Orto di Casa Cecconi – Page 3 – My first allotment, and then one thing leading to another…

Wednesday, 22 April 2015

Coppicing and Coppice Crafts

That is the title of a book I borrowed from the library to learn a bit more about coppicing, as back in February I joined my colleague on a trip to the RHS coppice in Wisley village to cut some hazel for sticks, and fell in love with the magic of the place, albeit slightly derelict as it is has not been actively managed for a while.

The hazel coppice in Wisley village

Candlesnuff fungus (Xylaria hypoxylon) on rotting stump

We cut just a few sticks, that were of the right size for our purpose of supporting sunflowers: 3 m long rods that were not too thick at the base. But what is the best way to coppice a stool? Some of the stools were cut higher than others, part of the stumps had died back and were rotting: how high does one cut a stool?

Marbling effect in rotting stump

I came away from the coppice with a lot of questions, and wishing I onwed a piece of woodland, I thought back once again with longing at all the ones that I always see up for sale in Devon, on my way to an holiday.

The book tells me that hazel coppices are usually managed in a 6-9 years rotation. In the UK, they are usually part of a coppice with standards silvicultural system, which means that the short-rotation coppice is interspersed with longer lived standard trees, that make up about 20-30% of the canopy, and are coppiced in turn on a longer rotation.

I also read that the most productive hazel coppices have a stool density of 1000/ha that is a 3 m x 3 m spacing.
I observed when I was on site that good spacing is essential for dragging the wood out the coppice, but apparently closer trees grow straighter rods as they compete for the light. And, in any case, coppicing should be done by area (or “coupe”, that should be no less that 50 sqm according to the authors) rather than picking the odd rod here and there, because the cycle of shading of the ground (at canopy closure, to get rid of all undergrowth and make for a safer working environment) and light (to stimulate growth in the coppiced stools) are all important for the coppice health and ecosystem, with all the attendant biodiversity.

The rods we gathered, graded and bundled

Although historically coppicing has been done at different heights, a convincing explanation of which was not found by the authors (I was once told it was to protect the new shoots from rabbits and other grazing animals), cutting right down to the ground is the best practice, some say with a slant from the centre of the stool outwards.

Hazel is usually coppiced for clear rods, but here at Wisley they also coppice birch as a sustainable
alternative to bamboo canes (which are imported all the way from China), which can be woven into rather decorative plant supports. Birch coppices for sticks are shorter lived than hazel, as, at 20 or so, mature birch develops a droopy habit. Birch cycle is similar to hazel though, at 7-9 years.

While I’ve not seen the birch coppice myself, I did order two bundles of birch to support sweetpeas and Apios americana in the Cottage Garden, but had never woven it together. Therefore, I was delighted to be given the opportunity to develop the skill, when I was asked to come up with a suitable design (and implementation) of broad bean support for the vegetable garden.

Support no 1

I drew inspiration from a structure that had been in the Cottage Garden last year, to support raspberry canes, and between myself and Mario we came up with an structure that would be functional. It took me a whole morning to build the first one, but Mario was satisfied and I was rather proud.

Support no 2

One week later, it took me slightly less, at 3 hours, to build the second one.

Made braver by the pleasant results, I have now started making a tepee for my Apios in the Cottage Garden too.

It is a rather satisfying job, with a very tangible outcome!
Tuesday, 21 April 2015

It’s because of the dry spell!

Today I’ve been pruning Prunus (plums and cherries) for the first time since I’ve been here.

To be precise, Prunus avium, or cherry trees, and P. domestica, the plums.

To be even more precise, the plants I’m referring to here are P. avium ‘Sunburst’, P. domestica ‘Opal’ and ‘Blue Tit’ ; and this last was flowering beautifully.

You don’t normally prune Prunus when it’s actually flowering, no – you either do it before or after, and that is generally for light formative pruning. That’s what I had to confirm to the dozens of visitors that rightfully wondered what I was up to!

Branch removed as oozing gum is one sign of bacterial canker

But this is indeed a good time of the year for pruning plums and cherries. And the fact we have been having a dry spell makes it a particularly valuable time for pruning, because Prunus are prone to fungal diseases such as silverleaf (Chondrostereum purpureum) and bacterial cankers (Pseudomonas syringae), which are promoted by humidity.

