Wimbledon - Strawberries & Cream, Cherries and Hampton Court Flower Show too!
Its been a funny old week for The English Apple Man; early Sunday morning my wife awoke with a severe pain in her knee, unable to get to the bathroom without crutches the pain was severe (she is pretty good at coping with pain, so I knew it was severe) and by 6.45am we were sitting in A&E. Thankfully it was not as we first feared a blood clot, but an arthritic induced pain. After X RAY and painkillers were prescribed, we were back home.
Monday morning we saw her own Doctor who suggested with painkillers and rest it should settle down; "not wise to rush off to see an orthopaedic surgeon" he said so 'my lady' was confined to her armchair and with painkillers easing the discomfort settled down to watch Wimbledon!
On Tuesday morning, 'yours truly' came to grief! Rushing in from the back garden, 'tripped over a hose' (I left it there) and in 'a split second' smashed my cheek into a flower pot - OUCH - very lucky, no broken bones but I am now 'black and blue' down one side of the face!
No orchards visited during Monday - Thursday; too hot and found it necessary to relax (and keep my lady company) each afternoon; well it is Wimbledon!
But great news from Hampton Court where Hadlow College Students won a Gold Medal and Best in Show award for their creation of 'The Green Seam garden' telling the tale of regeneration of the old Betteshanger Colliery.
Friday and its back to visiting orchards!
My first call, early in the morning was to 'the Levett family' at their Farm in Hawkhurst where son Christian (Chris Junior) was busy organising Cherry picking.
Back in April - The English Apple Man visited Chris Levett (Christian's Dad) to look at the Cherries in blossom under the recently erected rain covers. To see the content Click on: Journal for 24th April 2015
Friday was the first day of Cherry picking at Levett's and to add to the pressure on grower and pickers, the fruit under the bird nets - today it was the variety Merchant, suffered hail which fell on the farm on 19th May and has damaged a high proportion of the fruit. Thankfully Chris has insured against hail (expensive!) but is trying to salvage as much as possible of the undamaged fruit.
Below: picking Cherries at Bare Tilt Farm
The pickers are predominately from Eastern Europe and familiar with harvesting fruit; among the group, a father and daughter; the father had met me before when I was filming apple picking in East Kent last year.
The pickers were doing a very good job of selecting the undamaged cherries (not an easy task) and 'hopefully' the effort to salvage as much as possible will be financially worthwhile; Chris told me if it proves too costly the second option is to pick all the 'sound fruit' for makers of Cherry Juice!
Below: Trays of picked cherries and Chris Levett posing between 'Sonja' and her father.
Below: the hail damage can be clearly seen on these cherries
Chalk and Cheese!
The value of the 'rain covers' is never more obvious than in a year like 2015, when hail has ravaged fruit crops in many areas of Kent; apples, pears, plums and cherries have all suffered, but the investment in 'rain cover's has saved the day for the Levett's on their protected Cherries.
Below: Kordia Cherries under the French manufactured 'Filpack-agricole' rain covers; fortuitously they were 'in place' prematurely purely due to a decision to take advantage of available labour in April. Normally covers would not go on until early June (well after the hail damage on 19th May)
Chris anticipates the first Kordia will be picked some time next week; the size and quality of the fruit 'under cover' is far superior to the unprotected fruit.
Below: Kordia trees and a close up of Kordia Cherries
Below: Regina is a later Cherry. Summersun is under netting and not of the same quality of the protected fruit
The vagaries of the weather have always challenged 'farmers and growers' and in these days of much higher investment in 'the' more intensive systems required to compete with the overseas competition, growers will more and more attempt to 'take the risk out' of growing with protective measures.
The covering system was supplied by Filpack - agricole and Chris Levett is the UK Agent.
Organic Apples & Pears
My second visit on Friday was to my good friends Matthew and Carole Wilson. I admire so much their commitment to growing organically, which they have been doing now for more than 15 years. Matthew is a very knowledgeable grower and has, after overcoming the 'stressful early years' changing from conventional growing, seen a reward for his and Carole's endeavors.
Touring the farm, the potential yield variation from 'variety to variety' is clear. But that is one of the vagaries of organic growing. Some hail damage is also evident (again from 19th May) but will not cause too many problems.
Below: an organic tree and organic apples
Fiesta (also known as Red Pippin) is the most prolific of the varieties on the farm.
Below: Fiesta apples and in the next picture Perry Pears
To finish this week's Journal, I return to Hadlow College and their award winning garden at Hampton Court Flower Show. A big thank you to Hadlow College 'Press Officer' - Pat Crawford for writing this concise account of Bethany Williams and Stuart Towner's acclaimed design.
RHS HAMPTON COURT PALACE FLOWER SHOW 2015 - HADLOW COLLEGE SPONSORED GARDEN: 'GREEN SEAM'.
The 'Green Seam' garden exhibited by Hadlow College at RHS Hampton Court Flower Show - designed by Bethany Williams and Stuart Towner - won a Gold Medal and was judged Best Show Garden against entries from some of the most famous designers in the world! Bethany and Stuart - who are over the moon with their achievement - both recently graduated from Hadlow/Greenwich University with First Class Honours in Garden Design. What a fantastic start to the holidays!
Green Seam tells the story of the amazing £40m regeneration of Betteshanger, a former Kent coalfield, being led by Hadlow College.
The Green Seam garden depicts the transformation of the former colliery site into a sustainable park for education, sustainable business and community use. It shows how pioneer plant species (some of which are rare) can colonise apparently hostile environments such as soil heaps and transform them into places of beauty. The garden shows the contrast between the dark colliery spoil and the vivid greens and pinks of the plants - the black seam of coal becomes the green seam of sustainable growth. A black wall represents the coalface and divides the space between the 'wild' spoil heap and the 'tamed' garden. Coal pillars represent the miners and their heritage and a lift cage symbolises the miners' daily descent below ground. Steel structures and metal cables support climbing plants and reflect the shape of the colliery pithead. Black opaque glass pillars represent the future.
Stuart Charles Towner has set up his own design practice with the intention of building a portfolio that includes a wide range of projects here and overseas, the main focus being the country house market.
Asked where he would like to be in 10 years' time, Stuart responded 'With a successful multi-discipline practice working all round the world'.
Bethany Williams trained in journalism, and went on to become a news editor for a regional newspaper which she gave up to concentrate on gardening - her passion.
Bethany works as a self-employed garden and landscape designer; she is in the process of planning to run her own design practice.
Where does Bethany see herself in ten years' time? 'Running my own design practice - and continuing to expand my knowledge of plants, gardens, landscapes and design. I don't think the learning can ever be finished!'
Below: Bethany and Stuart's Gold medal Winning Garden
The English Apple Man congratulates Bethany and Stuart for their inspired design and Hadlow College for creating the environment for their development into award winning designers!
WOW - from nothing on the PC until Friday morning, this week's Journal has extended far beyond my expectations................
Take care
The English Apple Man