Early Harvests
Aug
28
Written by:
28/08/2010 07:04
One of my childhood abiding memories was being put in the front loading bucket of the old tractor and lifted up into the canopy of a tree in the garden to pick apples from one of the trees. I am sure that child services may have had second thoughts about the misuse of child labour and health and safety may have wanted to be involved due to lack of risk assessment but no one was ever hurt and certainly it was all part of a wonderful experience.
Whilst much has changed over the years the tree has survived and although the harvest has reduced over the year the tree stood strong. We had been forced to remove some of the limbs due to ingress of rot but there still remained a few branches with leaves although lichen and moss had begun to overtake the tree. Regrettably however this year the moss has won and the tree barely produce a leaf never mind blossom and definitely no apples so we have started to remove it from its spot.
Even with half of the tree down the amount of new direct light into the garden is apparent and now we realize how much the moss was stopping the garden from growing. Hopefully not only have we put the tree out of its misery and removed a possible danger for passing walkers but we have also allowed the tomatoes in the greenhouse a bit more of a chance to ripen before autumn sets in. Now we simply have to complete the task, at least it removes one source of leaves in October and then maybe we will have some interesting chips to use in the smoker for apple smoked salmon?