Fruit – We are out in the garden …

Blossom Watch 2022 – Plum ‘ Warwickshire Drooper’ (26 March 2022)

We have an old plum tree in the orchard with the charming name of ‘Warwickshire Drooper’. Being Warwickshire residents ourselves it is great to have a locally named variety.

The tree is certainly showing its age but this year seems to be flowering profusely and evenly across all branches. We have been thinking that it’s days are numbered but perhaps it is trying to prove us wrong. It has a lovely flavour and with a touch of cinnamon makes a scrumptious jam.

Slightly later into flower this year is a small Victoria plum (29 March 2022). We have planted this now so it has time to establish in the orchard before the Warwickshire Drooper finally has to be removed.

When I posted about the Apricot I thought we may have been about a week later than my previous records made in 2019. My 2019 record for Warwickshire Drooper was 27 March so we may well have caught up due to a spell of warm weather.

Driving through the Vale of Evesham last weekend the plum orchards were in full bloom and looking a picture. The blackthorn (Prunus spinosa) is also looking particulary good in the hedgerows this year. We have had a few weeks of fine weather without rain which has kept the blackthorn white and undamaged.

Blossom Watch 2022 Summary (First Blossom)

8 March – Apricot ‘Flavorcot’

26 March – Plum ‘Warwickshire Drooper’

29 March – Plum ‘Victoria’

Blossom Watch 2022: Apricot ‘Flavorcot’ (8 March 2022)

The Apricot is typically the first of our fruit trees to come into flower. It’s small blush pink blooms alongside deeper pink buds are lovely. Today (8 March 2022) is really the first day the flowers have opened this year. My last record in 2019 was for 27 February so we may be slightly later this year.

This particular Apricot tree has been on the move over recent years. Originally planted in the orchard it had to be dug up to make way for a wedding marquee. Due to covid-19 the wedding was delayed for a year so the tree has been in a temporary home all this time. It has however survived pretty well really.

This year we have decided not to put it back in the ground but plant it against a warm, sunny brick wall in a much larger pot.

Flavorcot has been specially bred to cope with the UK climate and is supposed to fruit more reliably because it is later flowering than many other Apricot varieties. Ours has clearly not read the script as it consistently flowers at the end of February and beginning of March.

It does seem to be very frost hardy and the blossom is not really damaged by the cold. However, there are fewer pollinating insects about at this time and we may have to tickle it with a soft paint brush this year to get a decent crop of fruit.

Much as I would love to have baskets of produce each year I still get a certain satisfaction from picking and eating a small number of sun ripened fruits straight from the tree. Heres hoping that it settles in well to its new position.

The promise of summer raspberries and strawberries

One of our main lockdown projects this year has been the purchase of a new fruit cage and the planting of fresh strawberry and raspberry plants in a different area of the garden. We have grown strawberries and raspberries in the vegetable garden in the past but the plants have gradually got weaker and weaker and produced less and less. Time for a change we thought.

In the first lockdown back in March and April we decided to clear a new area on the edge of the orchard in full sun but also sheltered from the north winds by the hawthorn hedge.

The fruit cage

Having cleared the area we purchased a 5m x 2.5m peak roofed steel fruit cage from Harrod Horticultural in Suffolk. We were looking for something that would create an attractive feature in the garden rather than purely being a square box covered in netting. This certainly fits the bill.

With plenty of time on our hands and some nice weather we set about the task. The instructions were good and it all came together very well. With just two people and a large ladder we did manage to put it together ourselves although I think putting on the roof would have been much easier if more people had been available to help with the final lift. With only two of us the peak roof had to be carefully lifted into place in the centre by climbing up the ladder whilst the other bolted it into the frame.

We really only had one hick-up when we discovered that the two top finials were poorly welded and wouldn’t slide into place. It is always irritating to have to wait for replacement parts to come but there was no problem in getting them even though many were working from home at that time. In total it probably took us a week to put up with plenty of time for cups of coffee and lunch along the way.

