Friday 4 November 2011

Peppermints

Some of my nursery material is coming along nicely - this is the end of their second year. The hawthorns are still in their first pots and the roots looking for space. Next year I'm going to grow one of them in the ground and see how it goes. The trunks are plumping up nicely already. All the nursery material is on tap water and cheap fertiliser. They also get any of the left overs from the hydroponics. No science - I just empty a bucket load onto them.


















 

The trunk chop on the oak is almost grown over and integrated. Over time this looks like it will subside into a nice even taper. 


 




The Beech's are coming along nicely too. During midsummer when they were laying down next years buds they were watered and fertilised mercilessly to ensure a giant season next year. I'm thinking of trunk chopping these over the winter.


They seem to be bulking up faster than the hawthorns. They are all over an inch at the base - with this one being closer to 2.

Had I known that I could grow cheap hedgerow nursery trees to 2 inch trunks in 2 years I would have started many years ago.

Notice the peppermints.

My hydroponic pomegranates are coming well now. They have put on about 25cm this year. I want to get that again for a few years before i think about style. 


I've got some Canna terra flores for the indoor fruiting and flowering plants.


I think I will have to bring in the Scots pines during the winter for another round of maintenance as they are firing buds out all over. 

I think I have good buds at every point that I want - so the smaller Scots are going to look very good late next year.

I got some Raffia for doing some heavy work on the pines.


The pines are now on weekly Canna - I'll keep a slow feed ( bi-monthly) going to them during the winter. The dormant plants in soil will get a gentle monthly feed.


I've been trying some new fertilisers again - Yamato sunball. I'm very confused about this - they are like rock hard peppermints - been sitting on the soil surface for a month now with no sign of doing anything. Must be doing something wrong. I was hoping for something that behaved like biogold.