The doorbell rang at 8.30am and confused me, but there was a nice delivery man with my plum tree. It is a Jubilee plum tree on dwarf rootstock (limiting its growth to about 6-8 feet tall) bought from Chris Bowers back in September. They are a fruit specialist and have lots of good advice on how to choose and care for your trees and bushes. I picked it because it self-pollinates, many varieties need to be around other trees for the fruit to set. It arrived well packaged and bare-rooted; many trees are best planted in the late autumn when they go dormant.
So I rushed up to Hulme Community Garden Centre and came back with 50 litres of compost on my shoulders.
As we walked home Monkey said it reminded her of this:
I emptied the bottom of the worm bin to get some lovely extra nutritious stuff for the tree:
and then planted it in one of the second-hand pots we bought a few months ago. I mean it just looks like a twig in a pot so you have to use your imagination, but I am excited to watch it grow. I added some mascara armeniacum (armenian grape hyacinth) bulbs to the compost so that we have some flowers in the spring. It is unlikely to fruit next year, though maybe we will get blossom. After the first year I will get another half-barrel and pot it up. I am enjoying making long term plans for the garden.
So nice to see someone taking a long-range approach to their garden. So many plant year by year.
ReplyDeleteI'm impressed that you carried that load!!