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nurseries of apple trees. The idea being that families (presumably in those canvas-covered wagons that, in Westerns, are always being arranged in defensive circles) would then turn up, start farms and need apple trees. He had some odd ideas (although

This time of year the crab apples are at their most impressive: the trees are laden with little yellow or red apples that hang on until long after the last leaves have fallen. These are really useful smallish trees, not just for their colourful

was distracted by an extremely industrious bee working away at a particular blossom on one of their apple trees. Intrigued and a little captivated by this particular bee's tenacity she marked the spot with a piece of ribbon.As summer turned to autumn, the fruit

particular apple tree called 'Cornish Aromatic' whose fruit is pretty hopeless. They are few in number and those that survive taste very strongly of surgical lint (some rare apple varieties became rare for the very good reason that they weren't very good

, it's the apples and pears that have been the subject of my attentions. As we know, apple trees blossom picturesquely in spring. These flowers then develop into small fruits and then, in June, the tree shrugs and loses a fair few of these (this

trees that are worth looking into. Fruit trees are grown on different rootstocks and, depending on which one you choose, these regulate the eventual height of the tree - useful not just for small gardens, but also because it means that the best apples

). 4) The quince.Correct: only one is a fruit.We have just harvested quinces from a neighbour's tree - the one that I planted is only a couple of years old and too pre-pubescent to fruit. The quince (Cydonia oblonga) is a rather neglected tree native

The other day there was a tweet* from Gardeners' World regarding a post I wrote on this blog a couple of years ago, about my top five trees for small gardens.While I still stick with those five I thought I might try and add a further five just

were decorated with sparkly cobwebs. On the way back we stopped off to pick up some windfalls from beneath the apple trees, avoiding those already chewed by the fox and muntjac.At lunchtime I sat outside and ate a piece of toast (with home-made apricot

as relentlessly. It is best just to watch: in the morning the spiders webs are glimmering with dew, the sun sneaks over the horizon at a much more civilised hour, the light is different, the sun (when it is there) is just the right temperature, the trees