"FarmI" ask@itshall be given wrote in message
u...
"Jeßus" wrote in message
...
On Tue, 26 Jul 2011 15:53:49 +1000, "FarmI" ask@itshall be given
wrote:

I figured out how many weeks till Spring and how many tasks I had to do
in
the garden before the wqrmer weather comes. I'm pretty much on track.
You?

Reasonably... much more prepared this year than the previous couple
years as I have the hothouse, shade house and open veggie garden areas
all established. Still need a dedicated propagation area though, tired
of trying to raise seedlings on an ad-hoc basis.

I know just what you mean. I have a propogating area, but it's not quite
as I'd like ti to be - still some more improvements/refinements needed.

Planted a few more fruit trees this week, all apples this time -
Bramley and three other cider apples (exact varieties escape me ATM).
That makes about 36 fruits trees in the orchard now.

I've jsut been reading Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstalls cookbooks and am now
quite interested in planting Bramleys given how highly he praises them as
a cooking apple. He's also into cider apples and has piqued my interest
in them too.

I would dearly love to grow Bramleys here in Perth but apparently we do not
get a cold enough winter for the trees to go dormant.
I had a Bramley in my last garden that I managed to half "prune" with a
particularly large bonfire. It wasn't as bad as I expected as the tree went
from producing every 2 years to producing every year but on separate halves.
If I left the apples on long enough they became about as round as a large
saucer, floury and sweet enough to eat. picked smaller they were/are the
best cooking apples around.

Mike

"Bloke Down The Pub" wrote in message
I've jsut been reading Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstalls cookbooks and am now
quite interested in planting Bramleys given how highly he praises them as
a cooking apple. He's also into cider apples and has piqued my interest
in them too.

I would dearly love to grow Bramleys here in Perth but apparently we do
not get a cold enough winter for the trees to go dormant.
I had a Bramley in my last garden that I managed to half "prune" with a
particularly large bonfire. It wasn't as bad as I expected as the tree
went from producing every 2 years to producing every year but on separate
halves. If I left the apples on long enough they became about as round as
a large saucer, floury and sweet enough to eat. picked smaller they
were/are the best cooking apples around.

That's interesting about the change in bienneal bearing. We do get enough
chilling to grow good apples here, but I havent' yet got a Bramley.
Possibly too late to do so this year, but I might put in a request for one
or more with He Who Likes To Be Obeyed.