Gardens Archive - SEPTEMBER / OCTOBER 2004
I suppose I don’t need to remind anyone as to how poor a summer we have had. It looks like it is going down as one of the worst on record!
The early part of the year was too dry and the latter par has been too wet. Light levels have been exceptionally bad, though temperatures have been reasonable.
Needless to say a lot of our plans for the summer have been dashed by the erratic weather August being particularly poor. Many of our salad and root crops have either gone to seed or rotted. The combination of too much rain and warm temperatures, along with poor light levels have been good for established shrubs but not for annuals.
One jobs I have managed to complete is the summer pruning of our fruit trees and bushes, this is particularly important with plums, damsons and gages, as the removal of any material after now only heightens the risk of disease entering the trees.
Pruning is one of the questions I get asked most often and there are no easy rules to follow, but if you are in doubt prune immediately after flowering or fruiting, thus allowing time for the maximum amount of new growth to ripen before the onset of winter. With fruit in particular you need to know whether fruit comes on new or old wood. If you have long new growths and you wish to fill a gap or allow your plant to get larger, leave them and reduce by one third in the autumn. If they are not needed or are congesting the tree cut them back to 3 or 4 leaf buds. Any branches that are dead or damaged or crossing another, cut them right out. In general what you are aiming for is a tree with the shape of a wine glass with an open center allowing air to circulate through the branches.
As we have had good crops of apples, plums and grapes this year, it has been beneficial to thin them out allowing for fewer but better fruit. This has paid dividends with such a wet August, as any moldy fruit will soon infect its neighbors.
Try to imagine how big each fruit will be on the branch when fully grown and allow space between, also don’t forget how heavy fully grown fruit is, especially with plums. It is no good have a lot of fruit if the branch breaks off before it is ready to pick.
The addition of a larger greenhouse to the garden has been very helpful with such a poor summer, allowing us to sill grow crops like basil, which would have not tolerated the wet conditions.
Hopefully we will get a few more good growing periods, but as the evenings and mornings are already drawing in, the lack of light slows everything down, it is looking like the more tender summer crops are coming to an end.
We can only hope for more favorable weather next year.
Andrew Mellin (Head Gardener Northcote Manor)