56. Orchard - Mid Summer
Most of the fruit trees and bushes are two years old now, and still not fruiting yet. I expect more from them next season. In the meantime they continue to establish themselves and are putting on good growth.
There are three fan trained fruit trees growing against the first wall: a quince, a damson and a greengage. They sulked for the first year, but have settled in now and are growing well, starting to cover the fan frame. I have to tie them in regularly. It is important to keep the weeds down around the base of the trees, and to keep them well watered.
The cordon fruit trees are growing strongly and putting out a lot of lateral branches. I’m not sure I have the pruning on these right - it is important to keep them tracking the 45 degree supports, so will be consulting my RHS Pruning and Training guide for assistance, one of the most well-thumbed books in my library. Again it is too early for these trees to really be fruiting yet, but I do have a few pears and a small cluster of cherries ripening. Even the central fan-trained fig is fruitless this year, but the ornamental cherry trees do have some small wild cherries for the birds.
New planting this season included the cat deterrent bed towards the back of the garden. It has a combination of prickly plants that are also edible: climbing roses trained against the wall and Japanese quinces. There is also lavender and rosemary in that bed. These are all flowering and fruiting well. The roses are all highly scented - they will be used with the lavender and rosemary for potpourri this year. The Japanese quince (chaenomeles) have a lot of small quince fruits after a show of glorious spring flowers, so I will be using them for my crab apple jelly later in the season. The quince helps it to set well.
The trees in the fruit dome are all growing rapidly. There is a wide variety of fruit trees and bushes in there: pear, plum, apricot, morello cherry, damson, blueberries, Chilean guavas and miniature blackberries and mulberries. The plum and blueberries are the only ones showing signs of fruiting this year, but the others are all putting on really good growth so I am expecting a bumper crop next year. These pots all need frequent watering - daily in very hot weather, and I will be feeding them regularly this season.
That end of the garden is lovely and cool in the evenings, my favourite place to sit and contemplate what needs to be added to the to-do list for the walled garden. I intend to just focus on maintenance of the garden for the rest of this season and will hold off adding any new sections until I have finalised the studio building plans, and have a clearer idea on what the impact to the garden will be. In the meantime there is a lot to enjoy as I watch the season progress.