The task that took most patience was whipping in all the netting to make sure there were absolutely no gaps that would allow the birds to get in. This took pretty much a whole day of careful sewing. The time has been well spent and we have had no birds inside during this first year.

Once complete we decided that half the cage was be put to strawberries and the other half to raspberries.

Strawberries

We were keen to get planting as soon as possible but recognised that we would have to wait until November to plant the bare root raspberry canes.

The strawberries were another matter and so we were able to get hold of cold stored strawberry plants from Ken Muir in early summer. These were lovely, strong, healthy plants and grew away beautifully once they were planted in the ground. Having prepared the soil we planted the bare root plants through weed suppressing membrane. As this was virgin land we knew that we would be fighting the weeds for some time and this gave us an opportunity to keep the weeds at bay as well as keep the strawberries off the soil. The theory was that the black material would also warm up quickly in the sun and aid ripening.

We planted three different varieties to give us a crop over a longer season. These were:

Vibrant – an early variety

Hapil – a mid-summer variety

Fenella – a late summer variety

In theory this should provide us with a crop from mid-June through to late July. What is particularly nice about planting cold-stored plants is that they crop in the first year – and it worked! There is nothing nicer than enjoying the fruit of your labours (with cream).

In this first year the three varieties grew quite differently. Vibrant produced the most fruit whilst Hapil grew a huge amount of foliage and produced less fruit. Our aim is to encourage plants with multiple crowns and so we spent a lot of time this year cutting out all the new runners that emerged.

Raspberries

In November we received our bare root raspberry canes from Pomona Fruits. In this instance we have gone for the two varieties Glen Ample and Tulameen. Both are summer fruiting varieties.

We did debate whether to have both summer and autumn fruiting varieties but concluded that we preferred to get one substantial crop and freeze any excess rather than risk never have enough for a good meal with friends. and family.

Prior to the canes arriving we prepared the ground and installed three strong upright posts and supporting cross wires. One thing we learnt for next time is that if the posts are too tall there is no enough room underneath the netting to effectiveky use the post rammer to drive in the supports.

One downside of planting summer fruiting varieties is that the fruit is produced on last year’s wood. Planting short, bare root canes this year means that we will not get fruit next year and only begin to crop in 2022. Far too long!

To overcome this we were delighted to see that Pomona Fruit provided ‘long canes’ of Glen Ample. We should therefore get our first crop of Glen Ample next summer whilst the Tulameen will grow fresh canes next year that will fruit for the first time in 2022.

Cordon Redcurrants

Browsing through the fruit catalogues is always fatal and as usual I was tempted by something we had not tried before. We do grow redcurrants and blackcurrants in the vegetable patch but the birds always get to the redcurrants before we do.

There was not enough room for a normal sized redcurrant bush in the new fruit cage but I did spot a cordon redcurrant Jonkheer van Tets. I convinced myself that there would be room to plant this alongside one of the end raspberry support poles. And so it was purchased. It looks great in the catalogue and it would be lovely if it can be kept well trained and produce lots of fruit. We enjoy redcurrants but don’t really need huge amounts so a single, productive plant (where we get most of the fruit instead of the birds) should more than suffice.

Six on Saturday: Summer Harvest

With so much to talk about in the flower garden the fruit and vegetables seldom get a mention. This year the vegetable garden seems to have really got going. Whether this is the result of the earlier hot temperatures, the current wet weather or simply the fact that I have had much more time to do things better this year I am not sure.

To celebrate the fact that we are picking good produce daily now I thought I would highlight six crops that we have enjoyed this week. It has also been an interesting exercise trying to create some attractive photos of fruit and veg to post!

One: Raspberries

I think I would describe the raspberry canes as a little feral now. They are growing at least six feet away from where I originally planted them. I wrote earlier in the week about our new decorative walk-in fruit cage project so next year we hope to have a much better crop of larger berries. However, we are still enjoying the old ones with lashings of cream and sugar. You really cannot beat fresh raspberries!

