The Fruit trees - Part 11 of our garden makeover

Garden transformation Part 11 – The Fruit Trees

Buying a property with a 160ft long south facing boundary, it was just asking for a wall to be built and fruit planted along it. Luckily I am a self-taught amateur bricky, married to an excellent labourer.

We started building the ‘great wall’ as it’s become jokingly known, in May 2014 and it wasn’t completed until October 2016 – other priorities in our new garden, bad backs and appendicitis got in the way!

Who wants to climb a ladder to pick an Apple?

I love the idea of an orchard, it sounds so idyllic, but it’s only really an option if you have plenty of space. And quite honestly, who wants to be climbing ladders to retrieve their fruit? I worry about Monty every year going up those very high ladders.

As we were going to have a nice long wall, I intended to plant fan and espalier trained trees along it. We already had a fan trained cherry, we’d brought with us. These would be so easy to pick – no ladder required!

As I was looking to buy fruit trees, I came across cordons – single stemmed trees grown at a 45 degree angle. I was immediately taken with them, as it meant we could have several varieties, in the space of just a couple of espaliers.

Rachel de Thame planted some in her own garden, last year on Gardeners World.

They now graft fruit trees onto ever smaller rootstocks, meaning anyone can find room to grow a little fruit. You can grow the very attractive little step over trees, or even grow some in a container.

December 2015 – Planting in the dark

During 2015 we finished the first two sections of the wall. As this is where the apples and pears were going to be grown, we thought it would be a good idea to get them planted as soon as possible.

We ordered bare rooted cordon trees from Ashridge Nurseries. The trees have to be completely dormant before they can be lifted, and as we had a particularly mild autumn that year, they didn’t arrive until December.

They arrived mid-week, so that evening after work we got the trusty flood light out, and planted them in the dark. It is best to plant bare rooted plants quickly, but if I’m honest, I was too excited and just couldn’t wait until the weekend!

Wire rope supports

When it came to attaching the wire rope to the wall, to support the trees. My husband was ‘allowed’ to research and order them, as he does know a lot more about that sort of thing! He chose stainless steel, which is much more expensive but in a phrase I’ve heard my mother say many times “it should see us out” – gosh I must be getting older.

We got them from a company called S3i Group. It’s incredible all the choices of clips, anchor bolts, tensioners etc. I’m glad I wasn’t sorting that bit out.

I’ve been surprised how many friends have noticed and commented on the wires. But then you do see a lot of wires that have stretched and sagged. We are really pleased with them. So much so, that when we noticed some of the bamboo cane supports starting to get brittle and break in 2019, we decided to replace them with stainless steel rods. Again my mum’s words were in my head!

Fruit trees – Starting nearest to the house:

Quince – variety unknown
Plum – ‘Victoria’
Cherry – ‘Stella’
Apple – ‘Sunset’
Apple – ‘Winter Gem’
Apple – ‘Christmas Pippin’
Pear – ‘Louise Bonne of Jersey’
Pear – ‘Beth’
Apple – ‘Discovery’
Fig – ‘Brunswick’

The Quince

Originally it was planted between the two pears and the fig. I thought I could train it into a cordon but it just wasn’t suitable. So out it came and I’m now attempting to grow it as a standard, only time will tell how successful this will be, but we did have two quinces last year.

Someone once gave me a quince and said, “make an apple pie and add this one quince”. We did and it was divine. So we don’t need too many, but it would be nice to have a few apple pies and maybe a little quince jelly.

The plum

This was the last tree to go in, planted in spring 2017. I wasn’t sure whether to plant edibles or ornamentals in this little border. I decided on both.

We chose a ‘Victoria plum’ with no hesitation, as it’s simply the best tasting plum you can get! (In my opinion).

We obviously have to protect the plum and Cherry from the birds, so we constructed a cage. We just roll the netting up once all the fruit is picked.

Unfortunately it died last year, we’re not sure why, but suspect lack of water. We are about to risk replacing it with another, as it’s so delicious. We will obviously be checking the roots for any clues, when we dig it up.

The cherry

We picked ‘Stella’ it’s a deliciously dark sweet desert cherry. We kept it in a pot for quite a few years, knowing we were intending to move. It then spent a few more years in its pot, waiting for the wall to be finished. Each year it performed less well, with less and less fruit. But since going into the ground in 2016, it has had a new lease of life. The bounty increases each year. It is fan trained.

