Monday wasn't very Augusty as far as the weather was concerned. It was cloudy all day and although it felt reasonably mild the temperature didn't make it to 20°C (68°F).
I've been planning for a while now to reduce the height of our plum trees on the plot before they get completely out of control. However, I didn't really want to just hack them back and leave them looking like overgrown lollipops. The intention was hopefully to leave them looking like mature trees.
Oullins Gage was the first to get the chop and the tallest few branches have been removed. It's the centre tree in the photo above. I'm also intending to reduce the height of Marjorie's Seedling (on the left of the photo) but I've left that job for next week. The cutting down doesn't take too much time but clearing up the mess takes a lot longer.
I removed six reasonable large branches from the top of the tree. Once sawn through extricating the cut branches from the rest of the tree is quite a job. I'd like the tree to be even lower as its not possible to harvest any plums growing at the top of the tree but I'll reduce it a bit more next year.
I'm starting to gather a few heaps of rubbish around the plot that's going to need a serious bonfire in autumn.
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Just a note to say how much I am enjoying reading your blog since I've discovered it. My two greatest interests are weather and gardening. I like being able to compare what's happening seasonally here in southern California with what's happening in West Yorkshire.
ReplyDeleteI'm guessing your weather in southern California is very different to ours in Ossett.
DeleteOnly 3 plums on my little Victoria at the allotment this year, but it's grown like mad so I need to cut it back as we're only allowed 7' trees. Fingers crossed for more actual plums next year.
ReplyDeleteWe had plenty of flowers on our plums and greengages but obviously they didn't set fruit. Like you hoping for something better next year.
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