The sun shone – such a treat!
Richard did a demonstration tree and then we all had a go at pruning. I think everyone found it hard to be as ruthless as Richard. It feels like a massacre yet, when done, you can see the open nature of the tree.

I’m fed up of this rain!
Our outside plots have wonderful onions, garlic and herbs but the ‘hotter’ crops are really struggling with this weather. Thank goodness for Northop!!

Visiting both Hawarden and Northop this weekend gave me a wonderful veg box for the week.

The guys and gals have been keeping busy at Northop watering and weeding to ensure the polytunnels are in peak condition for the impending harvest.
The tomatoes are coming already, the carrots are showing and some of the chillies and cucumbers are flowering. The next batch of salads will soon be ready too.

We had a “Gentle Shove” rather than a “Big Push” today, and by the time Henry and I had left things were really speeding along.

A huge thanks to all the awesomely hard working team! Fourteen turned up for various parts of the day and, as usual, a huge amount was accomplished. It never ceases to amaze just how much you can get done when everyone pulls together.

Thanks to Helen and her bird expert friend (and another of her friends actually building them for us!), we now have two bird boxes on site in Northop. They are designed for an owl and a kestrel and will help keep our mice down.

Lovely weather and Richard’s expertise combined to give us all a great day.
The morning was spent on the top fruit with re-assurances that we ‘couldn’t kill them so go for it’! Confidence definately improved with practice and there was a big pile of prunings by lunch time.

After a successful workday on Saturday 29th, with noteable contributions from Marcus and Richard Lewis on the digging, we are looking forward to finally getting the water supply turned on in the next week or so.

Richard Lewis, a horticulture lecturer at Glyndwr University, has agreed to host a free fruit pruning session at Northop on 12th November. The session will be based in the apple orchard at Northop and will cover winter pruning of apples, pears and plum trees.