Here at Stephanie’s Kitchen Garden this week we will be treating our fruit trees to a bit of TLC. Earlier in the month we replaced the glue bands on all our fruit trees and our job this week is to give them a winter wash. Once the leaves have all fallen from the trees, a winter wash spray will rake care of any pests looking to hibernate in the branches. We will apply it again in the Spring. I would point out that this is a particularly smelly job. Last time I applied it I made a diary note to make sure that in future it is my last job of the day before heading for the shower!
The leaves have finally finished falling from the trees surrounding the kitchen garden. This week we will remove the last of them from the beds before mulching the soil for the winter. Crops such as rhubarb and asparagus benefit from a good mulch of well rotted manure or compost. (Take care to avoid covering the crowns.) I always leave this job until the autumn leaf fall is over so that I don’t have to pick leaves out of the manure....
This week in the kitchen garden we will be harvesting parsnips and leeks which have been sweetened by the recent frosts.