Two: Broad Beans

I have grown three varieties of broad beans this year and managed to sow them in succession. The varieties this year are Sciabola Verde, Red Epicure and Express. All are growing strongly and don’t seem to have been bothered by black fly this year. I have also done a much better job at supporting them which has helped reduce the damage to the pods from mice and voles. The picture shows the larger green beans of Sciabola verde and the small tender red beans of Red Epicure. There is something rather attractive about their silky skins.

Three: Lettuce

We have suffered very little from slug damage this year (so far) and the lettuces have really grown away strongly. We have concentrated on an Iceberg variety called Match. This is producing nice, clean crisp leaves. Although not strictly a ‘cut and come again’ variety I have been able to remove just the leaves we want for a meal and leave the remaining plants to develop further.

Four: Mangetout peas

These have been a real success. The fact that I have had the time to carefully pick the pods every day has ment that they have kept coming and continue to crop extremely well. We are getting a small bowl full every day now off a three metre row. The variety is Oregon Sugar Pod.

We do seem to have a lot of wood pigeons in the garden this year and normally it would be a challenge to keep them off the crops. However, I have dusted off my trusty bird scarers made of old shiny CDs and DVDs and they seem to have worked a treat. ‘Back in the day’ when you used to receive loads of free CDs through the post from Internet Service Providers like AOL and Tiscali I had a huge stack of these but they are now beginning to run a bit short I am afraid.

Five: Swiss Chard

We grow a lot of Swiss Chard and Perpetual Spinach in the vegetable garden and it crops reliably right through the summer and autumn. They also produce harvestable leaves throughout the winter months and it is lovely to have some fresh veg to pick at this time.

Not only are they very productive but the Swiss Chard (variety Bright Lights) is also very attractive with its bright red, yellow and white stems. I would highly recommend this Salmon and Swiss Chard Pie recipe that we found the tried the other day. Easy to make and very tasty.

Six: Blackcurrants

Usually the birds do not trouble my blackcurrants but last year they suddenly took the lot when I wasn’t looking. I am trying to get ahead of the game this year by picking and freezing the currants as they ripen. Picking blackcurrants is certainly a time consuming business and you cannot rush it (otherwise you end up dropping the lot on the ground whilst you seek out the next bunch to pick).

Because of the lack of rain the currants are not as big as they might have been in previous years but hopefully they will still pack a punch. I have noticed that they have suddenly started to swell and split with the recent rain. Still usuable but they will need to be picked before they spoil.

Although we do love a blackcurrent and apple pie the bulk of our currants go to make blackcurrant jelly. We freeze the fresh berries as we pick them until we have a large enough amount to make up a batch of jam. Blackcurrant jelly on warm buttered toast at the breakfast table – always good!

All in all the fruit and vegetables are growing well. Each year something goes wrong though and this year it has been the cucumbers. All five super plants have suffered from wilt I’m afraid and had to be chucked out. Such a shame as they usually grow so well for us.

And to finish, a little nostalgia. I do find podding broad beans at the end of a busy day with a glass of good beer a very civilised summer activity. It also brings back memories of my (then) young children singing this harvest song at the top of their voices in primary school assembly:

Cauliflowers Fluffy and cabbages green
Strawberries are sweeter than any I’ve seen
Beetroots purple and onions white
All grow steadily day and night

The apples are ripe and the plums are red
The broadbeans are sleeping in their blankety bed

Blackberries are juicy and rhubarbs sour
Marrows fattening hour by hour
Gooseberries hairy and lettuces fat
Radishes round and runner beans flat

The apples are ripe and the plums are red
The broadbeans are sleeping in their blankety bed

Orangey carrots and turnips cream
Reddening tomatoes that used to be green
Brown potatoes in little heaps
Down in the darkness where the celery sleeps

The apples are ripe and the plums are red
The broadbeans are sleeping in their blankety bed, Yea!

The Six on Saturday meme is hosted by The Propagator. Click on the link to be inspired by what other plant lovers are enjoying this weekend.

New fruit cage for strawberries and raspberries

Although we have grown strawberries and raspberries over the years we have not had any decent plants for some time now. After 25 years the old raspberry canes have become exhausted and the strawberries have just faded away. In addition the birds always seem to get to the fruit first!

