Snow

It's only been a week since the first frost of the winter, and now it's snowing.

The Herb Garden (&copy Ian 2016)

The Orchard (© Ian 2016)

The house in the snow (© Ian 2016)

When I commented on the colour being ephemeral, I didn't think we'd only have ten days more of it—but you'll see the Virginia Creeper is bare, and the acers have lost most of their leaves, too.

Winter Hanging Baskets Planted

After getting the plants for them a week ago, we've now planted up the winter hanging baskets. They're hanging about on the arbour, for now, until the summer ones are past their best, when they'll go up on the front of the house.

Winter hanging basket (© Ian 2016)

We also discovered that we had a bowl full of plums on one of the Victorias on the hillside. They are utterly delicious.

Victoria Plum (© Ian 2016)

Seeds

It's been a long weekend off, enabling us to spend Friday in Scarborough with Liz's grandparents, and then staying with my parents until Saturday evening. All very relaxing, and set us up well to get back into some wood chopping. We've been burning wood all winter, but haven't been tackling our backlog of firewood for some time, distracted by work on the house, and put off by bad weather (swinging a splitting maul in the snow isn't the safest activity). The weather's been better, though, and so we spent a few hours yesterday sawing and splitting a couple of cubic metres worth, and stacked it today. We're also making progress on getting the rubble from de-plastering the house walls bagged up and carted away, to build a terrace/silage access ramp for a neighbour.

We've also started sowing seeds in earnest: I did a load of sweet peas at the start of the month, most of which have come up well, so today we've sown all our RHS seeds, some cauliflowers (All The Year Round), some more sweet peas (Orange Dragon, more Fragrantissima, Cream Southbourne), and the broad beans (Witkiem Manita and Green Longpod). We also potted up some bareroot shrubs that have arrived: two Viburnum 'Bodnantense Dawn', two winter honeysuckles (Lonicera fragrantissima), a mahonia 'Charity' and a winter box (Sarcococca confusa).

The RHS seeds:

• Orlaya grandiflora or white laceflower
• Molinia caerulea subsp. arundinacea
• Agastache rugosa or Korean mint
• Angelica archangelica
• Cephalaria gigantea or giant scabious
• Chaerophyllum aureum or golden chervil
• Erodium manescavii
• Scabiosa columbaria
• Succisa pratensis or devil's bit scabious
• Succisella inflexa
• Thalictrum delavayi or Chinese meadow rue

Lastly: the snowdrops are doing pretty well, considering that it's their first year. Quite a few are up, but still small, so we're hopeful that this year will be them establishing themselves, and they'll be even better next February.

Snowy Weekend

We've had a weekend at home, with a couple of short trips to see people, as we've had Liz's sister staying with us. There's been a lot of snow in the last week, and everything's looking very picturesque—although it does always make travel that little bit more trying.

[photos from top circuit walk in snow]

Quick Trip

At about this time last year, we went for a quick weekend trip to Cambridge, and we've done the same again. We stayed with Philip and Rachel, and had a nice time with year-old Luke, who's grown again since we last saw him. I'm told they do that. Very relaxing, and we called in to see our old neighbour on the way home, too. We're back to work for a short week, and have made our cooking plans for the holiday...we're doing quite a bit of entertaining, actually, so it's going to be fun.

Pruning

After spending yesterday chopping a load of firewood, today was more pleasantly spent doing a load of winter pruning. The clematis growing on the arbour (Alba Plena) need cutting back to 18" in March, for instance, and the roses all need tidying. A lot of the spring bulbs are showing signs of growth, and the flowering currants are just in bloom. By next weekend, the daffodils should be coming out.

The biggest winter pruning job is that of the apples. The established apple trees all needed a tidy-up, just as they did last year. One more year, and they should all be reasonably organized: we've spread the wok over a few years, to avoid removing too much in one go. Several of the new, standard-trained apples needed laterals trimming, although most still haven't reached their 1.8m height, at which they get topped, and start forming the framework proper.

