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| Not much tree but lots of hill! |
Despite a distinctly autumnal feel, there's been quite a few things going on the garden this week. The last of the Yew got its annual haircut. Last week, we did the random Yew hedge which Chris hates doing! Teetering around on the top of a pair of steps whilst wielding a pair of shears isn't the easiest but it's good for my pecs!
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| Random hedge trimming |
This week, he trimmed the Yew tree by the greenhouse alone but only because I was busy making the bacon sandwiches! Next on the list was revisiting the Tibetan cherry which was pollarded a few weeks ago. There has been so MUCH debate about this tree which was obscuring Woodbury Hill in its entirety. I knew that it didn't enough space for growth before Woodbury would again be obscured in no time at all so; this time, we've done a more radical pollard - more in the French style. If after regrowth, it looks too awful, we'll remove the remaining trunk. After all there's a Witch Hazel behind it and we've planted over 35 trees in this garden which is surrounded by a further 24,000 apple trees! Incidentally, summer pruning is meant to help prevent silver leaf.
The afternoon was spent picking half the apple crop from our trees and Chris made a start on power washing the flag stones as the algae makes them deadly when they're wet at this time of year. I made a start of Geranium reduction and waged war against whitefly in the greenhouse. Another typically varied Saturday!
How exciting to get 2nd at Stoke Bliss for a chutney made from home grown excesses! Just because we have been really enjoying eating it doesn't necessarily mean that a judge will like it and the competition was pretty fierce! The ingredients were our Bramley apples, yellow & red tomatoes from the greenhouse, grated ginger, onions & spices. Instead of using malt vinegar which I think is always rather harsh; I opted for cider vinegar. I reckon it was the cider vinegar that nailed it!
