Fruit, fruit everywhere and all of it to eat!

Now I love fruit, all of it, could live on it I reckon, so when we moved in here, it was with great joy that I noticed several mature fruit trees.  I never get bored of apple pies, crumbles, tarts, or the same with plums.

Now the plums look stunning this year, the two Victoria plum trees are loaded with fruit.  Last year was a different matter, nothing at all, not one fruit did we get, the awful spring annihilated all the blossom. So apart from the fruit on the lower branches that the dogs jump up and pinch, we should have a bumper crop this year.

Pear trees are laden as well this year.  We have two trees here, one is a Conference tree and the other has Conference pears but another type on it aswell, must have been grafted onto it.

I assure you these are on the same tree!

Purple plums

These are the Bramleys, the cookers, two huge trees we have which are again laden with fruit this year, again the dog's pinch the ones they can, and then get sickly tummies for doing so, but there are always so many on the trees, we have more than we need.  Plenty get put in the freezer to eat all year round and then some will get sold this year.

The other tree we have is an eating apple.  I have no idea which variety it is other than it's a russet apple. They are delicious if you like a good hard, tart apple.  There doesn't seem to be many on the tree this year which is a shame, but hey, you can't have everything.

The eaters!

The other fruit we have is raspberries, which have finished now; I did put six kilo's in the freezer, of which most I will jam.  We also put in 100 strawberry plants this year, but didn't let them fruit, just let the plants build up their strength, to hopefully produce lots of lovely strawb's next year - can't wait!

What types of fruit do you grow, and which do you find most successful?  I'd be interested to hear, especially on top fruit, as this is something we haven't ventured into yet.

Stats today -

Eggs produced = 7 

Sales -

1/2 dozen eggs £0.90

1 x Cucumber £0.60

1 x 250g Tomatoes £1.00

Expenses -

Nil

The attack of the Cabbage White Flutterby's

When I see a Cabbage white butterfly in the veg garden a loud groan emits from my mouth.  It's that time of year again, when vigilance is a virtue.

The pesky things have wrecked crops in my garden in previous years to a devastating proportion, but this year I'm already on the case.  Their numbers seem to have increased this year, by a large amount, I don't know if anyone else has experienced this, have they?  Only last weekend I saw twelve in one go around the veg garden.

A few notes on The Cabbage White, for those of you who are lucky not to encounter these wee beasties!

This is what it looks like -

There are two sorts experienced by UK gardeners the Small white and the Large white, extensively feeding on brassica's including swede's and turnips.  The cabbage moth causes even more damage by burrowing into cabbage hearts, whereas the butterflies tend to stay on outer leaves and cause damage like this -

The above plant had an early infestation of caterpillars which Michael spotted, I then took great delight in picking off the offenders and feeding as a treat to the chickens - they love em!  Which is one of the controlling ways you get rid of them.  Inspect your plants regularly for clusters of yellow eggs, if found pick them off and destroy.  If they hatch the caterpillars have a voracious appetite and will strip the leaves in double quick time leaving just the internal leaf stalks.  As you can see from the above picture plants can recover if caught early and will grow new leaves, but it is a battle to keep on top of them.

There is biological control available but I haven't used it, so can't comment on its effectiveness.  You can also cover your brassica plants with fine mesh to stop the butterflies being able to land and lay their eggs.  I tend to stick with the finger and thumb method, my chickens wholeheartedly agree!

Stats today (sorry I forgot yesterday's) -

Sales -
2 dozen eggs

Expenses -
Nil