Kitchen Gardener Rob Smith is giving apples, pears, gooseberries and citrus his a ention
Apples, pears, gooseberries and citrus are all getting my attention now
It’s not just vegetables I grow in the kitchen garden, I also grow different varieties of flowers and fruit, too. After all, I want to grow things
I’ll use and there’s nothing better than picking your own apples or bringing a big bunch of home-grown flowers into the house.
With this is mind, it’s not just the veg beds that need some attention at this time of year, the fruit and flower beds do, too. To start with, while they’re still dormant, it’s a good idea to prune any apples, pears, medlars or quince that need it, especially those with damaged or crossing branches. I planted most of my fruit trees in the last 18 months since transforming the garden, so I don’t have as much damaged or dead wood to prune out of the trees like I did on the allotment orchard, but that’s what always needs cutting out first before you prune to shape.
I've a few young apple and pear trees in the garden, both standard and espalier, which should be checked at this time of year. The espaliers are usually pruned in August or September, but you can remove damaged or dead wood now, while the standard trees can be winter pruned up until March.
Make sure you're using clean, sharp secateurs, then reduce last year’s growth by about a third to a bud which is facing the way you want the branch to grow. Try not to prune to an inward-facing bud, as the idea is to create a goblet shape for maximum airflow around the fruit.
Gooseberries can also be pruned now and I’m having a go at turning my unruly bush into a small standard plant, which will hopefully mean berries are easier to pick without getting pricked by thorns. Decide which stem to make into the standard and remove any others (plus suckers); this will give you
the basic shape of the plant, then remove any lower branches to create the main stem of the plant.
When I removed the lower branches I noticed a few touching the ground had started to root, so these will be put into pots of compost to see if they’ll grow into new plants for free. Finally, I removed about half of the growth to an outward-facing bud and created the shape I wanted, then tied the plant to a sturdy metal spike to create the upright standard shape. After pruning fruit it’s good to give them a feed, so I work a couple of handfuls of wood ash (saved from November’s bonfire) into the top layer of soil; as it’s high in potash it should mean I’m rewarded with some lovely fruit later in the year.