Sap rising, fruit set and first fruits

Thanks to everyone who visited George Street Orchard on Sunday as part of the Valley Project and Otago Girls’ High School fundraising tours. It was great to see familiar faces and I enjoyed meeting lots of new people so keen to grow. Thanks also to those who purchased some of my plants – it really helps to keep my nursery habit alive!

Lettuce and Shungiku. No dig 75cm bed, 45cm path. Yes, I measured. Modern standard dimensions for no dig market gardening and to me it’s the best

Rhubarb and Sweet Purple asparagus

Haskap berries

It’s such a fun time of year – watching blossom slowly turn to fruit, seeing perennial herbs construct themselves again, launching new ideas and patterns, and witnessing the emergence of crops you’ve been waiting on a few years…

Nursery courtyard

Moorpark apricot

First time persimmon flowering

Marionberry

Haskap

Mini market garden

Conference pear

Loquat

Nursery

Orchid

Sea kale

White paint dramatically improves your equivalent sunshine hours

William’s bon Cretian pear

Woodchips for paths, mulch, compost…call an arborist today and get heaps. Leave it in a pile to age if you want or use it as you need. After a year or so on a pathway you can rake it up for adding to a potting mix

Liberty apple

Brown Turkey fig. Permanent framework is now mostly established. One to two year shoots grown and cut back off this as figs only fruit on new growth (main crop) and last years wood (Breba crop).

Loquat well under way at a garden nearby

Sea kale root cuttings

Chicken roost and nesting box under construction

Covered compost and chicken run connection