happy St Dwynwen's day

Just remembered as I sat down to write a post about pruning cuts, that it's St Dwynwen's day in Wales.  She's the patron saint of lovers and her story, (various versions available), is a tragic tale of thwarted young love and ending up in a nunnery on Anglesey.  So a happy St Dwynwen's to you all - seedy in the best possible way!

Now in a slightly strange juxtaposition - let's talk some more about pruning.......

There’s an awful lot of palaver made in gardening books about getting the angle of your pruning cuts exactly right so that the water runs off.  This has always struck me as slightly spurious – we’re not talking gate posts or shed roofs here!

I think it’s easier to remember what to do if you think about how plants grow – it’s all about the nodes.  The bit where a bud/leaf emerges from a shoot is called the node, and the bits in between are called the internodal spaces (feel free to impress your friends down the pub with that one).  In terms of growing action, the plant can only produce a new shoot from a node.

When you’re making a pruning cut, the thing you want snuggled right up close to the end of the shoot is a bud.  If you leave a stub by angling your pruning cut the ‘wrong’ way, or cutting halfway up the internodal space, the plant tissue will just die back until it gets to a viable bud.  So if you were doing something like an apple tree where you cut every single shoot, you’d end up with a halo of dead stuff all over the plant.  Your pruning cuts should leave the plant ready for action when the sap rises in the spring with a nice healthy bud at the end of each shoot.

too long

sloping wrong way

correct

The same theory applies to taking cuttings – the thing you need at the bottom of the cutting for root production is a node.  So make the cut at the bottom of your cutting just below a bud/leaf joint. Convention has it that these cuts should be straight across rather than angled.  The main benefit of doing this is it helps you tell which way up the cutting should go when you stick it in the pot – pointy at the top, flat at the bottom.

pointy end up - flat end down

happiness is a full seed box

More seeds arrived today - that’s nearly everything that I ordered.  There’s a few of the more arcane things left to come from Thomas Etty. I do have moments where I think I should alphabetise my seed box – but I think maybe that’s a guy thing (correct me if I’m wrong).  It’s as much as I can do to keep all my cabbagey things together without having them filed under ‘k’ for kale, ‘c’ for collard greens and ‘b’ for broccoli. Also does corn salad go under ‘c’ for corn, ‘s’ for salad or ‘l’ for lambs lettuce?  See!?! – Bored with it already! 

The other very exciting thing that arrived today was the shallots and garlic – Yay!  In spite the old adage to ‘plant on the shortest day - harvest on the longest day’, I usually get mine in some time in early February.  They need a long growing season with a good cold spell at the beginning, which helps the bulbs split and form a proper head.

The garlic is ‘Solent Wight’, a softneck variety that reliably produces good size heads and stores really well, and the shallots are ‘Golden Gourmet’. It’s worth getting your garlic from a garden centre or mail order – planting stuff from the supermarket means you’ll be growing varieties that prefer hotter climates.  The varieties with Isle of Wight names are better adapted to our cooler, shorter growing season.

After harvesting in late July, I like to plait the garlic and string the shallots, which makes them look very fancy, (but it’s easy when someone shows you – I’ll teach you some time).  Hanging them up in a cool shed is the best way to store them. I know some people like to put them in old tights instead of stringing them -  now I’m no Martha Stewart, but I don’t wear tights, and even if I did I wouldn’t want my old ones hanging up in the kitchen with onions in them!

more from the orchard

I’ve just been watching a DVD about pruning produced by a well known seed house; a) because I was told to, and b) even though you think you know what you’re talking about, it’s always good to check, (especially if you’re planning on dishing out advice yourself).  It claimed to be copyright 2004, but I would say by the size of the hairdos that it was probably a remastered video from the late 80’s. It was well produced and informative and I have learned the following

- Seems like I mostly do know what I’m talking about – phew! (At least on the subject of pruning anyway).
- An hour is way too long for any kind of instructional film – if it’s more than 20 minutes it better have Johnny Depp in it.
- It might seem like a good idea to have men in tweed telling you that it’s all ‘quite simple really, just remember this handy rhyme…’ but after an hour they all sort of run together into ‘If it blooms before noon, then prune by June!’

So I promise I’ll try and keep the advice in bite size chunks - will maybe consider working on some rhyming mnemonics though.

Today the orchard is very snowy – it makes the tree forms stand out more though, which is handy for my next exposition:

These trees are pruned as clear stem standards – this is a traditional look which would have been used in orchards where the intention was to graze livestock under the trees.  Modern orchards look more like vineyards, with densely planted rows of tightly pruned trees on ultra dwarfing rootstocks. Being able to carry out all pruning and picking operations at ground level is a huge advantage for commercial growers.

For your own backyard orchard, both styles have their advantages.  Clear stem trees are great for lounging around underneath, attaching hammocks etc and give any space a dollop of rustic charm.  More strictly pruned forms, like the espalier and cordons pictured below, are great for formal settings or anywhere where limited space is a consideration.

So think about your rootstocks people – that’s what controls the size of the tree. Pruning controls the shape, or ‘habit’ of the tree, but not the size.  Getting both right from the start will give you the jump on getting the backyard orchard of your dreams.

To get you started - here is a useful guide to rootstocks… 

... and for all you nascent tree nerds out there – here is a guide to tree forms, as defined by the UK Horticultural Trades Association:

a whisper and a rattle

There’s snow in the forecast for tomorrow and the landscape is deep in its winter snooze, but the first whispers of spring are emerging and they always take me by surprise.  Long before the big burst of lavish spring colour, the white flash of a snowdrop and the modest delicacy of hazel catkins catch my eye as they start to appear in the hedgerows.  The Welsh name for catkins is cynffon oen bach  - little lambs’ tails. Appropriate as they dance in the slightest breeze.

               

Also – collected the post this morning to find a nice fat envelope that rattled when I picked it up – seeds!  Just a few packets of tall heritage peas and some outdoor pickling cucumbers, there’ll be plenty more in the post over the next few weeks.

Now where did I put that snow shovel…???