To Walter de Grasse

Dear Walter,

I hope that the early days of 2017 find you and Lise in good health! We’ve had some very cold and frosty weather here in the last few weeks. Coupled with my continuing problem with my hip/leg (which I’m pleased to say has more or less recovered in the last few days), this has meant very limited gardening activity this month.

In  Old School Garden, the only worthwhile job has been starting the pruning of the apple trees and one or two other specimens. As you can see from the picture below, I’ve done some fairly significant ‘formative’ pruning in the orchard, where the lower branches of some of the trees were starting to prove a real obstacle when cutting the grass; and hopefully by removing them this will also improve the yield (though last year’s crop wasn’t too bad).

Apart from this little bit of practical work, I’ve been in ‘planning ‘mode, especially thinking about the kitchen garden. As you know, I’ve become more and more concerned at the lack of fruit on the summer and to an extent autumn raspberries. I’ve concluded that I need to move the area devoted to these, as it must be many years that they’ve been here, and despite some replacement plants, the rows don’t look that healthy.

So, this could have knock on effects on the rest of the kitchen garden layout and I’m currently thinking through moving all of our soft fruit bushes onto the large raised bed to the north-east of the plot and using this as an opportunity to put in a permanent fruit cage that will be more comfortable to work in (the current one is a little on the short size) and will at the same time enable me to keep the raspberries protected more effectively.

Also, I think I might move the border trellis around to create more of an enclosed feel to the kitchen garden- this will open up some of the southern beds to more sunlight too, so no bad thing. Much of the woodwork will also need a good clean and repaint, so when you add to this my plans to replace my potting shed, it looks like this year’s major project is a refurbishment of the kitchen garden!

The moles are back…

orchard after first stage pruning

winter colour

Further afield I’ve continued to develop my involvement in ‘Green Care’ most notably with  ‘The Grow Organisation‘ in Norwich, but also recently visiting another project along these line near Fakenham called ‘The Nurture Project’; I’m increasingly aware of a number of these ‘therapeutic horticulture’ projects around Norfolk so am wondering if there would be some benefit in trying to encourage them to network and promote their joint cause with health organisations and others locally… we shall see.

Here’s a very interesting graphic taken from the Nurture Project’s website which captures the therapeutic value of various types of engagement with nature, including the ways in which gardening can help those with mental and other health issues.

My talk to the Lindfield Horticultural Society went off pretty well, I think, even though my talk extended well beyond the hour I’d been given..so much to say, so little time to say it…The  subject was ‘Heritage Gardening’ and about 80 people came along to a wonderful venue in the middle of this very attractive village, near Haywards Heath.

The other big news is our plan to visit Australia in June and July. We’ll have 6 weeks there, mainly focused on Melbourne where our daughter and her fiance live. Hopefully this trip will involve visits to some interesting gardens and parks…detailed planning is yet to be done but I’m starting to research things. Of course this will also have a bearing on what I plan for the garden this year; for example I’ve just gone for second early potatoes  (‘Charlotte’, safely placed in window cill trays for chitting).

So, for the next few weeks I think it will be a cautious return to some physical work in  the garden and at Blickling (where I haven’t been for several weeks other than to two very interesting talks about the Walled Garden and the wider estate), coupled with efforts to complete research on the Tree Trail (also at Blickling). I must also firm up those refurbishment plans for the kitchen garden….

 Old School Gardener

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