What's new, what's growing, what we're learning. Updates, guides and stories for people who take their garden seriously.
An identification helper for the five commonest fruit tree diseases: apple scab, fire blight, brown rot, pear rust and peach leaf curl. How to recognise each by its damage, why fire blight is notifiable, and how an airy crown and tree hygiene prevent most problems.
Maggots in cherries need not be. Why early varieties out-ripen the cherry fruit fly, how yellow traps and a net help, and how to break the cycle in the soil.
The sour cherry bears on one-year-old wood and goes bare without pruning. How to divert the spent whips onto young shoots after the harvest, and why it differs from the sweet cherry.
Why the winter cut drives growth and the summer cut slows it, how to get rid of water sprouts and bring light to the fruit, and why cherries are a special case.
