Experiments in growing fruit & veg

by Andrew
(Cambridge)

Hi again,

It's been busy in the household over the last week or two. Firstly we had our Twisted Willow tree reduced in height as in six years it had put on 15 foot in height and was causing shade problems in the garden plus it kept dropping dead branches and twigs everywhere especially near the greenhouse. So last friday our local tree surgeon (Atlas Tree Surgery Ltd in Over) trimmed and shaped it, took away the huge amount of trunk, branches etc and cleared up afterwards. Great job, highly recommended.

We also visited Scotdales in Cambridge to buy a small patio appletree and a thornless Blackberry bush. This will be planted and trained against the fence as the flowers will encourage pollinating bees and insects plus the fruit crop will be another fruit that doesn't have to be imported, bought or paid for.

We've also converted part of our flower bed into a raised veg bed as there were only wildflowers and weeds growing there before. I sub-divided up the bed and added extra compost/soil mix plus soil from previous plant tubs from last year's season after carefully checking for slugs and other nasties.
Only slight problem is that there's a Lilac tree and some other large shrub which sheds leaves all year round. These will keep the plot from getting too sun baked but may have to go if the veg competes for nutrients. Time will tell.
So, as lettuce has gone up again to £1.15 (Tesco) for a small 'Iceberg' we've planted lettuce, Corn, French Beans, Onions and when the outdoor cucumber plants grow bigger these will also be put in.
For an experiment I managed to germinate some Cherry and Cherry-plum seedlings. I first put the stones in a bag in the freezer for a couple of weeks and then planted them in small pots and left them outside. These seedlings are now two inches tall and growing well. I've also done a similar thing with Lemon pips from organic lemons. I pre-soaked these in water and lightly split the hard shell then planted them in seed compost and put them in a heated propagator. I'll let you know if anything germinates.

To protect the French Bean plants I've cut up 2 litre lemonade bottles and placed each half over the plants to keep the pigeons off until they grow bigger and start climbing the canes. The cap end can just be left open but small holes were drilled into the other half of the bottle to allow moisture and heat to escape. Think of them as mini-cloches. Cheap and easy to make. Simply cut the bottle in half after rinsing first.
The black tubes seen in the photo are simply plastic water pipe cut down and placed over the growing corn. These should protect them against wind damage and Pigeons. The black plastic should also retain heat to help the seedlings grow faster. There's also corn seeds under the propagator tops so hopefully there will be a block of Corn which will enable wind born pollination to produce cobs of corn later in the year. Hopefully the raised bed and the soil type underneath means watering should be more effective with less chance of plants drying out.

Bye for now,
Andrew