On Sun, 25 Aug 2013 09:57:40 +0100, David Rance wrote:

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This is our first good plum harvest for four years. Last year they were
early, ripening in mid-July, and the birds had them. The year before
that the frost got the blossom. I think, though, that we're near the end
of the plums - just a day or two more - but the Reine Claude are just
beginning to ripen now so they'll be in full swing in a week or so.
We're planning a trip to Soligny-la-Trappe next Sunday and, if they
fulfil their promise and you would like some, we could drop some off on
our way through.


Thanks for the thought! That's very kind. We're fine on fruit for this
year though, I think Adele would murder me if I arranged more for her to
process. (Sadly we tend to fall into gender specific roles when it comes
to putting up fruit and power tools). I'm not sure we'll be here anyway,
the "rentre" is coming, our daughter is entering 1ere. Big stuff; thank
goodness for bilingual schools!

We always try to fit in a visit to the Abbaye de la Trappe during the
summer to attend their plainsong services and visit their wonderful
bookshop. Another reason for us "adopting" them is that their founder
was a certain Abbé de Rancé whom we fondly imagine was my ancestor
dating from his libertine period before he took holy orders! Complete
rubbish, of course, but my father liked to think that we originated from
Normandy.


Nice! I always like going to the Tapestry at Bayeux, you see lots of
local names. Probably no relation either.

I'll be grubbing up the mirabelle this winter, all the bark on one side
has died. Feh.

That's a shame. We have a greengage back in Reading that seemed to be
going the same way but my wife cut out all the rotten bits in the main
trunk and put Arbrex on it and it seems to have recovered and is growing
again strongly.


Glad to here it's doing well. This is a FS graft, and it was never a
very healthy tree. It partially blew over 2 winters ago, then refused to
stand up again. Now with the understock half dead, it's done.

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We've never had success with peaches or apricots. The trees just die on
us! We had a reasonable apple harvest last year and made sixty bottles
of cider, but it'll be in excess of that this year.


I tried apricots but the tree died. The nursery swore it would do OK
here, but I think it was just too wet. The peach tree does pretty well
against a south wall, although leaf curl is a constant battle. It
flowers pretty early, so that sometimes the fruit sets before a late
frost and survives. Very hit and miss though. I looked at it this
afternoon and what peaches are there don't look terrific.




--
Gardening in Lower Normandy