Hi everyone,

This is my first post on the forum and I'd like to tell you about my wonderful apple tree that I grew by mistake and hopefully gain some advice on how to look after it.

How the accident happened
Back in 1999 I met my partner and in our first year of living together we decided to explore the world of camping. On our first weekend camping we arrived at the campsite after sundown, unpacked our (brand new) tent and attempted to erect it for the first time in the flood of our car headlights. It was hilarious.
The following weekend we practiced putting up the tent in our garden so that should we ever arrive at a campsite after dark again we would know exactly what to do.
After successfully erecting the tent 3 times we left it up over the weekend and "camped" in the garden. LOL. Anyway, my partner loves fruit but is very messy with the cores etc. and so I threw the apple cores out of the tent and into the borders of our garden so that the birds would clen his mess.

A new hedge
Within a couple of years I began noticing that our hedge had one or two "freak" branches whose leaves were lighter in colour and seemed to grow outwards from the hedge; protruding into our lawned area. I vigourously cut back these stubborn 'branches'. In fact, once I even pruned the entire hedge within a inch of it's life hoping to eliminate the problem branches.

Is that an apple tree in your garden son?
Through 2003-2005 my partner and I were concentrating on expanding our businesses and the hedge I once I had time to prune became neglected and the lawn was mown just twice per year! The "alien branches" grew outwards and upwards and quite frankly seemed to spoil the aesthetics of my garden.
The branches were growing in a spot where I already have a 6ft tree. I have no idea what this particular 6ft tree is called, but in Spring it's leaves turn the colour of claret and it produces the most beautiful pink blossom - in Autumn it produces small berries which the birds often eat. In Spring of 2005, the light green leaves of the "alien branches" clashed terribly with the claret coloured leaves of the tree it seemed to be growing in the middle of. I intended to cut back the now 5ft branches as soon as I had time. The time never came.
Around September of last year my mother and father were visiting my home and my father remarked, "Is that an apple tree in your garden son?". Well of course, I only had 2 trees in my garden (to my knowledge), neither of which were apple trees so I responded accordingly. My father was quite persistent in telling me I was wrong as he could quite clearly see apples in my "claret" tree. I thought he was hallucinating, but then my mother began telling me she could see apples too.
I took them both into my garden to show them they were both very much mistaken, but low and behold, on my "alien" branches (which were now quite thick) was around a dozen apples!
The apples weren't little crab apples either. They were the size of apples I usually buy in the supermarket, with a matt light coloured green skin. They began falling from the tree around October and I managed to pick 3 or so that the birds had not pecked at.
My partner was the first to taste one. "Mmmnnnn, juicy and crunchy." I tasted one myself. It had a firm and crunchy texture, with a mildly sharp flavour before becoming sweet. You know those apples called "Granny Smiths"; it reminded me a lot of those.

This year's fruit
I hope we will get some more fruit this year. Since discovering the true identity of the "alien branches" I have not cut them back, but have pruned the hedge to allow more light to hit the apple tree. The apple tree is now around 7 feet tall and this spring was absolutely covered in the most beautiful white blossom. The blossom disappeared around 3 weeks ago.

This will be my first year looking after an apple tree and I have so many questions. How do I know when the fruit is ready to pick? Is it true that the apples I have growing in my garden are unique to my tree? If I have grown a new variety, can I name it after my cat? If my tree produces lots of fruit this year, how could I share my tree with others who would like an apple tree like mine (grows well and produces good edible fruit without being cared for at all and in a cold climate; Liverpool England). Will the apple tree eventually "strangle" my claret tree? If I move home can I take my apple tree with me? How do I stop the birds from pecking at every apple (half the stock is fine, but I would like some apples for myself too)?

I am sure there are lots of other answers to questions that I do not even know I need to ask yet but as I said, I grew an apple tree by mistake and now I need to know how best to look after it!

Thanks for reading my post.

Classixuk.