We have finished potting on all of our heritage apple trees and with the recent dry spell we have to keep a close on them to ensure healthy growth over the coming months. Constant tending to our budded stock is also needed now, as well as keeping an eye out for any diseases on our mature trees in the orchards. Canker pruning will take place in June. Diseased wood on the trunk or on the main branches should be gouged from the wood using a spoon carving knife and cut back or gouged out until you see clean healthy wood. We are also trialing a new mulch, instead of mypex. This is a mix of willow, comfrey and bales of rushes we have cut, and we’ll let you know how successful this turns out to be.
In the gardens we are doing plenty of hoeing to keep the beds as weed free as possible. We have started to harvest our seed stocks already. Turnip was the first to be harvested this year but during the month of June cabbage, rocket, mustard leaf, lettuces and calendula will all be harvested. Due to the hot weather we have already harvested some cucumber seed. This is the earliest we have ever had a harvest from them.
We have sown out our carrots and will be covering with bio mesh to help protect them from the bothersome carrot fly. It’s still not too late to sow some swedes, broad beans, kales, winter cabbage and beetroot. To see what you can still sow in June click here