The best time for pruning Prunus, would be indeed a good August, a dry one, that is. But, as always in gardening, there is the best practice, and there are very real constraints, that require compromising for the second best: for example August is one of the busiest time of the year in a veg and fruit garden, while early April may be quieter, so one may actually get down to do what should be done for the health and productivity of the plant.

Our fruit specialist teaching with P. avium

So, after some training by our specialist, I started on the Cottage Garden trees that needed a haircut, mostly a quick one, to give a pyramid shape and keep the height in check, so that cherries can be covered, for example (as that’s the only way to save the fruits from birds) and picking is easier.

The principles being that you take big chunks, cutting back to a suitable branch (I was told in cherries you can sometimes leave stumps, much in the way of a Dutch cut but longer, to stimulate new growth): you cut back any new stems that are too long to 30 cm if they are leaders and some 20 cm if laterals. Keeping in as much flowers as possible is useful. Taking out any dead and diseased material to start with.

Acid cherries (P. cerasus) are slightly different in their growing habit, as they flower better on one year old wood, which (if left unmanaged for more than one year) causes long stems with flowers only at the top, that need replacement pruning to try and keep the shape compact.

But I did spend quite a while thinning out and taking some height out of the ‘Blue Tit’ tree, hence the opportunity for so many visitors to spot me on the ladder.

I am pretty satisfied with the result, there is a lot more air going through the plant, which should help with fungal diseases too. There are still a lot of flowers on, and the shape is pleasant from all sides.

Plum ‘Blue Tit’ before Plum ‘Blue Tit’ after

It seems a pity to throw away beautiful cherry blossom, the visitors pointed that out, but we did not waste it: we put the flowers in vases in the messroom to cheer us up, and I got some spare for the student accomodation too.

To prove it, here’s me, once I got there, posing as “cherry blossom girl”, in a picture I sent as a joke to my husband, as he likes a song by that name… he may have enjoyed the flowers a little bit too! ;p
Monday, 20 April 2015

Indoors trained vines – part 2: spring
… go to part part 1: winter

Buds breaking on a spur

As I was saying, now that’s spring, I have spent a couple of days training the new shoots, born out of the embryonic buds, to the wires that will help bear the weight of their large and perfect-looking grapes.

How can I impress into the minds of my readers the amount of grace needed to carry out this task? I have been rather terrified myself, but my colleague is in charge of the vines loves this task, and she is very graceful indeed.

Shoot training is a morning task. Because in the afternoon the shoots are more prone to snapping.

Chosen shoot and reserves

One of the shoots that have grown on the spurs is chosen
for training. Generally, it’s the vigorous one that is already pointing in the direction it has to grow, parallel to a wire. But sometimes you cannot find one, as they are all growing vertically upwards, for example.

There is a perfect stage for this shoot to be tied to the wire, and that’ s when the stem has toughened up a little and does not bend readily under the touch. You then take a narrow strip of wet rafia and tie it, with a figure of eight tie, trying to nudge it towards a horizontal position.

Shoot training is every morning’s task. In fact, next morning you come in and check your ties? Has any shoot snapped? If not, you encourage it a little bit further towards the horizontal wire. If they have snapped, and likely wilted, you mourn a little while, then you move on to choose another shoot to train. That is why no shoot that have grown on the spur are removed at this stage. Also, some of them may develop into a nice replacement spur, if they grow closer to the rod and in the right direction.

Grapes grow fast, and at all different speeds. When I did this job 10 days ago, there was only one vine that had sufficiently developed shoots for tying: grape ‘Nero’. Today, they were all more or less out, with ‘Nero’ almost having reached the end of its allotted space, halfway towards the next vine, or about 60 cm.

Vitis ‘Nero’ on 9th April Vitis ‘Nero’ on 20th April

V. ‘Lady Downe’s Seedling’

They all have a different way of growing, with some putting out solitary minute glabrous inflorescences on slender peduncles and others, like ‘Lady Downe’s Seedling’, pushing large, bunched downy panicles through.