As a lockdown project we have therefore decided to set ourselves up in style; clearing a previously unused part of the garden, building a new walk in fruit cage and buying in a fresh set of plants.

Having cleared a sunny area at the edge of the orchard of brambles and weeds we have invested in a 5 x 2.5 metre walk-in fruit cage from Harrod Horticulture. The orchard is a very attractive part of the garden and the location for my daughter’s wedding next year so we felt it appropriate to go for something that had a little more style and be an interesting feature. We therefore went for the peak roofed steel fruit cage.

Once the ground was dug over constructing the fruit cage was quite straight forward. It took us (2 people) four days in total to put up. You certainly could not have done the job alone. Putting up the peaked roof required one person up a ladder to hold the roof in place whilst the other bolted it together. My tall Niwaki Japanese Tripod ladder was invaluable. The instructions were all very clear and we had no problem with these. It did however take us a whole day to put up the netting and sow it tightly together so that there we no gaps. I think (and hope) it was worth taking the time to do this very carefully to ensure no birds will be able to access our precious fruit.

Whilst we were constructing the fruit cage we ordered a number of cold-stored strawberry plants from Ken Muir. I have to say that I was very impressed with the quality of the plants we received. We were not quite ready to plant them out when they came so potted them up into compost first before they were put out. Every single plant has grown away beautifully so no complaints here at all. In addition to the plants you get a comprehensive and informative 46-page guide on how to grow strawberries effectively.

Cold-stored plants are runners that were dug in January and kept in cold storage until required for sale. If planted out before July they should crop in the first year. We have gone for three varieties (early, mid-summer and late summer) that will allow us to crop over an extended period. The varieties we have chosen are Vibrant (Early), Hapil (mid-summer) and Fenella (Late summer).

The ground we have used has been uncultivated for some years and although we have tried to remove all the perennial weeds and bramble roots I am sure we are going to be troubled with annual weeds for sometime. We have therefore decided to grow the strawberries through black weed suppressing membrane cutting individual circular holes for each plant. Hopefully this will mean we don’t have to use straw either to keep our fruit clean.

Half of the fruit cage has been put down to the 36 strawberry plants (12 of each variety). The other half will be put down to raspberries which we will buy and plant later in the year. Rather than just leave this half fallow we have planted corgettes and sweet corn purely to make use of the space and cultivate the ground to reduce the annual weeds ready for autumn raspberry cane planting.

Every day now I go out and look at how the strawberries are progressing. The plants look very good and the early variety is now flowering (11 June). Very soon I hope the berries will start to form and ripen. How exciting!

Quince cider – a new experiment for 2018

This year has been our best ever for Quinces in the orchard. Much as we love Quince Crumble Tarts there is a limit to just how many of these you can eat.

Photo Credit: BBC Good Food

Rather than simply leave the fruit to rot on the compost heap we thought we would explore another method of preserving them and enjoying them over the coming months. Although we make cider from our apples every year we have not tried quince ‘cider’ before so this is very much an experiment. I have used the term ‘cider’ as I am not trying to make a quince wine. I am looking for something that is thirst quenching, fresh and sparking and not as alcoholic as a wine would be.

The fruits have such a fragrant bouquet that they should make a very enjoyable drink in theory but I can imagine that if you use too many the flavour could be over-powering. Having read various recipes this is the approach we decided to adopt to make our first gallon of trial quince ‘cider’.

I decided to use eight large quince fruits per gallon. Some recipes suggest 20 per gallon but I think this would result in a flavour that might be too strong. As the fruits are so rock solid even when ripe they could not be crushed and pressed in the same way as apples. The quinces were washed, cored and grated (skin on).

The pulp was then added to 4 pints of water in a large pan and brought to the boil. It was boiled for 15 minutes and then the liquid was strained from the pulp. Other recipes have suggested that boiling for longer than 15 minutes makes it difficult to clear after fermentation. The resulting liquor certainly had a very pleasant flavour.

