Longer Days, More Work, More Fun

It's so lovely how the lengthening days mean we have more flexibility about working at the plot. I am definitely not a morning person- I fear my aim to get down to the site at dawn will never be realised! So it's great not to have to rush down after lunch to get an hour or so in before dark. Yesterday we got there soon after 2pm and stayed til 5pm- we could have squeezed an extra 30 minutes out of it, but 3 hours was enough. As we left I took these snaps, at the site and in our road on the way home.

 

 

 

What's more the changing seasons and the continuing weeding  and clearing has revealed another discovery: a mini clump of gooseberries! So happy to see them, but they will need moving: there is about 3 inches between them, and they need far more space than that.  They may also need shifting to be with other fruit bushes that require netting.

 

 

L also brought down the height of the apple and pear trees- they are far too tall to reach the tops by a sensible ladder when we pick the fruit, and the trees on the allotment are supposed to be no taller than 6 foot anyway. They are still taller than that but all the advice points to reducing the size over several years. What did both trees a lot of good was to radically prune the rambling rose which was a woody old bushy tangle right in the middle of the apple. The apple is now airy and decongested, and the rose will regenerate strongly I think, but now trained over the arch.  We wait to cut back the two cherries until the summer. I understand they are liable to fungal infection if we do it now. No photos do justice to the amount that was cut back or clearly show what we achieved- but maybe a picture now can be compared to when the leaves come out in a month or so.