Trees, Fruit, Potatoes, Onions.

Saturday was absolutely lovely here, blue skies and sunshine, so a chance to get ahead on some of the outside jobs.

Mulching the trees with rotted woodchips. They’re not totally broken down but they’re further along than you would guess from the top layer.

Started by strimming the grass from around the trees at the top of field. These were planted as a sort of flood defence. When it rains heavily and the ground becomes saturated we get sheets of water flowing down hill. The idea is that the tree roots soak up water and increase the land’s absorbency. This should slow if not stop the water.

They’re not growing as well as I’d like so after reducing the grass competition, spread potash-rich rich wood ashes from the woodburner and mulched thickly with rotted wood chippings.

Woodchips

The wood chips don’t look as if they’ve rotted down but under the surface layer they’re almost fully composted. At any rate, they’ll help suppress grass growth by the tree trunks whilst adding carbon to the soil to encourage microbial and mycorrhizal development which should further help the trees grow.

Mantis Drama

Still in the field area, ran the Mantis over a couple of raised beds. Had a little drama with the Mantis. Since I started using Husqvarna XP Power petrol the starting problems have basically disappeared and it runs better. This time the engine ran but the tines didn’t turn.

Oh no! Has the worm gear broken? Can I get a mortgage so I can have it repaired? Panic time! Actually it was stone jammed between the casing and the tines which took some jiggling to get out and free up the tines. All worked perfectly after that.

Potato Planting

I’d mothballed the raised beds as I’m cutting back on my workload. That was the plan, anyway. Thing is I’ve more seed potatoes than space for them so a couple of beds back in action.

The lowest bed was planted with Estima and and couple of Salad Blue. The higher up the slope was planted with Kifli. They’re both second earlies and should be ready around the end of July to mid-August.

Both were planted in trenches. The soil to either side will be drawn over the haulm when it grows, a variation on ‘earthing up’.

Up in the walled veg garden there’s a patch to the left of the path just by the gate. Well this year I’m not growing so many onions. The problem is storing them. It’s so humid here in Snowdonia and relatively near the sea that they just end up going mouldy no matter how carefully they’re dried.

So a couple of pounds worth of sets, mixed red-baron and Sturon went in. Rows 20cm apart and sets 10cm (4”) in the rows. This will give me smaller onions but smaller onions store better so I’m hoping we’ll actually end up with more usable onions.

Feeding the Fruit

Buds forming on the Jostaberry. Looks like a bumper crop is on the cards

I’ve got some fruit trees; apples, pears, plums and damsons. None do well or though the pear has had a couple of good years. They’re all mulched to reduce competition from grass and weeds.

They’ve all had a good scattering of Miracle Gro slow release fertiliser and been fed with S-Chelate-O Cultiv-8. The Cultiv-8 will sort out any trace nutrient deficiencies. I then did the same, slow-release and trace nutrients, under the blackberries, blackcurrants, redcurrants and jostaberries.

I’m afraid I don’t have the stamina I used to and and by 6pm I’d had it. So a cuppa on the patio, just watching the sun sinking and then inside to the sofa.