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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

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

fruit but also for flowers and autumn leaf colour. They are pretty useless as a food crop, except that they do make the most delicious crab apple jelly that goes well with lamb, pork and poultry. However, they are really useful as a pollinator for many

.AdamDampen the greenhouse floor, not the plants. Water dripping onto leaves encourages fungal disease, while water splashed onto fruit can ruin its appearance.More on greenhouses and plant careFitting an automatic vent opener for your greenhouseUsing bubble wrap

, by July and August there are millions more hungry mouths to feed. For tits, finches and sparrows, garden feeding stations provide a real lifeline. And even for birds like robins, wrens, thrushes and blackbirds, availability of insects, fruits and berries

One of the most efficient ways of recycling kitchen waste is to use a worm bin. These purpose-built containers house a colony of brandling worms, which consume fruit and vegetable waste, producing a nutritious worm compost.As well as producing a

We are getting very close to the end of the bare-root planting season. This is your last chance to plant trees and hedges, which have been dug out of the ground (as opposed to their cossetted cousins that are pot grown).This also means that it is a

from pests that search out their desired food crop by smell.Many years ago I sowed these cheerful poached egg plants (Limnanthes douglasii) along the base of my path, under the fan-trained fruit trees. As flowers open through May, in partnership

in case anybody out there was wandering around looking for such a thing. So, here then, are another five trees…Arbutus unedo, the strawberry tree: so called after the round strawberry-coloured fruit. You can eat the fruits but they're not a patch on a real

, while the same species in Cornwall will have adapted to salty air and a longer growing season. What's more, these important genetic differences can determine when the plants come into leaf, flower and fruit, so the same species imported from elsewhere