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mochyn

Joined: 21 Dec 2004
Posts: 24585
Location: mid-Wales

Posted: Mon May 09, 05 5:52 am Post subject:
Nettie netting on the net! Just to make you all envious, ours lives in a fruit cage. Cherry tree, that is, not our Nettie.

wellington womble

Joined: 08 Nov 2004
Posts: 15051
Location: East Midlands

Posted: Mon May 09, 05 9:40 am Post subject:
I wonder if I could turn the lawn into a fruit cage?

mochyn

Joined: 21 Dec 2004
Posts: 24585
Location: mid-Wales

Posted: Mon May 09, 05 9:48 am Post subject:
I suppose if the grass is long enough you could mow it, dry it, spin it and knit it into one... (Sorry, I can be a little too literal at times )

Bugs

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 10744

Posted: Mon May 09, 05 10:06 am Post subject:

wellington womble wrote:

I wonder if I could turn the lawn into a fruit cage?

How narrow is your garden? Could you stretch netting from one fence to the other? Less support to provide - you might manage with string/wire to support the "roof" and then just pin down the edges with tent pegs or something like that?

thos

Joined: 08 Mar 2005
Posts: 1139
Location: Jauche, Duchy of Brabant (Bourgogne-ci) and Charolles, Duchy of Burgundy (Bourgogne-ça)

Posted: Mon May 09, 05 10:36 am Post subject:

tahir wrote:

Without netting you won't even get a sniff of cherries, If the trees only a youngster I'd thin out a little in a couple of weeks.

When I used to walk to my Primary school there was a house with a cherry tree in the garden overhanging the front wall. They did not net the tree or I wouldn't have been able to pick them. I remember there were always loads within easy reach, so neither the birds nor the owners seemed to pick them.

tahir

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 45440
Location: Essex

Posted: Mon May 09, 05 10:39 am Post subject:
Bet it was a big old thing though, my dad used to have a mate with a huge cherry tree in his back garden and there were always enough to feed the birds and humans

Bugs

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 10744

Posted: Mon May 09, 05 10:44 am Post subject:
This month's TKG has a chap with a cherry tree - he netted the most heavily laden branches with kind of net socks ( could you use old tights? ) rolled over them, but didn't net all the branches. Wouldn't work on fan trained though, I suppose - but then if it was fan trained it would be a fairly simple matter to put a whole curtain over it.

thos

Joined: 08 Mar 2005
Posts: 1139
Location: Jauche, Duchy of Brabant (Bourgogne-ci) and Charolles, Duchy of Burgundy (Bourgogne-ça)

Posted: Mon May 09, 05 10:53 am Post subject:

tahir wrote:

Bet it was a big old thing though, my dad used to have a mate with a huge cherry tree in his back garden and there were always enough to feed the birds and humans

No, I don't think so. They were terraced houses and the front gardens weren't that big, and I was small.

I remember showing my mother one day and she was horrified that I was stealing somebody's fruit, just as I was horrified years later to see people had climbed into our garden to pick our blackberries. As an eight-year-old, it didn't seem wrong to me.

mochyn

Joined: 21 Dec 2004
Posts: 24585
Location: mid-Wales

Posted: Mon May 09, 05 11:04 am Post subject:
Fan-trained fruit is really easy to net, and it works well. If it's against a wall, mount a batten above the top of the plant and suspend the net form it, anchored at the sides and base so the little poppets can't duck in where it's not pinned down. You could leave some fruit out for them if you felt really generous, though!

wellington womble

Joined: 08 Nov 2004
Posts: 15051
Location: East Midlands

Posted: Mon May 09, 05 11:40 am Post subject:

In general, I'm quite happy to share. I like feathered company in the garden, and I don't mind paying for it! I've got some build a balls in the car, so I'm going to build a frame from them, and fleece it (I've got lots of fleece) It's such a small tree, the net will be about 4x1x1 feet!

I have the most wonderful mental image of my poor (but in disgrace, as they have got into the veg patch) dogs bouncing off the netting as they race up the garden! tee hee.

it's more a question of permission, rather than practicalities - its his lawn. I didn't want one, and said if he had one, I would have anything to do with it! damn - opportunity missed, there!

Cashew

Joined: 21 Jan 2005
Posts: 60
Location: UK

Posted: Mon May 09, 05 11:44 am Post subject:
My neighbours have a cherry tree. They haven't pruned it since they moved in, so it's a bit wild. Gets a good yeild of cherries, but about 70% of them end up being eaten by birds. Makes for a mess in surrounding gardens, but that just has to be put up with. It had a massive amount of blossom this yr, but then it got windy. One cold night 2 weeks ago, I thought it was snowing

nettie

Joined: 02 Dec 2004
Posts: 5888
Location: Suffolk

Posted: Mon May 09, 05 5:36 pm Post subject:

mochyn wrote:

Just to make you all envious, ours lives in a fruit cage.

That's either a huge fruit cage or a small tree!!

mochyn

Joined: 21 Dec 2004
Posts: 24585
Location: mid-Wales

Posted: Tue May 10, 05 10:31 am Post subject:

It's pretty big, Nettie, but the tree is also on a dwarfing root stock! The cage also holds gooseberries (3 vars.), blackcurrants (3 vars.), raspberries (2 vars.), strawberries (3 vars.) and there's still a bit of space. What am I missing? The rhubabr lives in the veg. garden, so I have plenty of that, and neither of us like red/whitecuurants. The apples live in the woodland and the qujince is near the house so I can see the flowers! Don't want medlars, either, and there are so many wild blackberries it would be a waste of space to grow them. And we don't like pears, either.

Bugs

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 10744

Posted: Tue May 10, 05 10:36 am Post subject:

mochyn wrote:

What am I missing?

Me! I would like to live in your fruit cage please

Yum.

Have you ever tried any of the hybrid berries...loganberries, tayberries...all those crazy-named blackberry things? Or a blueberry or three in a container if necessary?

I have a salmonberry from seed to plant out this year..opinions vary on whether the fruit will be edible

There are a couple of really interesting fruit nurseries in the links, too.

mochyn

Joined: 21 Dec 2004
Posts: 24585
Location: mid-Wales

Posted: Tue May 10, 05 10:46 am Post subject:

You got it: I forgot the blueberries! Fortunately, our soil is quite acid, so a few bushes will be filling the bed where the cherry is this autumn. There's a great fruit nursery not too far from here that does organic stuff, and the things we had from the last winter are looking really good, so I'll be on to them for the blueberries.

I haven't tried any of the hybrids: we both love raspberries so much, it's hard to see how they could be improved on! I do like the look of Japanese Wineberries, though, and I'm tempted to train some along the stock proof netting that is the fence to the veg. garden.

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