Autumn is a brilliant time for buying and planting bare-rooted fruit trees. It’s cheaper to buy them bare-rooted and gives the plant a good chance to settle in before growing season starts in the spring time.
Planting an apple or pear tree (or maybe both) makes for a classic British garden, especially when you get a glut of fruit and offer them around your neighbours, and you have to eat apple crumble every weekend.
In the springtime, both apple and pear trees have a really pretty white flower, which smells delicious.
There’s a huge selection of flavours and varieties of fruit, and size of trees. You could select a small container plant that fruits, but will stay in a pot. If you have a walled area, you could opt for an espalier tree, for full Victorian look.
Most people will want a medium sized tree, that will add shape and structure to their garden and will never get too large. Both apple and pear trees need other trees’ pollen to form fruits, but this usually isn’t an issue because they are such common garden trees.
If you want something slightly different and ornamental, I would recommend a crab apple tree, which benefits the local birds and insects more than yourself, and are very attractive.
All new trees need a bit of TLC for their first couple of years, which includes being watered during any dry periods, but after that, they are pretty hardy and perfectly happy to survive with minimal maintenance.
Top predators coming back to Europe
It’s fantastic news that wolves, brown bears and white-tailed eagles are among the top predators making a come back across Europe. The report, by Rewilding Europe, shows that legal protection, habitat restoration and reintroduction, has a huge impact on the whole eco-system.
Number of grey wolves have increased by 1800% across Europe, while there has been an increase of 445% in the number of white-tailed eagles, and the number of brown bears has increased by 44%.
The UK has recently seen the reintroduction of beavers at a number of sites, with really promising results on the overall eco-system.
This is a really fascinating report – you can read the full article here:
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/sep/27/wolves-and-brown-bears-among-wildlife-make-exciting-comeback-in-europe-aoe
What am I reading?
I found this article about timber structures at Westonbirt Arboretum really inspirational. This shelter, which was designed and made by UK practice Invisible Studio and a local community group, was made by oak felled at the site. The steam-bent timber has been created into a wavy shape to create an unusual design.
https://www.dezeen.com/2022/08/01/invisible-studio-timber-shelter-westonbirt-arboretum/
