Single hen

[Laura007]

the reason i ask is this....... i was sat looking out the window and thought that the apple trees looked like they could do with a trim, so off i went, hacked some branches off and looked rather please with myself for a job well done. i went back inside and started to panic that i had done it at the wrong time of year. i looked on tinternet and found that this time of year is infact good to prune back apple and pear trees, well according to the royal horticultaral society it is! so there you have it, is it instinctive or was it just a fluke??

[kannie]

Don't know Laura! In any case you've saved yourself some money. We have our 2 pruned professionally every 3 years (they're quite tall). Just got a quote now, and this time its going to cost us round about £700!

[Chicken Licken]

I'm working on instinctive - I have been merrily digging mu allotment and hacking back roses, holly and brambles - hoping not to have done any lasting damage.

I was sent this link - it sends you a reminder about what needs doing in the veggie garden on a weekly basis - only digging so far!!!

 

http://www.rhs.org.uk/vegetables/subscribe.asp

[Lesley]

I'd say a lot of it is instinctive as well - but perhaps only if you've got green fingers anyway?

 

I'm always muttering about things having two choices, as i hack them down or cut bits off - Live or Die

[kannie]

Yes Lesley - I'm a bit fatalistic about it too. But I think of it as being more about the ecology of a place: if it's the right situation, soil etc for the plant it will survive. If things don't survive, then something else will fare better. So I love self-seeding plants, and ones that spread on their own.

 

But I guess with global warming the appearance of English gardens will change quite a lot, if people go with the flow rather than fighting it. I think the time for some of my plants: hydrangea, helebores, crocosmia - is probably limited. However the lavender, geraniums, and hollyhocks are great too....