You don’t have to have particularly sharp eyes, to see the large amount of fruit that are on most fruit trees this year.

It is true that fruit trees produce in cycles and two years ago was an exceptionally good year, and last summer, despite our best efforts, was conversely almost as pitiful! This year we have had to do fruit reduction work on some of our fruit trees to prevent branches from being snapped off, due to the weight of the fruit.

I never fail to be impressed with the colours of the plums, apples and pears at this time of the year. Everyone has their favourite and I think mine must be the Victoria Plum that we grow here in the Walled Garden. The colours are just stunning.

With the strong sunshine levels this year, the sugar levels are up within the fruit making them especially sweet. 

So just to share a few of the varieties that we grow. In the Walled Garden there’s a really nice Gage called funnily enough, ‘Old Gage‘ which is really sweet and is a particular favourite of one of the team here!

I recently planted an eating apple called Malus domestica ‘Katja’ or ‘Katy‘, which I believe originates from Sweden. It’s a good eater, but of course it’s always a matter of taste!

Lastly, a personal favourite is Malus ‘Lord Lambourne‘ which I grew in my last garden, in North London.

A lot of our apples and pears go for juicing which is available for sale at the Titsey Tearooms. It is quite popular, so much so, it is always sold out before the end of the season.

Did you know, many professional growers treat their fruit trees to what is called a post-harvest feed? This replenishes the trees after they have given out so much, to produce the season’s harvest, which is particularly pertinent to this stressful year. I came across this information some time ago and have used it here at Titsey for several seasons now and it does seem to serve us well.

You can do the same thing as the pros by just dusting under your fruit trees, using a little Bonemeal or Sulphate of Potash. It’s so simple & well worth a try.

Lastly just to say, our fig trees have been very successful this year, a lot better than last year. We have just two varieties of fig at the moment: Brown Turkey & Little Miss Figgy

Little Miss Figgy has been a bit disappointing as the fruits are very small so we may change that and try something like White Marseille, which I have heard is very good. Finding information about growing figs in the UK is actually quite challenging. Ask me how I know!

But the well-known writer Bunny Guinness, who writes for The Telegraph newspaper  and many other gardening magazines, has recently produced a video just about Figs on her YouTube channel. In my view, it is which is well worth a watch, if growing figs is your thing or you fancy giving them a go. Just ask Bunny !

Enjoy the rest of the season…