomed.