Tasty fruit and veg at home
As we will be at home a little more over the next few weeks, it may be time to start looking at growing our own fruit and veg. Gardening is a great activity for our mental health. This is the perfect time to get out and garden, there is plenty to do around the garden from garden maintenance to planting seeds and summer flowering bulbs.
It is also a great time to plant fruit trees and berry bushes. Growing fruit is always fun and rewarding. You will be reducing air miles to zero and you know exactly what is being sprayed on the fruit you eat. Nothing tastes as sweet as fruit you have grown yourself.
For a great crop ensure you plant the trees correctly at the start. Always dig a large hole at least three feet cubed. Fill will good compost, add some slow release feed. I love to add some seaweed feed also. Stake your tree well and ensure it is watered well for the first year. Keep your tree fruiting by feeding each year and prune it. The best time to prune is when the tree is shedding its leaves. With most apple trees you need two to pollinate each other.
Looking for an easy and fairly reliable apple tree for the garden? Topaz may be just the one you need. This tasty yellow, red-blushed apple is also valued for its disease resistance. Topaz apples are crispy, medium to large apples with a distinctive, sweet-tart flavour. They are usually eaten fresh or in fruit salads, but they can also be used for cooking or baking. Growing Topaz apples isn’t difficult, and the trees tend to be resistant to most apple diseases. Topaz apple harvest occurs late in the season, usually from mid-October to November.
This is a juicy, sweet smelling apple with firm flesh and a tart but sweet flavour. The Elstar apple tree is a compact grower. Rather versatile, this apple makes great apple sauce, terrific apple tart or can be eaten freshly picked. Everyone wants this apple in the garden!
Blueberries are so simple to grow and so good to eat. These berries are absolutely delicious whether eaten fresh or cooked. They grow to approximately one metre high, or a little lower if grown in containers. The best soil to grow the plants in is a lime free compost, with some slow release tablets added.
Always plant your blueberry in ericaceous compost. This is really the only requirement. It is such a hardy plant that it will survive whatever our weather throws at it.
I suggest that you plant the blueberry plants near your house so you can easily pop out for a few blueberries for your breakfast.
To ensure you have a great crop, you must invite the bees and pollinators into your garden by planting a bee friendly plants such as lavender and geranium rozanne. Here at Griffins we have an extensive range of bee friendly plants and shrubs for you to choose from.
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