To increase the sugar levels for fermentation I dissolved 1kg of granulated sugar in 2 pints of water and then added this to the quince juice. This resulted in a specific gravity measurement of SG1080 which is perhaps higher than I might have wished for. If it ferments out then this would be in excess of 9% alcohol which is pretty potent for a cider. Time will tell whether the result will be on the sweet side with a lower alcohol content or drier with a higher alcohol level.

A further 2 pints of cold water was added to the must to make up the 8 pints (1 gallon) and this was allowed to cool to tepid before adding a cider yeast. I also added 2 teaspoons of pectolase to help the cider clear.

All that is left to do now is stand back, admire and wait for the result. Usually my apple cider is ready to rack in mid-November and it will be interesting to see if the quince cider performs in the same way.

I will let you know how it goes!

Update: June 2019

The Quince Cider is now ready to drink. It is certainly beautifully clear and certainly looks the part. For my taste it has worked out rather sweeter than I would have hoped. I think next year I will reduce the additional sugar to perhaps 0.5kg rather than the 1kg used this year. There is no doubt that the fragrant quince gives a wonderful flavour – not to strong or too insipid.

(PS: Still enjoying the quince crumble tarts from the freezer – they are just to die for!)

Six on Saturday: The fruits of our labours

Harvest time is certainly upon us and this week’s ‘Six on Saturday’ highlights some of the autumn produce coming out of the garden. It has been a rather strange year with some plants and trees setting really well and other producing absolutely no fruit at all.

One: Grapes

Last autumn we described the process of pruning the red and white outdoor grape vines ( Pruning time for the outdoor grape vines ). They have both really enjoyed the hot weather this year and produced (after thinning) large juicy bunches of sweet grapes. When we planted these a few years back I was rather sceptical as to whether we would get anything worth eating here in the UK Midlands but they have both exceeded all my expectations.

You can eat them fresh but they also make a lovely grape juice. This is simply done by putting them in the food processor for a very quick pulse to mash the fruits and then straining. Absolutely delicious.

Two: Apples

It is not quite apple picking time but the Golden Noble, Bramley seedling, Lord Lambourne and Egremont Russet (pictured) have all done very well. The Tydemans Late Orange, however, has no fruit on it this year and we have no pears at all (see: The Orchard – beautiful in spring, productive in autumn for further details of the varieties we grow in the orchard).

Next month (October) will be peak harvest time for the apples and on a warmish, sunny day I will get out my cider making equipment for the annual cider making bonanza. ( see: How to make cider from all those spare apples ). With so little water this year it may well take some time to get a decent yield of juice out of the apples.

Three: Greenhouse and polytunnel fruits

At the peak of the heatwave the greenhouse fruits were certainly struggling a bit and we suffered a lot from bottom end rot on the early tomatoes. This is supposed to be caused by irregular watering but I seemed to be watering all the time. I think the plants were just unable to cope with the temperatures and were in a semi-wilted state for a number of weeks.

However, as the temperatures cooled the tomatoes have recovered and are now producing a regular crop of large red, tasty fruit. I have grown the variety ‘Shirley’ for the last few years and found it very reliable and full of flavour.

The cucumbers did not seem to mind the heat and produced a huge crop. The variety I have most success with is the variety ‘Euphya’ from Marshalls. You only get 5 seeds but your get five plants from them and they produce far more high quality cucumbers than we could ever eat. Most of the hamlet here receive free cucumbers at some point in the summer.

The final fruit crop in the polytunnels has been the Sweet Peppers. The variety I have most success with in both hot and cold summers is the ox-horn type pepper Diablo. They produce huge sweet peppers (pictured) and are currently ripening to red in the polytunnel.

Four: Plums

Our plum tree is now over 25 years old and beginning to show its age. When we saw this variety (Warwickshire Drooper) in the catalogue when we were first planting the orchard we just had to include it. We live in Warwickshire after all.

This year it has had a huge crop despite an increasing number of dead looking branches. It is a lovely plum to just eat fresh off the tree with a slightly plum wine flavour. Yum!

Five: Quince

Another tree that has had a bumper crop this year has been the Quince. You could grow it purely as an ornamental tree as it has a mass of large pink flowers in the spring. When ripe, the fruit has a delicate and beautiful fragrance.

