Daydream thread... without the rose-tinted specs

moneyistooshorttomention

Rummer wrote: »

Money we are in a windy suburban area although not high up and we planted hedges around our garden and planted the trees near to the hedge line to give them plenty of shelter. It has worked well for us however we only planted mini trees, normal sized ones would obviously require more thought.

I'm in a windy (west wind it seems) suburban-ish type area and am wondering a bit about edible hedging.

I am only thinking of having small size fruit trees - out of the possible apple trees, I was planning on small size root stock anyway. Other factor is its clay soil hereabouts and I've been out this morning breaking up the clods of it in a couple of bits. I've had another person express reservations to me about my chances of fruit trees in the most exposed part of the garden and am now also wondering what sort of foodstuffs grows well up in roof gardens.

I do want my fruit trees though and am regarding them as the mainstay of my garden.

I'm in the west of Britain and I don't anticipate any "robbing the light" by putting up things.

Hopefully, I can get all my "foodstuff" up and running okay....seems the neighbours are already hopefully anticipating spare "food" coming their way at some point...LOL. Yep...I've "tapped into" the local sorta "barter" type system already.......LOL.

lostinrates

Money, extreme north or south or somewhere in the middle, that really what is helpful to know?

ukmaggie45

moneyistooshorttomention wrote: »

Anyone got any thoughts on whether this being a bit of a windy site might pose any problems to my apple tree growing? NB: I'm not up the top of a hill or anything. It's just a reasonably "open" site.

You might consider looking for the Bardsey apple. Re-discovered on Bardsey Island fairly recently. Now that is a VERY exposed and windy place, so I imagine it would do fine in an open site. Not sure how widely available it is outside North Wales - I know they have it in Tyddyn Sachau Garden Centre near Pwllheli. You might be able to get bare root plant from a Welsh nursery at this time of year?

lostinrates

Any opinions welcome on my 'herb' garden thread:(. I've run out of backs of envelopes now

RAS

Money

Bit of a ramble but………..

You may have noted all the stuff about the Bardsey apple in the media at various times? Well I’ve stayed on Enlii and seen the now much pruned tree; just hope that it survives next year’s refurb of the house.

Thing is that that the farmer and his wife on the island have loads of apple trees in their walled garden. You really cannot get much winder and more west than Enlii and although they are tucked into a pocket down at the bottom of the hill, they are very close to the sea. The cottage I rented had several in amongst the trees that grew just beyond the garden.

I have also been to the wild west of Scotland and Wales and the more sheltered parts of the Sognefjord.

Shelter is everything; on a storm beach on Skye the hazel coppice has grown tall and ash and sycamore started to stick their heads above the parapet. At Inverewe pear fruits as an espalier on the low south facing wall protected from the worst of the winds. Norwegian fjordlanders grow two of their own varieties but also a lot of Discovery and Gravenstein apples and many more pears.

For shelter think of things like Aronia as well blackthorn and elder, crab apples and hazel.

If you are growing apples on land prone to waterlogging use MM106 as that is the most resistant.

The other thing I sense travelling around is that a lot of people are making limited use of the land they have. I was shocked travelling from Haverford to Shrewsbury by the local lines. Fields of thistles poked through scratty grass with a few sheep or beeves and then every so often one of the owners would have ploughed and had an excellent crop of wheat or maize??? I know soil changes but this suggested that much of the land immediately adjacent was capable of being far more productive.

And up here we are finding more and more plants that can be grown; my allotment neighbours callaloo brought from Jamaica self-seeds after a minus 19 winter whilst the Portugese one requires sowing under cover and transplanting. I am buried under cucumbers, grown outside this year. We are finding out which grapes produce harvest. People think I and my fellow experimenters are mad until they get to share the produce.

By the way the other way of growing top fruit on windy ground might be to go for step-overs or two tier espaliers?

(just seen maggie's comment).

lostinrates

I could read RAS writing about food production every day. .

It makes me feel so inspired when you post RAS.

lucielle

For watching films online try the website megashare, especially good if you don't have Sky and are in to The Walking Dead and Game of Thrones...ok just me
L

lostinrates

lucielle wrote: »

For watching films online try the website megashare, especially good if you don't have Sky and are in to The Walking Dead and Game of Thrones...ok just me
L

Not heard of that one, thanks I'll have a look.

moneyistooshorttomention

lostinrates wrote: »

Money, extreme north or south or somewhere in the middle, that really what is helpful to know?

Pretty southerly and in the west.

moneyistooshorttomention

ukmaggie45 wrote: »

You might consider looking for the Bardsey apple. Re-discovered on Bardsey Island fairly recently. Now that is a VERY exposed and windy place, so I imagine it would do fine in an open site. Not sure how widely available it is outside North Wales - I know they have it in Tyddyn Sachau Garden Centre near Pwllheli. You might be able to get bare root plant from a Welsh nursery at this time of year?

That sounds a distinct possibility. Am investigating now.

Thanks.