316. Propagation

I recently wrote this article for the newsletter of the Northern Fruit Group . . .

Propagation

I have been a regular at the Dewhurst allotments for four years. Four long, hard winters of digging and mulching. Four summers of weeding.
            I exaggerate. Dewhurst gets better weather than the Costa Del Sol, not that I’ve ever been there, or would admit it if I had. More importantly, I have learnt a great deal. Winter pruning of orchard trees, the modified lorette system for restricted forms, the difference between a minarette and a ballerina. How Hilary makes apple juice, what Peter eats for breakfast. The surprising science-art of grafting.
            And I have caught the bug. The magic of working with fruit trees. Outside, in the air, in the soil. We need the trees, for our wellbeing, but what I also love, is that the trees need us. Mankind. Without human agency, the wonderful heterogeneity of fruit trees – over 2 000 cultivars in the UK, over 200 at Dewhurst – would become the acidic, dull, insipid homogeneity of wildings (well, you try and tell them apart).
            My own plan is for 100+ varieties, and recently I have started digging up my lawn and installing cordon lines. Just like at Dewhurst.
            My wife was unsure, but at night I whisper the names. ‘Belle de Boskoop, Beauty of Bath, Maiden’s Blush, Lady Sudeley, Chiver’s Delight, Hambledon Deux Ans. I am Lord Lambourne, The Duke of Devonshire.’ I could go on all night. Sometimes I do. ‘Pitmaston Pineapple. Winter Banana. Red Devil.’
            The names are soft, sensual, lyrical. Soothing.

In other words, I’m a believer.
             And ready, to spread the message.

In January, I received a phone-call from my brother, a Governor at a primary school in Llangollen.
            ‘Can you spare any fruit trees? I am setting up a school orchard.’
            It was what I had been waiting for, and I spent a happy day, digging up one-year grafted maidens. Court Pendu Platt, Spartan, even a family tree with Lord Lambourne and Sunset.



Thank you Hilary, Dewhurst, NFG.

 
 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

285. Been thinking about my last blog . . .

Image
. . . even if no-one else has. One of the implications of much of an apple's goodness (minerals and vitamins) being in its seeds is that to benefit they have to be eaten. And not just eaten but chewed up as apple seeds tend simply to be passed. I then remembered something about apple pips containing cyanide. I began to look into all this . . . There are hundreds and hundreds of web snippets on the benefits of eating apples, an apple a day keeps the doctor away and all that. But quite difficult to shore it up with trusted sources. A medium-sized apple weighs 150g - 200g and contains half that number of calories. 80% is water, 10% is carbohydrate, 0.5% protein and 4% minerals and vitamins. Half the minerals and vitamins and fibre are in the peel and the core. Apple pips contain amygdalin which can release cyanide when coming contact with digestive enzymes. According to the http://www.thenakedscientists.com/HTML/contact-us/about-us/  (Cambridge University group) a...
Read more

319. We've got a dog!

Image
I know, I know . . . but I've kind of always wanted one . . . . . . from when I was very young, before I joined the Job, when I was thinking about joining the Job. I had a dream (I must have been 13 or 14, and I had lots of posters of dogs on my bedroom walls) about becoming a bearded-batchelor police dog-handler. In my dream I called the dog Wolfram . And guess what? We've called our dog  Wolfram ! He's so cute. He is, of course, an Alsatian and a good guard-dog. Which will be good because this is a big place and Sarah's away a lot. (The door-bell went off in the middle of the night last week, no-one there, turned out it was half-pressed in, but it didn't half freak me out.) Anyway, Wolfram is a new type of dog. Specially bred for people like me. He's a veggie. Eats like a horse of course, but and this is the point, he eats just like a horse. CRUCIALLY, he shits like a horse too. So, no smelly piles all around the garden but just the sweet...
Read more

73. Stuck for something to read?

Try a William Boyd novel. They hook you from the start, have interesting and original plots and are not overly long. What's more there are lots of them, and relatively easy to find in second-hand bookshops. Perfect for a holiday read, if you are stuck on a difficult novel or just want something a bit different. His books sometimes feel like he has written them with the aid of a special book-kaleidoscope: twist it again, 10 bizarre plot-lines fall out and Boyd glues them together in 300 pages. Try one!
Read more