V. ‘Sultana’: bleeding of snapped shoot

Others are terribly prone to snapping, like grape ‘Sultana’.

Today, as the stage of development of the plants is further ahead, besides tying in new suitable shoots and nudging forward already tied ones, we were going to:

Leaf axil: sublateral forming
- snip off any developing sublaterals from the leaf axils
- snip off any tendrils (as they have a habit to attach in inconvenient places)
Two inflorescences and tendrils

One inflorescence and both tendrils removed

Two observations from today: one struck me for its beauty, and that is the guttation on grapevines, on young stems and the underside of leaves, and even where a shoot snapped, some bleeding, like a chrystal tear drop.

Snapped shoot with bleeding Guttation

Guttation

The other one is not very pleasant, as the scales are out in force despite the peeling. I squashed them, but the vines might undergo spraying soon.

Brown scale (Parthenolecanium corni)

Note: the University of California has a leaflet with plenty of pictures for identification of scale insects.
Friday, 10 April 2015

One day in charge of the Model Fruit Garden
The team leader was away today, so I was left in charge of the whole of the Model Fruit Garden, with a long to-do list to keep me busy:
- pot up, in clay pot, a new pear tree (find pot and compost)
- water the trees pots and the strawberries in the polytunnel
- take the bracken off the fig
- dig out two dead gooseberries
- shop for strawberries and a new gooseberry in the garden centre (to prop reception)
- hand-pollinate the peach
- remove all the raspberry suckers beyond the rasperries’ allotted space
- fertilise the raspberries and blackcurrant (35 g/sqm or both sulphate of ammonia and of potash)
- weed to my heart’s content
- pick the forced rhubarb
At the end of another sunny and rather warm day, I was happy to have ticked off most of my list – I had almost done removing the rasperry suckers, weeding the areas I was working on as I went along, so the only task that remains to do is to fertilise once the suckers are all removed.

After we dressed the fig (‘Brown Turkey’) at the end of November, it was good to have the opportunity to take it out of its winter shelter, weed around it, and leave it in all its beauty for the visitors to see. I also found a frog in the process, hiding in the bracken at the feet of the tree.

Fig: before

Fig: after

I had never hand pollinated a tree. It is usually done for one of two reasons: breeding purposes (so as to control the parents of plants) or for lack of suitable pollinators
– for a variety of reasons, for example artificial growing conditions,
including under-cover crops (as is the case of our peach, protected from rain by a wood and polythene frame) or even in case of decline of natural pollinators compromising crops (as is happening in apple and pear orchards in China).

Hand pollinating peach flowers

Armed with a rabbit’s tail on a stick (the source of some bemusement, even amusement, in passing visitors), I removed the frames and proceeded transferring pollen from one flower to the other.

The procedure has to take place on a warm, sunny day, and it was done before today: in fact, the flowers were mostly at petal fall stage, but we wanted to be sure that we got all the flower we possibly could. It is a laborious task!

The frames then went back on: they’ll stay until May.

Taking back the raspberries

I did finish the day digging out those pesky raspberry suckers, running away from supporting poles and wires. There is some left for me next week, but I could not go home before picking the forced rhubarb, as it is supposed to go into a cheesecake for the team, that I’m baking at the weekend!

This was another first for me: I have never forced rhubarb, mainly because those terracotta pots they use are rather gorgeous to look at, but awfully expensive.

So I removed the lid (it had been pushed up by the long stems!) and then the pot with some excitement: forced rhubarb is considered such a delicacy.

Forced rhubarb

I then understood why they say that forcing rhubarb kills the plant, and (as you can see in the picture above), we never force more than half a plant here at Wisley. Or divide one in half first, then force only one of the two.

The stems were beautiful, but very delicate – as you would expect of etiolated plants. When you tried to pull them away at the base, they either broke or ripped away the whole of the bud, which was really slimy and soft, as if on the point of rotting.

Some of the leaves were also starting to rot at the top: the enclosed environment is not ideal, you should not leave anything too long in such conditions.

