On my new allotment I planted several apples and pears and now I am thinking of moving them. I was trying to make some permaculture guilds but its too much of a hassle and not really worth it.
I have a Egremont Russet and a Ribston Pippin and a pear in the wrong place. The Ribston Pippin I grafted myself and I am very proud of my efforts - first grafting that actually took. I can prune this to an espalier and put it near the path. The Egremont Russet and the pear (lost the label for this and forgotten what it is) are standards and I'm still not sure where to put them in their final positions. I also have a discovery and two pear trees at my old allotment that I am going to bring down to the new. They are only about 2 foot tall so I think that they will move easily. I will probably try to train them as espaliers or cordons.
I am going to move them as soon as I decide where to put them - if the weather is reasonable.
I moved one of the vines today. Sun was shining and the air temperature was around 7oC so I am not worried about how it will fare. It is a white grape and was grown from a cutting. I'm amazed how easy it is to strike a vine cutting. I want to move the other vine soon too. It is a black grape which I bought from our local vineyard at Half Penny Green which I am now told is the largest in the country.
I also planted my strawberry bed using the strawberries I had potted up in September. I would rather plant in October but I still think that I will get some good plants putting them in now.
I have three M9 rootstocks of the grafts that did not take and am going to try again in the spring. I'm going to use the Pippin and Russet for sions because the Cox's Orange Pippin and Discovery have not thrown up any suitable shoots. I will have to decide where to put these too.
Just as long as the air temperature is not too cold and the ground is not frozen, I will move plants around.
I'm putting mychorrhizal fungi on the roots of all of them because I think that this helps them to establish quickly.
So, that's what I do. I will not kill them but I might not get any fruit next year; however they wont be in the way.
It's not always possible to put sheds and fruit trees int he right place to avoid shading the rest of the allotment. I have hummed and hawed about where to put my fruit trees but also about where to put two sheds. I might just sell the old allotment sheds and buy a new one - but where to put it?
In any case I would rather keep one of the sheds because it was my old dad's shed. It would be cheaper to move them than to buy one - have you seen how much they cost?
One of the sheds could be put next to the hedge at the bottom of the allotment. Not much of a slope down there but there is one. It is not likely to get waterlogged down there. The hedge is on the south side of the allotment and this means that the shed will shade the allotment for some of the day - but not much especially in the summer.
I could put it near the main trackway but this will leave it more open to vandalism and being broken into. The trackway is to the north of the allotment and here the shed would not shade any of the veg.
I'm not sure whether they will allow me to have three sheds on the allotment so I am not going to ask for permission.
If I put them in the wrong plance it will irritate me until I move them. Planning allotments is not that easy!
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