Tree mendous !

Welcome back to Reads Allotment Retreat, our new diary blog for our allotment. There's been no activity on site for the last month, mainly due to an all "time consuming" new shift pattern at work, which we are still trying to get used to. There's still been plenty going on at home though, and the spuds are chitting away merrily. Mum visited last weekend, and went home with half a dozen seed pots to plant up at home. Wifey and I managed a brisk couple of hours on the plot today, and we managed to plant our 4 new fruit trees that up until now have been in the frost free greenhouse. After purchasing 4x1.2Metre stakes from a local timber company for a mere £4.14 incl vat, we set off for the plot. The first Tree planted was a Victoria Plum - a Wedding Gift from Huw & Jane. This variety is self fertile and does not therefore need a companion tree for pollination. (This is bottom left in the pic). The next one in was a Conference Pear. This variety is Partially self fertile, and as such I was glad to see fellow plot-holders in the immediate vicinity have also planted the same variety(bottom right in pic). This was followed by a Bramley Apple, which requires a pollinator tree(top left in pic), in this case we chose an Elstar Apple(top right in pic). All of these tree's; once established, could theoretically grow in height to 25', so pruning will be essential to keep them at a manageable height.
Prior to planting the trees, i checked on the RHS site for advice on staking. There's not much you won't find on the RHS website, it's well worth a look when you have a few moments!

The latter 3 trees were purchased from Aldi, at the price of £4.18 each. I found this to be too much of a bargain to miss, and It'll be a long time I guess till I next see fruit trees at that price. The labelling on the individual packaging reads:

1. Conference Pear: Partly self fertile. Height is dependant on variety and pruning, and can vary from 6' to 30'. Picking time is Late September. Thrives in heavy soil. Yippee !A superb dessert pear of medium fruit. Juicy firm flesh. Easy to grow.
   
2. Bramley Apple: Requires Pollinator (Granny Smith, Elstar, Cox's Orange). Height is dependant on variety and pruning, and can vary from 6' to 25'. Picking time is October. Thrives in a sunny, well drained site. A heavy cropper of extra large fruit. Excellent flavour. The most popular culinary variety of vigorous habit. Keeps well.
3. Elstar Apple: Pollinator for Bramley Apple. Height is dependant on variety and pruning, and can vary from 5' to 25'. Picking time is October. Thrives in a sunny, well drained site. A medium dessert apple, which stores well. It is juicy and has outstanding flavour. A heavy cropper.

Plenty of information there to keep me going. I guess now we'll have to read up on pruning techniques!

There's sure to be loads more updates soon, and we look forward to your next visit.

Till then, enjoy your gardens.

TTFN