They are a lovely fruit to eat if prepared well (see: Quinces ).

Six: Enjoying the harvest throughout the winter

Although it is lovely to eat all this seasonal produce at this time of year now is the time to preserve the harvest for those long cold winter months. This is probably the topic of a separate blog still to be written but we do make a lot of use of a wonderful little kitchen gadget – our Tefal jam maker.

Home grown fruit jam on hot buttered toast on a cold winter morning. I will leave you with that thought!

The Six on Saturday meme is hosted by The Propagator. Click on the link to see what other plant lovers are chatting about.

Six on Saturday: Blossom diary for 2018

What a wonderful year for orchard blossom we have had. More importantly when the blossom has been out the sun has shined and the bees have been flying. All bodes well for a bumper crop I hope.

I always find it fascinating to see the signs of spring moving up the country each year as I read other garden bloggers’ articles. As the temperature rises and the days get longer the blossom slowly emerges across the British Isles. I have always felt that the flowering here in Warwickshire is about 2 weeks later than where my mother lives in South Oxfordshire.

The 2015 study conducted by Coventry University in association with the Woodland Trust, British Science Association and BBC Springwatch concluded that spring moves up the country at about 2mph travelling from the south west towards the north east (how fast does spring travel up the country). There is some evidence that it is now travelling up the country more rapidly that it did between 1891 and 1947 when the figure was around 1.2mph.

For this week’s Six on Saturday I have recorded the flowering dates for the blossom in our fruit orchard using the dates on the various pictures I have taken over the months.

One: Apricot (16 March 2018)

Two: Early flowering Pears eg. Winter Nellis (23 April 2018)

Three: Sweet Cherry (23 April 2018)

Four: Late flowering Pears eg. Conference (3 May 2018)

Five: Apples (Early flowering eg. Egremont Russet, Golden Noble – 3 May 2018, Late flowering eg. Lord Lambourne, Bramley – 8 May 2018)

Six: Quince (8 May 2018)

We are located near Warwick in the UK Midlands. If you live in the south or north it would be very interesting to hear when your trees flowered so we can get a feel for how long it has taken spring to move from the south coast to the north and across the border to Scotland.

More information on the varieties we have in the orchard can be found on a previous blog (The Orchard – beautiful in spring, productive in autumn ) with a specific article on Quinces and how to cook them at: Quinces. I have also previously written on our annual cider activities at: How to make cider from all those spare apples.

The Six on Saturday meme is hosted by The Propagator. Click on the link to see what other plant lovers are chatting about.

Honey Pot Flowers are wedding and celebration florists based in Warwickshire in the United Kingdom specialising in natural, locally grown seasonal flowers. We grow many of our own flowers allowing us to offer something very different and uniquely personal.

The garden in late January

The garden here at Honey Pot Flowers may appear cold and quiet but the new year is coming upon us quickly and there is plenty to do and much to see.

Despite the low temperatures here in Warwickshire, bulbs and flowers are beginning to emerge. The snowdrops are now in full swing complemented by the pinks and purples of the cyclamen and hellebores. The first of the primroses and yellow crocuses are beginning to flower and the air is filled with the scent of Daphne odora and Sarcococca. And, what is more, the sun has started to shine!

The garden birds are extremely busy foraging for food across the garden. Great Tits, Blue Tits, Coal Tits, Long-tailed Tits, Nuthatchs, Chaffinchs, Dunnocks, Blackbirds and Great Spotted Woodpeckers are all regular visitors to the garden now with Buzzards mewing and flying overhead trying to catch any weak thermals that might come their way.

With time marching on we are also trying to get all our pruning jobs completed before we get into seed sowing in earnest. A few days bright and dry weather has allowed us to start pruning back the bush and climbing roses. Ideally the climbing roses should have been done in November but better late than never! With the climbers we are untying all last years growth, cutting out some of the old stems to shoot afresh this year, cutting off the side shoots to a couple of buds and then tying in three or four strong new stems to flower this year. In March we will give them a good feed to set them on their way.

