Thursday 27 January 2011

Planting, Pruning and Mulching

Simon, Joe and Ali spent the first part of the morning planting two apple trees, Pitmaston Pineapple, an old English russet apple from the West Midlands area. These trees, we hope, will be heavy cropping, fruiting every other year, producing apples for us with an unusual flavour tasting like pineapples.
First a circle is marked out, the turf stripped away and a hole dug, the soil is placed to the side and organic matter added.
The tree is then placed in the hole and the depth checked with top of the root ball. The soil is then filled back into the hole and the tree healed in. A tree stake is then placed at an angle, hammered into place and the tree then tied to the stake using a tree tie, finally the tree is watered in.

Having planted the new trees in the orchard, they then moved into the Provost's garden to finish pruning the wisteria. What should have been quick job ended up taking all afternoon once a very large piece of dead wood was found within the tangled frame work. It is hoped that now this has been removed a spectacular display will be seen again this year.

In the corner of the Provost's garden Ady and Joss completed their wood chip mulching, having begun last week in the border at the back of the Nuffield lawn.

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