Depending on the variety and the situation, in fact, forcing takes 5 to 10 weeks. This pot had probably been on just too long – but nothing that will spoil our enjoyment of the cheesecake!

By the way, I was told a plastic pot, surrounded by straw to keep the temperature more even inside would do just fine, although I suppose it would put it at bigger risk of rotting, because plastic is less porous than clay, so keep a closer eye if you do try.
Thursday, 9 April 2015

Indoors trained vines – part 1: winter

After tending to Vitis ‘Muscat of Alexadria’ as one of the first things when I arrived back in September, I have spent more time in the greenhouse, tending to the very demanding crops that indoors vines are.

After all grapes are picked, the greenhouse’s vents were opened, so the chill coming in stimulates leaf drop and the plants go into dormancy.

In December, it was time for pruning, and we got some training.

Our vines are grown with the “cordon rod and spurs” systems, which means that plants are planted 1-1.2 m apart, and trained as a cordon (only one main stem) tied to a frame; a fixed number of spurs (aligned with the wires) produce laterals that are then trained and tended meticolously to produce one, perfect-looking grape per branch.

Pruned cordon

In December, the spurs are cut back to one lateral per spur, 2 buds per lateral: the objective is to keep the spurs short, so every so often old spurs are replaced with new ones, where a suitable branch had been allowed to develop over the year, but only if the wood is well ripened – you always have to choose just one lateral.

Cordon getting untied

After that, the vines are untied from the frame, because buds break more evenly in the spring if they are not. Untying is also useful because winter is the time for bark scraping.

A rather serene image of the vines in January

Bark scraping, or peeling of the bark, is something I spent a couple of rainy days in January and February doing, as it is the perfect task to keep one busy in such weather conditions! With the help of a (preferably not too sharp) knife, one peels the flaky bark of the vine off (it mostly comes away in long strips), so that pests cannot take residence that easily, and any that have are exposed and can be sprayed with a soap-based winter wash. Over the winter, the straw that is covering the soil, with a layer of compost, is also scraped away, removing some of the patogens it might host.

Demonstration of bark scraping

The job is quite delicate, and time consuming as you have to remove only the bark, one strip at a time, never exposing the green phloem layer. Around the spurs, then, it gets even more delicate, as you have to make sure you don’t accidentally knock the embryonic buds that are waiting to grow under the bark (in the pictures below, they are the apparently dried, fluffy, white tips sticking out)
.

Main stem: before… … and after scraping

Spur: before… … and after scraping (note the bud initials)

Tying of the rod demostration

Because some of the cordons are rather heavy, and in any case to take the weight off and avoiding swinging and snapping, the rods are then tied loosely.

When they start to break bud, the rods are then tied close to the frame once again, and the new shoots are trained along the wires, which takes me neatly to the job I’ve been doing today: training of the new shoots.

Read on…
Tuesday, 7 April 2015

Direct sowing in the Cottage Garden

Daffodils and crocuses (rhubarb at the back)

I had not been in the Cottage Garden for over a month (time does fly!), and the last time I was there it was mainly about tidying up: picking leaves, cutting back herbaceous perennials’ stems, mulching.

I did keep an eye on it since, though, and albeit the ground is still rather bare, crocuses and daffodils have been putting up a nice show.

In particular, I have been monitoring the combination of rhubarb and daffodils, which has turned out rather satisfactory so far.

But today it was with a bit of anxiety that I started direct sowing in my area.

But let’s start from the beginning.

First thing this morning, I went into prop to check whether any of the plants they are growing for me was ready. Fritillaria persica ‘ Ivory Bells’, a treat I invested in last year, is about to flower. It’s gone into a polytunnel for hardening off a week or so. The next plants to come out, by the look of it, are going to be Malva silvestris and the chamomile lawn.

Rubus illecebrosus

In the area itself, there was still some tidying up to do, for example, Rubus illecebrosus, aka strawberry raspberry, has been sending out new growth for a while, so it was time to clear the old stems, and where raspberries were previosly planted, some roots left in the ground sent out suckers that had to be removed to the source.

And there is an invasion of Nothoscordum borbonicum, which I’m trying to eradicate by digging the tiny tuberlets out one by one.

