Far Lands

One is born to do it, and the other has to be trained. I'm talking fruit trees; what else! Both are types of restricted fruit trees called columnar trees, and as that name suggests they are tall and thin. Really, they are just vertical cordons. Some trees grow like that naturally but they are unusual; one cultivar is Flamenco . However, any cultivar can be trained ie pruned to grow tall and thin. Pruning is the same as for cordons or espaliers:- Summer pruning, laterals to 3 buds above the basal cluster and sub-laterals to one bud above the basal cluster. This is my columnar tree, a cultivar called The Big Purple . (A minarette not a ballerina.)

March means it's grafting season. So, every few days I take a few scions (6 inches or so of last year's growth, pencil-shaped) out of the fridge, march down to the tree nursery, dig up a few rootstocks and then ensconce myself in the shed. Only a little swearing and blood-loss later, I march back up to the house with my whip-and-tongue grafted new trees to do a little waxing on their exposed areas. The grafting wax is in the pan and gets painted on with a small brush. See video:- Then it's back down (marching of course) to the tree nursery to plant them. This year I tried a new experiment on rootstocks; last March I simply stuck in the ground any unused top ends of rootstocks (which I cut off to graft them). I was told that 50% would start rooting. And so far, that has been the case. See photo below for example:-

A week is a long time in the garden . . . the snow has gone and we are sorting out the mess. The week has been warm and dry which is good for everything and everyone. Including the bees. They have started flying. The National hive has been especially busy and pollen is starting to be gathered which suggests that not only that there is a Queen but also that she has started laying. The situation with the WBC is less clear but definitely less good. One problem was that bees were escaping from the hive into the space between the hive and the external wooden shell but not able to get out further (they were attracted by the light from the vent holes not sensible enough to return the way they had come). So we found perhaps 500 dead bees. This is now sorted. Another problem is varroa - possibly. This is a crab-like mite (1mm by 1.6mm) that can destroy a colony in 2-3 years. We treated for varroa in September but the catch-trays under the hives are full of detritus. Photos show a catc...

A tricky few days here. After the promise of snowdrops and the first daffodil and growing buds, the snow came back . . . . . . after my excited blog (219) at the sight of so much snow, the white stuff just kept coming. We had almost 2 feet in 12 hours. Very wet snow as the temp was about 2C. There are a few things I should have done; like knocking the snow off the fruit cage roof and the veg cages. But I didn't. And when I went out in the afternoon I found this:- I knocked off all the snow to reveal this:- As well as the damage to the fruit cage, the brassica cage was destryoyed and the kale cage (our greens for the Spring gap) also suffered a lot of damage. Plants were shredded as their stalks popped up through the netting and the netting squashed down to the floor removing all the leaves. Armfuls of kale are now in the kitchen. On top of that the next morning we found another victim. Flash (our rooster), clearly so upset by the damage to the fruit and veg cage...

This phrase has apparently been in use since the sixteenth century and originates from the strange antics of hares in March . . . boxing with each other and jumping around excitedly. Maybe we all feel a bit like that as Spring and Summer start to beckon. The March Hare was also of course a character in Alice in Wonderland; it behaved as if it was always tea-time. Again, maybe we all feel a bit like that sometimes. I know I do! Hence, it is fitting that I have just come across this hare. Found it while I was driving at the weekend. You can guess what I did with it!