Most excitingly, we also cut all of the apple walk apples down to height. They've all been cut to about 30cm, where we want the first horizontal tier of the espaliers to fall. In two cases, Cat's Head and Grandpa Buxton,  I actually cut them off at 45cm above this, at the height of the second tier, and have nicked above an appropriately placed bud to form the bottom tier. I've taken this approach as I wasn't absolutely sure that these hadn't been double worked, as there was a wound and new leader trained in above where the bottom espalier will be, and I didn't want to cut off all the Cat's Head/Grandpa Buxton, and leave an unknown interstem.

This left me with a bundle of eighteen sticks of various apples...and a reluctance to throw them away. So, instead, I've grafted them all onto the established apple trees. If they take, they're a back-up for the apple walk trees, and I can use them to graft new (possibly step-over) trees next winter. If they don't, I've not lost anything (well, apart from a couple of hours work).

Grafted

On Thursday, my order of grafting material arrived from the National Fruit Collection, in Brogdale. I'd ordered sticks of seven fruit varieties: two apples, Crimson Superb, and Craggy's Seedling; a pear, Hessle; two medlars, Dutch and Royal; and two quinces, Ivan and Vranja. The rootstocks arrived (MM106 for the apples; Quince A for the rest) a little while ago, and were planted out a couple of weeks ago, to give them time to settle in.

Today, then, was grafting day. I've managed to get three scions out of all the sticks, apart from medlar Royal and quince Vranja, which only produced two. That means at least two spare Quince A rootstocks, which is no bad thing. I collected the cut off rootstock, and have put them into pots, to see if they take as hardwood cuttings (it's not the right time of year, but there you go). I used a tongue-and-whip grafts on them all, and wrapped the joins with parafilm.

The grafting scions, well packed and safely delivered (© Ian 2014)

They're all in the nursery bed, apart from a Crimson Superb and a Craggy's Seedling, which I grafted onto rotostocks that had been planted straight into the apple walk last weekend.

The apple walk, with the two spoil heaps of stone (© Ian 2014)

The approach to the apple walk, with pear 'Hessle' in front and right of the first arch: the hawthorn on the left will be replaced with another Hessle, in time (© Ian 2014)

A side view of the apple walk, in its temporary deer-cage (© Ian 2014)

The nursery bed, with the other grafted rootstocks (© Ian 2014)

Beech Bench

When we ordered our bare-root hedging last year, we included a couple of dozen extra purple beech. They've been waiting, heeled in in the vegetable garden, waiting for us to be ready to plant them.

On the north-west edge of the garden, there's a large elder, and a large lilac with a holly growing through it. Between the two, there's a roughly 12' gap, in which a smaller lilac, and a potentilla sat. I have nothing against lilacs, other than that their season of beauty is relatively short, and somewhat unreliable. The potentilla has been a stalwart. However, neither really enhances the boundary, and it feels rather open (nothing in the sight line to the neighbour's big windows.

When we visited York Gate, we saw (though I didn't comment on it here) a bench that had a high beech 'hedge' grown behind and around its sides. It gave a sheltered spot, and formed quite a feature. We thought that the spot between the bigger two trees would be ideal for one, where a bench on the edge of the games lawn would be nicely combined with a feature visible from across the lawn, at the arched entrance to that 'room'.

Of course, this meant moving the lilac. The potentilla was easy, and has gone into the long border, where it's nicely filled a gap on the left end. The lilac was less simple, but eventually we managed to trench around it, cut under it, and drag it to the opposite side of the garden (on runners, which made it easier, if not easy). There, on the raised bank at the edge of the garden, between a silver birch and a sycamore, we dug it a new hole, and planted it in. At the same point, we've given it a good prune, as the shocked and reduced roots won't support as large a canopy: the smaller silhouette will also catch the wind less until its better anchored.

The lilac is now roughly above the blue hose reel, from this angle, in this photo from last year (© Ian 2013–14)

The space, those two out, looked perfect, thankfully, so we marked out a space for a 6' bench, and cleared a suitable border around it, into which we've planted 25 of the bare-root hedging plants. They look awfully twig-like at this moment, of course. Hopefully, though, the beech will grow quickly (it should), and in a few years, we'll have a pleasant, sheltered spot to sit.

