An Englishman's Garden Adventures
A six year old step-over Beauty of Bath apple trained along a narrow bed under a window at the front of my house – just coming into flower in late April. The basic form is just two horizontal branches trained outwards, then pruned for fruiting spurs.
Long-term study of the planting, training and subsequent maintenance of a fan-trained pear with updates across the years since planting in 2015.
This is the most successful trained fruit tree in my garden: A four tier espaliered apple that looks good all year round.
This apple tree is a bit of a curiosity. [Update: mystery solved – see end of post] The label from … read more
Pitmaston Pineapple is an old English variety with smallish apples of a golden-russet hue. Their flavour has a unique musky note … read more
Summer PruningThis is an essential skill for ensuring your trained fruit stays in shape and produces reliable fruit Summer pruning … read more
Gages are the posh cousins of the common-or-garden plum. They are finer in every way and in the UK, somewhat harder … read more
April vs August2012 I started training this young apple tree last year. To create a triple cordon I tied its main leader (central stem) … read more
▲ My fan-trained cherry, planted in spring 2008, spans 15′ and stands 6′ high following four years of training. Shown here in … read more
Growing gooseberries as standards provides an opportunity to bring formal design features into the vegetable garden. It’s also a very practical … read more
