Squirrel Damage to apples

More squirrel damage, this time on an apple tree, Worcester Pearmain.

Squirrels are probably the worst pest of fruit trees in this country. They can damage fruit at all stages, and the damage is frequently misattributed to birds.

Squirrel damage is very easy to identify. If you look carefully you can see two identical upper incisor marks, with a 'spooned out' mark above made by the lower incisors. Other fruitlets in this cluster just show tooth marks which match. Squirrels rarely eat the whole fruit at this stage, but can fatally damage a large number by 'mouthing' them out of curiousity.

Two year ago I was not at home to monitor the problem at this stage, and lost the entire crop from my 50-odd cultivars. One pear, two apples and no plums, the entire result from a sizeable, mature orchard. The problem is largely due to a particular neighbour who has numerous bird feeders that are not squirrel proof, and the population had grown from a single pair to numerous competing ones over the exact time period that has been excess supply food in the environment. I trapped and disposed of 10 squirrels last year, and this had a very positive effect on the crop which was very large despite a particularly poor growing season.

This is not something I like doing, but it is impossible to get worthwhile results from fruit growing where there are significant numbers of squirrels. 

Moles

My heart sank when I saw the latest eruption of mole hills. We had a particularly destructive one last year that excavated and undermined the main path. I vowed to remove it, only to find it dead during the bitterly frosty weather last winter, having crawled under a bucket lid to shelter. It must have been trapped on the surface, and unable to burrow into the solid, frozen ground.

Moles are a real nuisance in the vegetable garden. Compost heaps are attractive to them, being filled with lots of large, juicy earthworms, but they can mix a large quantity of sub soil into the the compost, rendering it unusable. I line the bottom of my heaps with woven ground cover matting.

They also undermine other structures (like paths), and also find the chicken run attractive as the manure run off probably increases the earthworm population. Unfortunately, their burrows attract rats which can then colonise the space.

Reluctantly, I think I'll have to relocate this one, using a humane trap. I will wait until ground conditions are better, I don't think it would be fair to release one while the ground is so hard.

z5btdvcumh

Redcurrants

Fruit picking is turning out to be something of a chore this year. I only covered one of the redcurrant bushes this year, leaving the other two for the birds, but I can't even face picking one bush (or the several hours of preparation for jelly making). Normally it's such a pleasure picking the ruby-like fruits and distilling them into their sharp, solid essence.

Fruit cordons: dividing the plots

The vegetable beds in the rear garden are divided by double oblique cordons (all semi-dwarfing trees on Quince A/M 26), and fronted by M27 apple step-overs. I've found this has worked very well so far, and vegetable crops do quite well up to about a foot away from the trees (which are essentially root pruned by annual bed digging). 

One initial worry was that regular manuring of the beds might cause soft, disease-prone growth of the trees, but again this doesn't appear to be a problem.

Strawberries

The strawberry crop in the front garden has been phenomenal this year, only the first year of 'proper' cropping. The variety is mostly Marshmello - although I planted three varieties originally, Florence and the perpetual variety I planted failed almost completely, so I allowed the strong plants to develop runners directly into the gaps. I won't know the yield until we jam the crop (currently frozen in several batches, ready for yet another marathon jam session), but there have been enough spare for eating fresh daily, for the last two weeks or so.

I do have some left out the back, but there are simply too many feathered or furry things that take steal them, and all sheets/environmesh is in use elsewhere.

Greater Spotteds

The greater spotted woodpeckers are nesting nearby, and now spending more time in out garden, en route to the rat and squirrel peanut paradise two doors down. I'm not a great fan as they have raided our blue tit boxes for chicks several times in the past, pecking around the holes to create larger aperture. The blue tits haven't returned, despite repairing the boxes and nailing weldmesh on the fronts to foil any further raiding.

Blackcurrant: Ben Sarek

A bumper crop, but I've been unable to pick any so far due to having to spend so much time in Wales. The pigeons have been stripping the bushes, but still a daunting quantity to pick.

The march of the toadlets has begun

The annual plague of tiny toads has begun, just a little late (usually it starts promptly on the solstice). In previous years it has been incredible, impossible to walk anywhere in the garden or pavements without treading on them as there have been several to ever square foot. Numbers were slightly down last year, possibly related to the noticeable increase in the frog population over the last couple of years. Happily, I have not damaged any adults while digging so far this year.

Compost: Grass snakes

My favoured recipe for compost (mixing lawn mowings in with the poultry run straw which results in very rapid and hot breakdown) has attracted an unusual number of grass snakes this year. The current heap has at least four regulars, one a good four to five feet long. They have been breeding in next doors lawn clippings heap for years, but this is the first year I've ever noticed more than the odd juvenile in my heaps, or what was formerly the slow worm reserve (a metre of old pond liner under a medlar tree).

Below is a tiny one; the next one is a huge adult, over an inch in diameter, difficult to tell differences in scale from photographs. Hopefully they'll control any rats that are breeding in the heaps too, though I suspect the amphibians are an easier meal.

Baby Wrens have fledged

The wrens that have been nesting in the ivy by the back door have fledged, taking their first flight to the quince tree.

Garlic: Germidor?

Part of the reason I need a blog is torecord what varieties I actually grow in a year, rather than have a hazy memory of months later. I'm not absolutely sure which variety of garlic I put in last year, other than it was the only variety available in the local garden centre, bought on impulse. Which is a pity, as it has done very well, producing a heavy (literally) crop of very large bulbs with no sign of rust whatsoever. A number of the larger bulbs did split, but careful harvesting ensured little earth ended up in the cavity, so they should keep quite well if dried properly.