Purple beech (left) and 'Golden Hornet' crab-apple (right) (© Ian 2013–14)

After doing this, we then dug the hole for the crab-apple, 'Golden Hornet', that was also waiting in the kitchen garden. This was rather easier than the hole for, say, the apple walk, and was quickly the right size. The apple's now planted (exactly the same mycorrhizal/stake/cage regime as before!), centrally on the games lawn (compensating for a planned border on the lower edge, that is), and is a good focus from the future bench.

The last job of the day was taking two branches down from one of the silver birches at the top of the colour wheel, which were damaged in the high winds of Wednesday. Tomorrow morning, we should be sowing a load of seeds: sweet peas, cineraria, tomatoes, chillies, aubergines; as well as potting up the All Year Round cauliflowers we sowed last month.

Apple Walk Planted

On Wednesday, our Yorkshire apples arrived, barerooted. They all came from an excellent (and relatively local) nursery in Pickering, called RV Roger, and are all young maiden trees, probably one or at most two years old from grafting:

• Court Pendu Plat (Norman)
• Joaneting (1600)
• Cats Head (1620)
• Ribston Pippin (1707)
• Dog's Snout (1720)
• Hunt House (1720)
• Balsam (1750)
• Greenup's Pippin (1750)
• Acklam Russet (1768)
• Hornsea Herring (1780)
• Yorkshire Greening (1803)
• Flower of the Town (1831)
• Fillingham Pippin (1835)
• Cockpit Improved (1850)
• New Bess Pool (1850)
• Winter Cockpit (1860)
• Nancy Jackson (1875)
• Sharleston Pippin (1888)
• Yorkshire Aromatic (1945)
• Grandpa Buxton (1990)

To these, we're adding Craggy's Seedling (I can't find a date for this, but guess around 1850), and Crimson Superb (similarly, but it's a sport of Laxton's Superb, bred 1897, so I'm putting it in the first half of the 20th Century, which is all the precision I need, as you can see). They're currently just MM106 rootstocks, as the graftwood will be arriving in a week or so.

We planted out almost all of these this morning, starting at the back left corner of the apple walk with Court Pendu Plat, and working through them chronologically, back right, then penultimate left, penultimate right, and so on. Pleasingly, this puts Cats Head (the biggest plant) next to Dog's Snout; and Cockpit Improved and Winter Cockpit adjacent. The bottom four on the left we've not planted, as we wanted to further increase the drainage, and re-assess the soil on Sunday.

They've all been planted with mycorrhizal fungi, and tied to their 2½" stake, next to their metal arch-foundation tube. I'll give them their establishing cut, at the height of the first 'tier', as part of the winter pruning in the next couple of weeks.

These trees planted, we also put the Hessle pear, and Marron de Lyon and Marigoule sweet chestnuts, which were part of the same order, in their prepared holes. Similar to the previous standard fruit trees, they're in decent planting pits, with more mycorrhizal fungi, a 2½" stake, and a 1.2m circumference, 6' height chicken wire cage, held in place with two 8' bamboos. (Sorry, terrible mix of units.)

Hessle, like the apples, is a Yorkshire native, coming from an eponymous village in the East Riding, near Kingston upon Hull. Sadly, there don't appear to be any Yorkshire-bred chestnuts (not terribly surprising, really), so we have the two French varieties that seemed best. I'm sure they'll be lovely.

Rootstocks

The MM106 apple and Quince A rootstocks arrived during the week, and have been heeled into a bucket of compost, waiting to be planted out. That was the first order of the day, so all but two apples are now safely planted in the nursery beds we dug on the hillside. We've put up the chickenwire cage that will protect all three beds from deer, and the rootstocks should now have a couple of weeks to settle in before we graft onto them.

Yesterday afternoon, we then drove the 22 tubes that will support the apple walk arches into the ground. These are 5/8" steel tubes, with the underground section cold-galvanized, and bitumen painted, for corrosion protection. They extend about 90cm above ground, and the rebar arches will slot into them in a few weeks. Alongside are the support stakes, that will ensure that the rootstocks don't suffer windrock while they establish.

