Essential Aftercare & Maintenance for Good Crops Clean Up Leaves & Prunings When the crop is in, and winter is knocking on the door, rake up the fallen leaves and twigs from under your fruit trees. Then burn or bin them: do not compost. More fungal infections overwinter on fallen fruit leaves than anywhere else. When you… Continue reading Looking After Fruit Trees
How To Grow ‘Brown Turkey’ Figs
The most popular fig variety in the UK for getting fruit from is the ‘Brown Turkey’ fig.The instructions for ‘Brown Turkey’ apply to other figs, such as the wild species Ficus carica, but those are more commonly grown as ornamental trees.The dwarf variety, ‘Little Miss Figgy‘, is different: very slow growing and requires little pruning. How… Continue reading How To Grow ‘Brown Turkey’ Figs
Applying Winter Wash Fruit Tree Insecticide
How to Apply Winter Wash to Fruit Trees It’s good to apply winter wash to your fruit and ornamental trees in the winter when there are no leaves on the trees (the spray will scorch leaves, so it is only suitable for winter use). Our winter wash is an organic pesticide that works by attacking the waxy compounds that make up… Continue reading Applying Winter Wash Fruit Tree Insecticide
Apply Fruit Tree Grease Bands to Protect them against Moths
Grease Bands are Convenient on Young Fruit Trees If you apply grease bands to your young fruit trees, it will help prevent winter moths laying their eggs. When these hatch, the caterpillars eat the leaves and fruit. You only use grease bands on younger fruit trees with smooth bark, older trees need to be painted with grease. VIDEO… Continue reading Apply Fruit Tree Grease Bands to Protect them against Moths
Apply Grease to Fruit Trees to Protect them against Moths
Applying fruit tree grease from November onwards is used to trap a wide variety of winter moths before they can lay their eggs and preventing caterpillars eating the leaves and fruit. In the video below, we show you how to apply the grease to protect your fruit trees. You will need an old paint brush to apply the… Continue reading Apply Grease to Fruit Trees to Protect them against Moths
Preparing Clay Soil
Why Clay Soil is Special Soil compaction tends to be worse on heavy clay, so breaking up the soil to a good fork’s depth at the bottom of the planting hole is often very beneficial, as is working over a larger area than strictly necessary for the planting hole. Improving Clay Soil Options Improving Planting… Continue reading Preparing Clay Soil
Prepare Soil For Planting Trees, Shrubs & Hedges
This article is primarily about preparing soil before planting trees (ornamental or fruiting), hedging, roses, and other shrubs. It won’t consider vegetable beds, where more work might be justified, or perhaps No-Dig methods. Soil preparation is important because it helps strong roots to establish quickly. If the roots struggle to settle in, the whole plant will struggle. Like so many things in gardening,… Continue reading Prepare Soil For Planting Trees, Shrubs & Hedges
Transplanting Evergreen Trees & Shrubs
Moving Evergreens Without Killing Them This article is all about moving evergreens like box, yew or pyracantha. Moving plants is not complicated, but by minimising the stress they endure, your success rate will be much higher. Preparation before digging up your plants You need a plan. Are you going to replant immediately? If so then make sure the new… Continue reading Transplanting Evergreen Trees & Shrubs
Best Time To Plant Hedges & Trees In the UK
“Which month is best for planting?” is an age-old debate! You can plant trees or hedges at any time of year. There are pros & cons to each season. Watering new plants well in dry weather until they are established is the most important thing. Bareroot Season Starts In Autumn – November With woody plants like trees, hedge plants, or rose bushes, it’s always better to… Continue reading Best Time To Plant Hedges & Trees In the UK
How To Pleach A Flat-Head Lime Tree
How to pleach a flat-headed Lime tree Pleaching trees creates a “hedge on stilts”. Many trees are suitable, and limes are ideal pleached subjects: VIDEO TRANSCRIPT So, I'm going to show you how to pleach a lime tree, which are useful for aerial hedges to fill in a gap above a wall or to screen… Continue reading How To Pleach A Flat-Head Lime Tree
How to Plant a Tree With a Stake
Planting Big Trees This video shows you how to plant trees delivered in larger sizes, called standards. The process is actually the same as for a fruit tree, but we have a video on that too. All standards are delivered bareroot in winter (Nov-March). Rootgrow Is Optional But Highly Recommended VIDEO TRANSCRIPT Hello & welcome to Ashridge Trees (Nurseries). This film… Continue reading How to Plant a Tree With a Stake
Walnut Tree Tolerant Plants
Do Black Walnut Trees Kill Other Trees? The allelopathic (harmful to other plants) nature of Juglans nigra, Black Walnut, is widely thought to pose challenges for nearby plant life due to the secretion of juglone, a substance harmful to many other plants. This effect, stronger in wet soils low in organic matter like sand or clay, appears… Continue reading Walnut Tree Tolerant Plants
Poplar & Willow Short Rotation Biomass
Planting Willow & Poplar for Biomass Wood Fuel Details on many biomass related subjects. Biomass fuel is living or recently dead organic matter, such as wood, used to power generators and often to heat homes.It is the past, present, and future of renewable energy. Coppicing trees for a renewable source of wood is an ancient practice.… Continue reading Poplar & Willow Short Rotation Biomass
Native British Trees List
You can find all the native British trees listed here, and we grow and sell most of them. Definition of native VS naturalised trees True natives trees are often defined as:Trees that colonised Britain during the time between the end of the ice age about 10,000 years ago and the formation of the Channel by the… Continue reading Native British Trees List
Dutch Elm Disease
Dutch elm disease (DED) is caused by Ophiostoma novo-ulmi and Ophiostoma ulmi fungi, which primarily attack members of the Ulmus family (Elm trees). The disease probably arose in the far East and was introduced to Europe in about 1910, arriving in the USA a few years later; it was just identified in the Netherlands first. European and American elms trees which… Continue reading Dutch Elm Disease
Pruning A Crab apple Tree
When to Prune Crab Apple Trees This video demonstrates a crab apple tree, and the same principles apply to a lot of other deciduous trees. But do not worry if you have to prune at some other time of year! Crab apples, like most garden trees, are extremely tough, and nothing bad will happen if you prune… Continue reading Pruning A Crab apple Tree
Looking After a Bay Tree Care Guide
Laurus nobilis, Sweet Bay or Bay Laurel, is a smart evergreen tree, easy to clip as a hedge, ideal for training into topiary shapes. The richly aromatic leaves are used in cooking to flavour stews and soups. Our bay tree care guide has all the instructions you’ll need to care for your bay tree and get… Continue reading Looking After a Bay Tree Care Guide
Slit Planting Vs Planting In A Trench Or Hole
Compare Slit Planting VS Trench Planting Slit Planting Used for bareroot hedging & trees under 80cm Mainly for country hedges & forestry planting of sapling trees Does not allow you to improve soil Roots must be small enough to sweep down into a slit Quick and easy See our Country Hedge Planting Film Trench /… Continue reading Slit Planting Vs Planting In A Trench Or Hole
Will Tree Roots Grow Through Concrete?
