Category: Pruning

  • Winter pruning a Fig tree

    Winter pruning a Fig tree

    An old fan trained fig tree, growing against the south facing wall of a Victorian coach house near Itton in Monmouthshire. February a good time for its annual winter prune. In the UK fig trees fruit on last year new growth, having formed pea like embryonic buds that are poised and raring to go for…

  • Pruning an Established Apple Espalier

    Pruning an Established Apple Espalier

      Trained fruit trees, probably one of a gardeners favourite jobs. These old apple espaliers perfectly illustrate the techniques and pitfalls when maintaining trained fruit trees, whether espaliers, cordons or whatever shape takes your fancy. Planted in the late 1890’s these trained fruit trees at Barrow Court in North Somerest were once regarded as one…

  • Pruning a Grapevine

    Pruning a Grapevine

  • Planting a New Orchard

    Planting a New Orchard

    A gently sloping field, just under half an acre, facing south west, in Abbots Leigh in North Somerset, a village just across from Bristol’s Clifton Suspension Bridge. It would have been difficult to think of anything other than planting an orchard here.  A traditional orchard in the SW would often have its individual trees spaced…