Steel tubes, zinc-painted and ready for bituminous paint over-coat ( Ian 2014)

Having got these carefully positioned, we then dug the two planting holes for our sweet chestnuts, which are on the same order as the twenty apples and one pear (the last two apples for the walk are amongst the grafting set). This was astonishingly easy: we each went to one hole, planning to get started then reconvene once we knew how difficult they were going to be—and had the holes dug in a few minutes. Working in the very stony (historically terraced) corner with the apple walk has clearly given us a different perspective. The holes dug, I drove an 8' stake for each; this has the advantage of being able to see the position from the house, to check that they seem right.

The two trenches of the apple walk then needed refilling, so we poured in seven bags of sand, to help drainage, and eight trugs of compost, before scraping the spoil heaps back into the trenches. Even with the additions, the loss of all that stone from the trenches means that they were still underfilled.

To make up the shortfall, we've used loam from the stacks of turf we've been building in the copse while lifting turves from the quince, sweet-pea, and copse beds. Trenches topped up, we then decided to put up the chicken-wire cage for the applewalk, having previously thought of leaving it until after planting. However, with the centre of the walk now clear of soil (but still muddy and slippery), we decided there was good enough access, and the greater risk was of kicking a tree over while manoeuvring the heavy roll of wire net. The corner stakes aren't really secure enough to tension a fence (I couldn't drive them deeply enough into the stony soil), but they've sufficed for getting the protective cage round the apple beds. We also had to dig one or two more short drains, to ensure that the ground isn't too wet—the very wet weather of the last month means there are several stream flowing down the hillside, in the main gullies and land-drain, and the ground just inside the gap in the wall is a pond. Fortunately, all our drainage work last year seems to have done the job well, and the existing trees seem protected from the worst of it.

The fruit trees are scheduled to arrive this coming week, and so we should be able to plant up the apple walk next weekend, at long last.

Stakes

It's been an unpleasant job, in the wet and the wind, but we managed to finish digging the second apple-walk trench, as well as the three nursery-bed trenches. The latter came across far fewer stones, which made it easier than it could have been—we definitely picked the stoniest part of the field to build the apple walk.

Having dug the trench, we drove the first set of posts in: 2½" posts, 5'6" long, and spaced 3' apart. The first set of eleven were straightforward, but getting the second set parallel, with each one squarely opposite its pair, was a slog. Eventually, though, we got them all in, and are happy with their position. They're a bit wonky, in fairness, and not perfectly straight. I hope that we'll be able to drive the tubes for the actual arches a little more accurately. The stakes are off-set from the arches by a few inches (up-hill and outwards): the trees will be planted just outside the arch's tubes. As they're on MM106 rootstocks, they'll only need the stakes for a few years, to protect against wind rocking the roots, and then the stakes can be pulled up, or sawn off at ground level.

The nursery trenches were easier, as they don't have to be too accurate. There's a variety of heights, either 8' posts or 5'6", depending on what we intend for the adjacent tree. We can't be sure that we'll actually need them all for grafting: I've ordered three rootstocks per variety, but if the scion material is short, we may only get one, or two, scions worth from each. That's manageable: the rootstocks will 'keep'.

Once the support stakes were in, we also had posts to drive in around each set of beds (four around the nursery beds, six around the walk), which will support an anti-deer chicken-wire cage. We'll only put that up once the trees are in, to give maximum manoeuvrability for planting. 

Second Trench

It's amazing how long some jobs can take.

We've almost finished digging the second 11m trench into which the apples of the apple walk will be planted. To do so, we've had to cut about 10m of drainage ditch, as well; lift (at a guess) six tons of stones out of the trenches (including two >500kg boulders); and flatten out a 35m² area.

I've kept telling myself that, one day, it'll be beautiful.