The Apples

When it came to picking apple varieties, we both like the good old cox, but it has a reputation for being a bit tricky to grow. With this in mind we looked for similar tasting varieties, we ended up with ‘Sunset’, ‘Winter Gem’, ‘Christmas Pippin’ and after the two pears, we replaced the unruly quince with another apple ‘Discovery’.

‘Sunset’ is a cultivar derived from ‘Cox’s Orange Pippin’ so has all the delicious cox flavour. It’s a goldy yellow colour with some red stripes. It ripens September time and it’s self fertile which is unusual for an apple so ideal if you only have room for one.

‘Winter Gem’ is a relatively new variety introduced in the 90’s and again a cox derivative. It’s a green apple with a lot of red so it looks beautiful on the tree, but best of all is its divine flavour, it’s so complex. You pick it late October but we’ve picked it well into November.

‘Winter Gem’ on the left & ‘Christmas Pippin’ on the right

‘Christmas Pippin’ is a very new apple introduced in 2011. As the name suggests it’s another cox’s orange pippin derivative. Again it’s green with a lot of red. Its super sweet flavours of honey, are totally delicious. It ripens mid-October and stores well.

‘Discovery’ probably the most common apple tree for home growers, it has gorgeous strawberry flavours but they don’t last, so no good for shops. It’s not one for storing, but as it’s your first apples of the year, ripening in August you are going to want to eat them immediately! It’s our only apple not derived from the cox.

The Pears

There was only one casualty of the garden remake that we felt bad about removing, it was a gnarly old conference pear tree. It looked incapable of producing anything but it managed a surprising amount of delicious juicy fruits. Unfortunately it was right on the Great Wall boundary so there was no option, it had to go.

When it came to picking new pear trees, we decided to go with dessert pears and we haven’t regretted it. We chose two varieties that ripen at different times, helping to ease the problem of them ripening altogether. Unfortunately pears don’t store, so we just enjoy the glut. On really good years we make pear desserts to freeze, and of course enjoy poached pears!

‘Louise Bonne of Jersey’ an old French variety that tastes exactly like a pear should. It has no grittiness, it’s so smooth and the juice runs right down your chin, utterly delicious. The fruits beautiful red colour look fabulous in the bowl while you wait for them to ripen. They also have particularly pretty blossom in the spring.

Pear blossom on ‘Louise bonne of Jersey’

‘Beth’ golden pears that ripen early. Late August to early September. They are super sweet and melt in the mouth. Self-fertile and beautiful blossom in the spring. They can be cooked, but rarely hang around long enough.

The Fig tree

The decision to grow a fig was made because of good timing. Just as we were deciding what fruit to plant along the wall. I visited a client’s house as they were in the middle of a bumper fig harvest. She had family around, and was handing out toasted bruschetta with goat’s cheese, slices of fresh fig, and balsamic glaze drizzled over them. They were delicious and this sealed the place of a fig on the wall.

Around this time I bought James Wong’s book ‘Grow for flavour’, which as the name suggests is all about growing food, with the maximum flavour. It’s mainly about picking the correct varieties to grow – mainly not the varieties found in supermarkets. But also about the growing conditions, site, soil and feeding.

Luckily there was a section on figs and we took his advise.

Most people in the UK seem to grow ‘Brown Turkey’ as it was thought to be the best one for hardiness in our climate. James recommends five varieties that are thought to be able to cope with British weather, and have excellent flavour:

‘Rouge de Bordeaux’
‘Brunswick’
‘Osborn’s Prolific’
‘Excel’
‘White Marseilles’

We chose ‘Brunswick’ and we haven’t been disappointed.

As a fig wants to grow into a rather large tree, you have to restrict its roots, this involves building a ‘fig pit’. We (my husband) dug a very large hole against the wall, then using 3 paving slabs on their end made a box to plant into.

The idea is, that once the fig realises it is confined it will produce more fruit. This has definitely worked and the fig crop increases each year.

I am attempting to grow the fig as an espalier, but it would definitely still rather be a large tree heading for the sky. At the moment it is trying to escape down the side of the greenhouse. Only time will tell who wins!