Also, very much in my style, but made braver by my Great Dixter visit last month, I intensified my “selective weeding” and the reuse of self-seeders in the cottage garden. After all, I think it is very much in the spirit of a cottage garden to make use of those plants that show an inclination to grow of their own accord.

So I got the inspiration for a suitably ornamental use of all of the seedlings of Welsh poppy (Meconopsis cambrica), in the “yellows and reds” area by the East entrance, where I also planted red hot poker (preexisting), Aquilegia ‘Fire Cracker’ (preexisting) and Asphodeline lutea, with Jerusalem artichokes (Helianthus tuberosus) as the backdrop – we’ll see how that turns out.

Veronica as ground cover

I also had a go at creating a Veronica ground cover under the elders, where the soil was rather bare, waiting for some Viola and Primula grown from seeds, that have been fussy germinators. If it gets to flower together, it should be a lovely sight. Veronica spp. are by no means less gorgeous than cultivated varieties. Does it look like a weed in the picture?

And then it was the time for the direct sowing. I am slightly nervous that they might not germinate and grow well, my plants. If it happens at home it is no big deal, but here it’s a display garden, and it is the first time I grow from seed for display – I’m much more comfortable with shrubs and pruning!

But anyway, it was time I tackled the potager.

My buddying hedge of Lonicera nitida has been doing fine, has been filling up with new growth despite being bothered all winter by some pest (rabbits?) who have been nibbling at it, severing stems at the base. I wander what they find attractive in such tiny stems.

Lonicera: a severed stem

Lonicera: new growth

Beetroot: sown

The areas separated by the hedge need filling now, and with a 4 year rotation, sowing for the spring was planned as: spring onions, beetroot, chicory and Phacelia tanacetifolia (not very many Solanaceae or Cucurbitaceae ready to plant out now).

The chicory is being grown for me, but I did sow the Phacelia (scattered) and the beetroot (in drills, 2.5 cm deep of finely prepared soil, watered in advance, some 3 cm from each other and with 30 cm between the rows). I still hae to do the spring onion as I ran out of time.

Finger crossed now…
Wednesday, 1 April 2015

The orchard tree lifecycle, reversed

I started the day today by winching out an apple tree stump, and finished it by planting a perry pear.

Not in the same spot: planting similar trees in succession is not ideal, as they may suffer from what is known as “replant disease“, althought sometimes one does not have a choice in orchards. That apple tree will likely be replaced with another one of the same cultivar, as the collection at RHS Garden Wisley groups two trees of every cultivar together.

Stump hooked

We used a tractor and chain to pull out the tree, which had been previously sawed to a 50-60 cm stump. Reversing into the tree from one of the lanes, we wrapped the chain around the stump, fixing it with the hook.

Gears set on the lowest

Then, with the tractor ticking over (no hand throttle), in minimum gear (tortoise, low, 1 in our case) and just working the clutch (no accelerator) to avoid digging into the ground, we slowly pulled the stump out.

Stump out

To complete the job, we then dug the area clean of any roots that had remained in the soil.

It was a nice job (if we do not consider the poor tree), as I got to use the tractor, which is not something that happens very often here, and you know how much I enjoy it!

More driving of tractors took place in the afternoon when we shifted some compost to the planting area, then dug a pit and planted the first perry pear of the new perry orchard: a majestic tree, in excess of 3 meters tall already at 3 years old!

The first perry pear in the ground

The land had already been marked for the 9 new trees at 7 m each way between each other. We dug a pit, filled with some extra compost as the ground is very sandy here, planted and staked the tree, then mulched with more compost.

Watering arrangements

To make sure we water closer to the roots, because there will be no
irrigation in the perry orchard, we planted next to the tree a section
of pipe with holes throughout, 40 cm long by 10 wide, filled with
expanded clay aggregate.

Heeled in for tomorrow

We heeled in the remaining 8 trees, to be planted tomorrow: some have rather interesting names, like ‘Gin’ and ‘Green Horse’, ‘Hendre Huffcap’ and ‘Judge Amphlett’!