We need to finish the last couple of meters of the second trench (ran out of energy and day-light), and then we can start driving the stakes and foundation rods for the metal work. The trees will arrive in the second week of February, and can go straight in the ground. Similarly, the rootstocks and scions for the six varieties we're grafting will get to us in the next few weeks: that means that the nursery bed trenches also need to be finished. Both apple walk and nursery beds will need chicken wire protection, for at least a few years, so that will need building, too.

First Seeds of the Year

It feels very early to be doing so, but we've sown the first seeds of the season. For all the sweet pea varieties we grew last year, we had at least a dozen seeds left, so we've sown eight of each (some needed overnight soaking; others didn't). We've done a couple of pots of All Year Round cauliflowers; a pack of mixed hostas (we sowed some of the same ones last June: they grew on well, but were still rather small when they died back for winter, so although I'm hoping they'll come up in a couple of months, I wanted to get a new batch started rather earlier, in case); and two pots of Pennisetum macrourum 'Tail Feathers'.

A Trench or Two

We've spent our time outside this weekend digging the trenches for the apple walk. To start with, I had to demolish the large stone (boulder) that we uncovered last time. It took a bit of whacking with the sledge hammer, but I managed to make it small enough that we could drag it out of the area of the walk.

Unfortunately, I then found an even bigger stone sitting the middle of the other (lower) planting line. This one was massive: about 6' by 3', and at least a foot thick: probably the best part of a metric ton. A long while later, I managed to break it in two, then make the larger piece small enough to move out of the way. We've now finished, eventually, digging over the first trench, and will try to get the other one dug next weekend.

We also have to prepare enough ground for 18 rootstocks, for fruit we're planning to graft with material from the National Fruit Collection. The rootstocks should arrive later this month, and scion material thereafter. There's a good spot near the plums where they should all fit, bearing in mind that they'll be there about a year.

Twelfth Night

And the last day of our holiday arrives.

2013's Christmas Cake ( Ian 2014)

Almost all our of jobs have been done, in fact, which is most surprising. We de-decorated this evening, having left it to the last minute.

Waes hael!

Digging the Apple Walk

As intended, we've managed to spend a day working towards planting the apple walk. Unfortunately, about halfway up the left planting line, we uncovered a massive boulder, which is part—I think—of a terracing wall from long ago. The terrace has disappeared into the undulations of the ground, now, and isn't so necessary: the soil is stabilized sufficiently by the trees, I think.

The boulder, probably a meter square, and 30cm thick, has defeated us so far: it's too heavy to move (probably 500kg). I think it's entirely uncovered, so I have resorted to using the sledgehammer to break it up. Once it's smaller, and moveable, we'll heave what's left out. The ground here is so stony that the spoil heap of stones looks a lot like we're building a dyke.

Our other bits-and-pieces have gone ok: we've split a load of firewood, and stacked it, and re-oiled the hedge and fruit trees on the hillside. Some of the hedges had been nibbled, which prompted this reapplication of deer-deterrent. Fortunately, the hedge plants will benefit from the trim, as it should promote a bushier, denser growth.

Christmas 2013

Our Christmas, predictably, was a gourmand affair. I think we've had three 'Christmas' dinners, now.

Table set for the second Christmas dinner of 2013 (both © Ian 2013)

Start of a Break

We finished work for Christmas on Thursday, and spent Friday getting ourselves a little more organized for the holiday. There's a list of things we want/need to to get done, and I think we're on top of the urgent ones. Ideally, we'll spend a day quilting towards the end of the holiday, and there's some things we'd like to work on outside, weather permitting. There's always boring administrative things to get done inside, when the weather fails to cooperate (like filing the receipts for 2013...). We spent a lovely day with my parents yesterday, having a pre-Christmas dinner, and finally watching the first Hobbit film. The pork liver pâté we made in October (and froze in anticipation!) was delicious.