In the orchard we are also starting to prune the apple and pear trees. There are three main tasks to perform here on each spur fruiting tree:

remove any dead or diseased branches
improve and open up the structure of the tree by removing crossing or unwanted branches (this also increases air flow and helps minimise issues with disease)
prune back any of the new leaf shoots from last year to three or four buds leaving the flower buds on the spurs to develop.

With partial tip bearing trees, such as the Bramley, remember that some of the flower buds are on the end of the stem and removing these when pruning will obviously reduce your crop. The wood, or growth buds are much smaller than the flower buds that will eventually provide you with your fruit.

One thing to remember when pruning fruit trees is that if you prune hard the tree will grow back vigorously producing a rash of long ‘water’ shoots. This will make pruning next year much more difficult. Ideally you need to achieve a balance, just enough pruning to improve the health and structure of the tree and encourage the tree to put effort into fruiting and not too much that the tree produces excessive vegetative growth.

It really is such a pleasure to be out in the garden again at the start of a new gardening year. There is much to do and seed sowing is just around the corner.

Pruning time for the outdoor grape vines

We have always been rather surprised at how successful we have been at growing grapes outdoors in the garden here at Honey Pot Flowers. Anna Pavord in her Independent article suggests that it is difficult to grow them north of a line between Gloucester and The Wash so here in Warwick we must be pushing our luck a little.

We have two vines, one of red dessert grapes and one of white dessert grapes. They have been in place for about 12 years now but unfortunately the variety names have become detached along the way. Year in, year out they produce a good crop of sweet and tasty grapes and it feels rather special when it comes to harvest time.

In November/December we prune the vines ready for next year. Writers indicate that if you leave this until the spring when the sap is beginning to rise there is a tendency for the cut ends to weep.

Next year’s grapes are produced on the laterals formed in the current year. The plants grow very vigorously in the spring and can produce a huge number of floating laterals with many spectacular large fresh green vines leaves. The aim of the pruning is to not allow the plant to produce too many laterals and encourage the plant to put its efforts into a smaller number of larger bunches of grapes.

Having said this we nearly always have to prune out some laterals next year as well as thin out the number of bunches of grapes on the plant as a whole. In this way we get larger, juicy grapes.

Grape vines are very attractive climbing plants and we grow our vines up the same trellis supports as our climbing roses. The main leader is trained in a spiral up one of the main uprights and allowed to clamber across the top so that the grapes hang down and can be picked as you walk through the arch. A lovely thing to do when you are taking a gentle evening meander around the garden to appreciate your days work.

At this time of year (December) we cut back the leader by about a third and shorten last year’s fruiting laterals back to 2 or 3 buds. These buds will create next year’s fruiting laterals. Any unwanted, broken or crossing laterals are also removed to create a nice tight structure that is firmly tied into the supports. It is very important to take time to tie in carefully and robustly so there is minimal chance of damage from the winter winds over the next few months.

Dormant grape vine before winter pruning

After pruning – the climbing leader shortened by one-third, the laterals cut back to 2 or 3 buds and the main stem tied in firmly for the winter

All of this work now will pay dividends next year. In September/October next year the grapes will begin to ripen and be ready for picking. Surprisingly we get very little bird damage and without netting we get a good crop for ourselves and also enough to share. Despite being outside they are sweet enough to eat fresh but one of our preferred methods is to make juice (there is not usually enough to make any sensible amount of wine).

Making the juice is a very simple process. Pick and rinse the grapes and give them a very quick pulse in the food processor. This should be just enough to break up the grapes and release the juice but leave the pips intact. Strain the resulting pulp through a course plastic sieve into a jug and store in the fridge until you need it. Avoid using a metal sieve as this may impart a metallic taint to the juice. No sugar needs to be added and the juice will keep at least 2 or 3 days by which time the family have guzzled the lot.

Drinking your own freshly pressed grape juice from your own grape vines is such a pleasure and a real taste of summer.

Further reading: “Pruning” by Christopher Brickell (RHS) (ISBN: 1-85732-902-3)