Tuesday, 23 December 2008

The Apple Arch

It has been a dream of ours (of Andrew's in particular) to have a few Arches, a la Geoff Hamilton in the older series of Gardeners' World*. We have a little piece of Eden and want to make the most of it, therefore doing up is always a good idea, it also gives the plot a bit of structure. At the moment we have 3 Arches bought (at sale prices) and they will all, eventually go down at the bottom of the path.
*I have tried to find a good photo of this but the only I can get is tiny and has a lot of foreground in it. Wick.

But for now I'll have to concentrate on the one ~ the Apple one erected on Sunday. It has 2 lovely little trees planted one on either side. They were bare rooted, but for convenience sake they were in pots, bought from a large DIY and Gardening chain. Andrew chose a 'Lord Lambourne' and a 'Egremont Russet'. I found a great website all about Apples ~ http://www.orangepippin.com/




We planted them together (well I 'helped') and staked them in at a 45 degree angle. Not without some frustration and a bit of inappropriate anger from someone, who shall remain nameless (it wasn't me, that is all I'm saying). Then we put together the Arch, with was surprisingly easy and quite fun. Bit like Meccano and all the screws were the same type and length and there were 2 left over, hoorah!

And so, here it is, out 1st fruit arch, we did it!!
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3 comments:

  1. Unknown2 January 2009 at 09:13

    Hi

    Just been looking at your blog and really enjoying the fact that you are getting so much enjoyment out of growing your own veg. I did notice something in your pics of the arches that your have put in. I hope they will be strong enough to take the weight of the tree's covered in all there lovely fruit when they are a few years old. The reason i say this is that I have seen these arches collapse and i would hate this to happen to yours. Hope i have not put a dampner on things just wanted to give a piece of advice from landscaper and gardener who wants everyone to succeed at growing veg
    gerald

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  2. Carrie2 January 2009 at 19:27

    You could be right, a false economy?!! We'll just have to wait and see ~ maybe they will interwine and support themselves (wishful thinking?) or maybe I'll get the hubby out there with some wood. Thanks for the comment though, nice to hear from you.

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  3. VP18 January 2009 at 12:06

    Hi - this is for Andy as he left a question over at my place re the arches.

    Yes, it looks like you've bought the same arches as me. We've a clay soil here and a couple of miserable summers means quite a few of the arch uprights have rotted through quite close to the soil. I've done some temporary repairs by fixing the rotted through uprights to bamboo canes, but they will only last so long themselves. So far we've managed with these arches for 4 years, so if your soil's lighter than ours, they could last a little longer.

    I knew the arches wouldn't be a permanent fixture, but was hoping they'd last long enough for the apples own arch structure to be self supporting. This clearly won't happen for us, so I'm planning on making a 'proper' support structure from scrap wood.

    So as they say, you pays your money and you takes yer choice!

    Hope this helps for your lottie planning...

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