Decorative potager

The distinction between a 'potager' and a 'bog-standard' vegetable plot is the degree of decorative value, largely derived from formal elements (regular beds, trained fruit forms) combined with flowers and the most decorative vegetables.

I had this very much in mind when I turned my front garden largely over to vegetables and a variety of trained and half-standard pears. The locals hereabouts aren't the most enlightened, and anything that strays from the norm of bedding plants edging a lawn, tortured to within an inch of it's life, (or worse, just grim concrete) is viewed with great suspicion as a sign of terminal eccentricity. Despite the risks of being tarred and feathered, my front is very productive, with 18 different pear/quince cultivars (growing in a number of trained forms, mostly step-overs, but also arches, espaliers and 2 half standards). One bed is entirely devoted to strawberries, which have yielded about 8lbs of fruit already in this, their first proper year of fruiting, and still have a way to go before they finish. The other bed will eventually be devoted to asparagus, which I'm gradually building up from seed. I planted the part where the latter had failed with garlic last year, and have just harvested a bumper crop of 40 very large bulbs.

For some reason the colour scheme ended up being red, with a stunning display of shrub rose Scarlet Fire, Papaver orientalis 'Turkenlouis', red valerian with contrast provided by dark red foliage of various sedums, bronze fennel and Lysimachia ciliata 'Firecracker'.

Winter Squash bed

Last year I stuck in a couple of winter squashes (my favourite squash, Marina de Chioggia) next to my 'duck sump', which is the overflow from the duck bath which is on continuous drip from a hose, flushed out once a day.

I was amazed by how well they did, climbing several metres into neighbouring rose and plumb trees, producing several very large fruits each. Previously squashes have done very poorly, and I'd rather given up on growing them.

This year I've extended the area that the water flows to, to irrigate and fertilise a larger number of squashes. So far they've taken off very well, and are looking healthier than in previous years, in different beds. Time will tell if this experiment will be a productive one.

Varieties grown this year: Winter Festival F1, Jack be Little, the intriguingly-named Pumpkin SC4-15 F1, Avalon A1 (butternut type) and one Jack o' Lantern pumpkin. It's possible there's the odd other variety, as I hang on to packets for years, and usually have a couple of ancient packets left.

Blackcurrant: Ben Sarek

My favourite blackcurrant, Ben Sarek. Compact, dwarf growth with enormous black berries, sweet and juicy enough to eat raw. I bought the first four bushes when I was 15, and grew them in pots. 28 years on, I still have the original bushes, plus a number I have taken as cuttings. Until this year, none has ever shown any sign of any pest or disease, and has always cropped copiously. This year, we had a very bad attack of aphids, which has reduced the amount of foliage on some of the bushes, and spoiled a small portion of the crop. I'm not sure if this is related to the age of the bushes, the pattern of attack was rather random. I'll removed as much of the old wood as possible once the bushes have cropped and see whether this makes any difference next year. 

The Tomato Tardis: Growmate greenhouse

My 'growmate' greenhouse which was christened 'The Tomato Tardis' by some friends. Bought very cheaply on eBay, it slots into a very narrow space, and allows access to the surrounding fruit cordons. We suffer very badly from tomato blight here, so it's impossible to get a crop in the open, but this arrangement theoretically allows the plants to grow directly into the soil, minimising the need for watering.

Last year wasn't a great success, as the first varieties I grew were my favourite tall cordons Tigerella and Andine Cornue. Being very leggy, cordon types, little fruit is produced on the low trusses, and there wasn't enough room at the narrow end of the pyramid. This year I'm growing determinate, bush cultivars ( Beefsteak, Pricipe Borghese) which will hopefully do better. Once I'm sure they are well-rooted, I'll close the opening but open the top to allow ventilation. Whether this will be access enough to keep out Tomato moth remains to be seen; this pest ruined the few tomatos we had last year.

Beetroot: sowings

We eat a lot of beetroot so I've dedicated a whole bed to it, with sowings at 2-3 week intervals beginning in early March which will hopefully provide a succession of roots which will keep us in beet until the early spring of next year.

Interestingly, the sowings made in April have caught up with those made in March, and all are now bulking up at more or less the same time (all the same cultivar, Red Ace). I sowed some in 'the Tardis' greenhouse in early March. The ones that survived lack of watering in there matured no earlier than those sown in the open ground. Next year I will try sowing under glass much earlier, as it would be nice to have beetroot a little earlier.

The latest rows are Boro, and an ancient packet of Forono, expiry date 2003 which germinated with unexpected vigour!

Beetroot: Red Ace F1

I used to grow mostly Boltardy, which I bought in bulk quantities as it is cheap and very reliable (plus a couple of rows of the cylindrical variety Forono for winter use) but this year I've decided to trial other varieties and see if the quality is better.

I've planted mostly Red Ace F1 at fortnightly successions starting in March, and pulled the first baby beet a couple of weeks ago. T&M describe it as having 'high quality roots with a dark red colour'. Taste is good; growth and germination were good too. It's supposed to be drought tolerant, so it will be interesting to see how later sowings get on. 

The other variety I'm trying for the first time is Boro (F1) (which looked like a monogerm when it appeared though not described as such).