Sunday, 24 February 2013

Trees planted

I have managed to plant the tree grafts that I bought at the bourse aux greffons, despite the cold weather.   I heeled the trees in for a couple of days while I did the preparatory work.    I chose a South-facing  planting area where the trees, once grown, will help to sreen the compost heap and water butts.

First, I took the turf off, the dug over the area and rotavated it.  I then added peat and farmyard manure (I cheated and bought concentrated stuff).   Then I hammered in the stakes and strung wire supports between them, and finally I planted the trees.   You can hardly see the little brown twigs against the soil.


Now I know that tree grafts don't always take, and I might end up with one or two dead twigs instead of healthy productive trees.   But then, I figure that I have done the hard work already:  preparing the planting area took several hours, and also involved buying manure, stakes and wire, but the final job of getting the trees into the ground was a matter of minutes.  And buying them was fun, and I could always get some more next year.

2 comments:

  1. I sometimes envy your garden, even all the hard work. Mine is paved with beds and large pots with what we love to call 'specimen plants' in them.

    We have three apple trees, though, old varieties from Killerton House, a National Trust place nearish to here that cultivates old apples, and a dwarf white peach and a dwarf nectarine tree. The latter two enjoy thwarting all my attempts to counteract leaf curl

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  2. You must be exhausted after that lot.

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