Harborne Hill Allotments Growing Advice and Tips

Jobs to do in July

Monthly Guide

Harvesting

Summer cabbage

Salad Crops

Broad Beans

Runner Beans, French Beans

Early Potatoes, Salad Potatoes

Strawberries

Raspberries

Gooseberries

 

A View on Trees

It appears that many new members and even some existing ones do not learn about the correct choosing of trees until some years after it would have been useful to know.

This is reflected in two trees I "inherited" on my own plot, a cherry and a damson. In both cases I have had to choose between not getting any fruit from them or letting them get too big. If you try to keep them to a suitable size by pruning, they then don't produce any fruit until they're getting too big again.

It probably varies between sorts of trees but generally-speaking, even "dwarf" trees may grow a bit too large for most half-plots here. Generally it appears is best to choose "patio dwarf" trees (which are explicitly stated as such on their labels).
(For those who are even more ignorant than myself, I'll mention that those distinctions are generally reflective of the "root stock" chosen for the particular tree. In the absence of mention of dwarfness the tree is likely to be a full-size one which can mean it wants to be too big as with my cherry (which I've now uprooted) and damson (which I probably should but it would be a bbigg job!).)

I see on Ian's new plot 50 he has "inherited" a pear tree which has a label that says nothing of any dwarfness, and I suspect that that is going to get out of hand before long, and resemble the two pear trees we had in my parents' garden about 40 ft tall! (We "inherited" those when moving there back in a previous epoch when Liz Windsor had only been Queen for three years.)

Maybe not only new members should be told about this matter, but also it would be good to make sure all existing members also know too.

Robin Clarke

Gallery

 

 

Crop of the Month

Garlic

Click here for our growing guide.