After a Spring that proved challenging for many growers, unpredictable rain, winds and temperatures continued into Summer and Autumn. At the nursery, this resulted in a slow start to the season, and a rate of growth in September that is more like what we’d usually expect in June and July. That said, once things got […]
With chilly nights hungrily encroaching on meagre daylight hours, and the striking colours of Autumn fading with Winter’s frosty grasp, Nature is preparing for a period of rest and hibernation. But for tree nurseries all over the UK, we are now in one of the busiest parts of the season. With the trees in their
Leading a guided tour of the site at our Maker’s Market last month With the Summer Solstice already behind us, and lots of growth at the nursery, it seems like a good time to update on what’s been happening. We have just completed our stocktake of nursery trees for the coming winter season. This has
These Doyenne du commice pears are growing on a 20 year old hawthorn. The scions were cleft grafted in April 2010. So far so good! This Medlar ‘Nottingham’ was budded onto a self set hawthorn in April 2010 and is growing away nicely. The first growth at the beginning of the season got knocked off
These photos were taken on the 23rd July. Left shows a Pitmaston Duchess pear cleft grafted onto a hawthorn. The graft has taken well but hasn’t put on much extension growth. This is probably due to the excessive shade created by nearby trees. The photo on the right shows my most successful graft this season. It’s
Having recently found out that Pears, Quince and Medlar can be grafted onto Hawthorn I’ve been experimenting with cleft grafting these onto existing hawthorn trees. This is Doyenne du Comice pear cleft grafted onto a 20 year old hawthorn. I have grafted onto a stem about 2 inches in diameter. The stem behind has been
I’ve just returned from Devon after being on a forest gardening course at the Agroforestry Research Trust with Martin Crawford. It was probably one of the most inspirational courses I’ve been on. Martin’s knowledge and enthusiasm for the subject is relentless. He has researched into thousands of different plants with many different uses from food, dyes,
As seen in 
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