With some luck, we should be able to make progress on preparing the site of the apple walk. We started about a month ago, having had the idea back when we visited Barnsdale. The apple arch there (photo on this website), and a similar one in the Highgrove walled garden, are the kind of thing we're trying to create. Each side of a 33' long, 8' wide tunnel will have apple trees planted (every 3'; eleven up each side). They'll be trained up each arch of the walk (each arch being 4' vertical, then a 4' radius, 180° arch, and back down 4') to the top, where two apples will meet. They'll be trained into one-sided espaliers, with 3' long arms coming off every 18" or so, to create the structure of the apple walk.

Ideally, on a level site, each tree would have arms on both sides, half the length. However, because the walk is going to slope upwards, unavoidably, this won't work. Branches trained downhill will fail to grow.

We've got twenty apples on order, and I've found two more that I can obtain grafting material for, which we'll try grafting ourselves. They all originate (as far as we can tell) in Yorkshire, and date from Roman times, through Norman introductions, and the Victorian boom in apple varieties. Whimsically, we're going to arrange them chronologically, so that the oldest are at the top, and the most recent (just a few decades old) is at the bottom, or start.

However, long before it looks like anything at all, we need to smooth the plot, dig out the stones, and improve the soil. And, probably, dig some drainage.

Christmas Greenery

On Friday, we managed to use a dry spell to plant about thirty saplings along the back of the birch clearing. When they've grown, they'll form a boundary to the space, and delineate the 'maintained' clearing from the untamed hillside above, which we plan to leave as gorse, heather, bilberries, brambles and bracken. They're a mix of crabapples and hazels, left over from the hedges on the other side of the plot, and they've been planted, like those, with mycorrhizal fungi on their roots, and chilli-oil on their shoots.

The rest of the weekend, we seem to have spent decorating the house for Christmas. I like to think we do things properly.

All photos © Ian 2013

Hedge

In October, we dug a trench for hedge planting, aiming to make planting the hedge a quick job. It needed to be, because the plants we ordered were bare-root, and could arrive at any time. This had its problems, because they'd be stuck in their box for up to a week (if they arrived on a Monday), but we certainly couldn't leave them waiting to plant while we cleared the ground (stones and all), and heeling in 350 plants didn't appeal.

So, we pre-dug the trench, refilled it with stoneless soil, and covered it with weed membrane. The plants arrived on Friday (the perfect day of the week for them to get to us), and we've spent most of the daylight this weekend planting them out. About 170 of them now form the formal hedge up the left of the orchard. These are planted into crosses cut in the weed membrane, having been dipped in mycorrhizal fungi suspension. It's a random mix of myrobalan plums, hazel, crabapples, and purple beech. This should give a good combination of spring blossom, autumn fruit and foliage, and winter cover; good for us, and good for wildlife. We've planted them at 25cm spacing, and I'll top them in late winter, to encourage a dense lower section.

The bare-root hedging plants (purple beech, myrobalan plums, hazels, and crab-apples) before planting; far right is the crab-apple 'Golden Hornet' (© Ian 2013).

A further 80-odd have been planted along the less-formal boundary in the clearing above. We used all the plums in the lower hedge, so this should be able to get a bit taller, and the higher proportion of beech means it'll keep more leaves over winter. We want this to be more of a screen, so that the clearing feels protected and secluded.

Lastly, there were twenty 'Midwinter Fire' dogwoods in the delivery, seventeen of which we planted in a long drift in the birch clearing. When grown, they should guide you up into the birch stand, and form a backdrop to it. They look a lot like sticks, at the moment, though. We'll have to be sure to keep the bracken down over the next year, to stop them being overgrown, but that should be manageable.

The same bare-root hedging plants, along with 'Golden Hornet' and the 'Midwinter Fire' dogwoods at top (© Ian 2013).

There's still a bundle of bare-root plants that are heeled in to the vegetable garden, ready to plant as a hedge-edge along the back of the birch clearing. Fortunately, having planted the bulk (300 or so) of the plants, the rest could be heeled in until later. There was also a Parrotia persica (Persian ironwood) in the delivery, which is going near the woodshelter; but that's containerized, and will wait. The last part of the consignment was a 'Golden Hornet' crabapple, which is destined for the centre of the games lawn: that's also heeled in for now. There's not much urgency with that: it'll be happy heeled in until February, I expect.