You can’t win ’em all

So as you know by now if you watched the GOTD programme, I came second to Katherine, who blew me away on the grafting and extended her lead on the tropical crops. Despite Joe naming me ‘Queen of the Borders’ I couldn’t catch up with her on the final challenge. Congratulations have been flowing in from all quarters, somewhat discomfortingly – it feels incongruous to be so praised for not winning. Peter got much closer to the truth. I took him a mug of tea on Tuesday morning first thing and he rocked back on his heels, sucked on his fag and said ‘Well you bloody cocked that up, didn’t you?’ Indeed I did.

Two bright, frost-free days have given us a chance to pick up the pace outside. Peter and I have been working our way round the garden, clearing up and debating what stays and what doesn’t. I feel ready to take these decisions now, having watched the garden closely for two summers. It’s time to make the garden my own.

The thaw gave me an opportunity to plant the two new pear trees that I picked up before Christmas – a Conference and a Doyenne du Comice. One has replaced a sickly crab apple, the other replaces a Spartan apple which was bady cankered and never fruited as well as its sister tree further up the orchard. One thing inevitably leads to another and I’ve started on the apple tree pruning. A much easier job than last year as the trees are in better shape and just need spur pruning for fruit. As Peter observed drily, I’ve no shortage of apple prunings if I want to practice grafting ….

Inspired by this insight, I’ve kept a bundle of bud sticks, wrapped them up and put them in the fridge. I can’t use them all, so if anyone out there would like scion material from Egremont Russet, Spartan, Tom Pitt or Bramley do let me know. Now all I need is something to graft them onto…