so many on the tree that the branches are almost bent to the ground already.I will have to snip off most of them - sad! Otherwise the branches will snap off with the weight.
Then I will have to further thin them later.
The same will have to be done with the gooseberries though we can cook the not quite ripe ones. The other fruit - black and redcurrants, raspberries, pears and apples (Bramley) will be left alone. The pear and apple should sort themselves out with the June Drop - when the tree thins its own crop.
In the lower garden near the stream and ponds, still full of tadpoles but with water beetles and their voracious dytiscus larvae, caddisfly larvae in their little houses
- they make a shell of small stones and twigs in which they live - whirlygigs and pond skaters, freshwater shrimps and water snails, damselflies and so on and so on, is a wild patch of grass.
Here wildflowers flourish like ragged robin and the parasitic yellow rattle. The yellow rattle preys on the roots of grasses and so reduces their vigour allowing the flowers to prosper.
Teasel has made this its home as has sorrel and ox-eye daisy amongst others.
They grow around a young weeping willow that has not yet wept and stands erect and proud - not a weep in sight.
This would also be an excellent place for wild orchids - I will consider their introduction later in the year or early next year. (If I can remember - I have bits of paper all over the place full of forgotten memos.)
The second lot of cauliflowers are eaten - I thought it was mice but today saw a small but satisfied rabbit scurrying up the banking away from the veg beds.
Peter? Benjamin?
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