Espalier - year one

The six apples and two pears collected from Woodbridge Fruit Trees one snowy weekend last July have survived their first season, despite a few cherry slugs on the pears. The little tree pictured here tied safely to its trellis is a Huonville Crab, which has beautiful purple leaves. Apparently its fruit will have scarlet coloured flesh as well. The trees produced three actual apples (two Cox's Orange Pippin and one Berner Rose), then not long before they were ready to pick, one of the dogs broke into the orchard (she was after the chook poo in there) and ate all three! So we missed out, and David made a special latch for the gate to prevent further incursions. If you want to place an order for some trees from Woodbridge, I suggest you get in quick as some varieties are already sold out. Each year, many people wait for notification that their new catalogue is up in late April/early May, so they can place their order and won't miss out.