Tree roots will not grow through anything that is solid enough, including the concrete foundations of a modern building. Consider that tree roots won’t grow through a cheap plastic pot: they can only push against the sides of the holes that are already at the bottom. However, tree roots can do two things over time: Drain Pipes and Septic… Continue reading Will Tree Roots Grow Through Concrete?
Buying Mature Trees
What Size Mature Tree Are You Looking For? When people want to buy a mature tree, they are usually thinking of the largest tree sizes that we deliver, known as Standard Trees. Once a tree is over about 250cm tall, it’s big enough to grade as a Standard, measured by its girth in centimetres at 1m above ground… Continue reading Buying Mature Trees
Rose Pests and Diseases
Deer love the top shoots, buds and foliage Leaving ragged stems and bare branches as they go. They are particularly attracted to new planting out of sheer inquisitiveness. Deer tend to graze at night so it is difficult to frighten them off. They are more of a pest when foraging elsewhere is reduced; when berries or… Continue reading Rose Pests and Diseases
Deadhead Repeat Flowering Roses
How to Deadhead a Repeating Rose Bush, With Some Summer Pruning In this example, we are using the vigorous, repeat flowering rambler, Narrow Waters, but the principle applies to most roses that require deadheading, which means most roses that are popular today! Deadheading back to a breaking bud gives the rose a head start on re-flowering. Do I Deadhead… Continue reading Deadhead Repeat Flowering Roses
Pruning & Trimming Bush Roses
Climbing roses are pruned differently, into a framework of long, ideally winding canes that cover its supports. How to Prune Rose Bushes Pruning increases flower production and keeps your roses tidy. It is easy, although we recommend a nice pair of goatskin gloves! For best results, different roses are treated in slightly different ways, but it is far better to… Continue reading Pruning & Trimming Bush Roses
Pruning A Climbing Rose
Climbing roses have a different regime than pruning rose bushes. They are not really true climbers, meaning they don’t twine like Honeysuckle or stick like Ivy. With a little guidance to start them off, they will scramble up through a tree or large shrub, but mostly you must tie them onto sturdy support wires against a building, wall, or trellis. You… Continue reading Pruning A Climbing Rose
Planting Rose Bushes
Rose bushes are British gardeners’ favourite plant. In this complete guide to planting rose bushes, find out the best conditions for roses, how to plant them in borders or in pots, and avoid rose replant sickness. Roses are cheap and easy to buy bareroot in Winter season, looking like this: TRANSCRIPT So these are the roses… Continue reading Planting Rose Bushes
Best Rose Varieties For Shady Gardens
All rose varieties flower best with plenty of sunlight: that is true for the majority of ornamental plants. However, the tough varieties listed below have the most tolerance for partial shade, meaning less than half a day of sun during Summer. They should flower reasonably well growing against a North facing wall with open sky above… Continue reading Best Rose Varieties For Shady Gardens
Rose Replant Disease
What is rose replant disease? Rose replant disease is probably the most common example of specific replant disease, which can affect several other trees in the rose family, including all the fruit trees commonly grown in the UK. It occurs when you try to plant a new rose right in the same soil one was… Continue reading Rose Replant Disease
Old Roses VS Antique Roses
What are Old Garden Roses? The standard definition of an Old Garden Rose is that it belongs to a class of rose that existed before 1867 (not counting wild roses, also known as species roses), even if it was bred more recently. So, according to this definition, an Old Garden Rose could have been bred in the last few years, while some “modern roses” still… Continue reading Old Roses VS Antique Roses
How to Grow Raspberry Bushes
Intro to Raspberry Growing These point apply to almost all our raspberry plants: Raspberries are either Bareroot Raspberry Planting A raspberry bed needs thorough preparation. How to plant bareroot raspberry canes Heavy clay is already fertile and water retentive, and can turn really soggy if you try to improve a relatively small area with organic matter, so… Continue reading How to Grow Raspberry Bushes
How to Pot Up Bareroot Strawberry Plants
When you order bareroot strawberry plants from us, you can either plant them straight outside in your strawberry beds and planters, or you can pot them up as shown in the video below. You will need your strawberry plants, 9cm pots, compost and water. Video TRANSCRIPT At Ashridge Nurseries we’ve got bareroot strawberries for sale. We’re just… Continue reading How to Pot Up Bareroot Strawberry Plants