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the fruit. My experience has shown that old 'tried and tested' favourites are often better than new varieties described in catalogues.Flavour isn't the only consideration when choosing an apple tree. What form should your apple tree take? Apples are trained

of apple trees to swell, flushed with pink, before the pure white flowers burst open. As my main reason for growing apple trees is for their fruit, I'm keen that the trees produce abundant blossom, and also that there will be plenty of bees to enjoy it

Despite summer drought in my part of the East Midlands, my apple crop has been pretty good on most trees, but there’s just one problem. A much larger proportion of fruit than ever before has been pecked on the tree itself, resulting in small holes

enjoyed it. They're juicier than ever.My first apples to ripen are 'Ellison's Orange' in mid-September, and this is one variety that really must be eaten straight from the tree. When you do the apples are crisp and juicy, but sadly they don't stay in good

most apples for instance, it doesn’t need neighbouring plums for cross-pollination. Provided bees visit my single plum tree, I will hopefully get a good crop of fruit.Last year, a couple of pears started to form on my small 'Concorde' tree, but nothing

displays on so many trees and shrubs, such as pieris. But with blossom on many fruit trees now at its peak, frost can kill flowers before bees have had a chance to pollinate them. When this happens the blossom will fall without developing any fruit

to bite into an apple or plum and find a maggot inside (perhaps disappointing isn't quite strong enough). But how satisfying to hang a sticky pheromone trap in your trees and catch the culprits red handed, so to speak. They're out there, getting up

have dropped low enough to kill off some overwintering pests such as the woolly aphid I discovered on my apple trees last summer. The problem is that frost isn't that discerning, and unless beneficial insects like ladybirds are even hardier, or have

There are days nominated to celebrate apples, festivals for tomatoes and chillies, and whole weeks to inform us about bird nesting boxes, trees, allotments and composting ... and this week it's the turn of the conifer.The Association of British

When a letter starts "I must strongly protest at an article written by Adam Pasco…" then I do wonder what I've done wrong.Let me set the scene. You can't find much more of a bird lover than me. Just take a look at my garden, and the way I garden