Hi all,

This is my first post here, so please bear with me.

I’ve recently moved into a property and inherited a horrendously overgrown garden, I’ve spent much of the past 4 months clearing out rubble and removing a lot of overgrowth. The apple tree in the garden doesn’t look to well and I don’t think it’s been looked after for a number of years. I’ve included some pics:

http://www.conita.co.uk/Apple1.JPG
http://www.conita.co.uk/Apple2.JPG
http://www.conita.co.uk/Apple3.JPG
http://www.conita.co.uk/Apple4.JPG
http://www.conita.co.uk/Apple5.JPG
http://www.conita.co.uk/Apple6.JPG


“Apple1.jpg” is an overall shot of the tree and as you can see it’s not been pruned in sometime, there are so many branches that are crossing, touching and growing into the centre of the tree. Also, to the right of the tree was a massive buddleia, which I’ve subsequently taken out as it was forcing the tree to grow crocked to get sunlight and also resulted in a number of branches on the right hand side growing inwards. “Apple2.jpg” is a shot from the other direction.

“Apple 4.jpg” and “Apple5.jpg” show a number of brown growths and they look to be growing where the tree has been previously pruned. Any idea what these are?

“Apple5.jpg” and “Apple6.jpg” show the state of the bark on the tree, which seems to be pretty poor.

I’ve no idea how old the tree is, what type of apples it produces or if it will grow any larger? Although it’s growing a bit lopsided, it would be quite nice to try and save the tree and give it a decent chance. My concern is that it may be so bad that it’s a goner and I should look at replacing it.

Any thoughts/ help would be much appreciated


Thanks
Nick

P.S. I’m a complete beginner in the garden (apart from the basics I’ve picked up in the past few months)