Island Life Magazine Ltd October/November 2007 | Page 73

GARDENING
popular demonstrations
showing how to prune.
“If you don’t get right
into the tree,” said David
Harding, brandishing his
secateurs , “you don’t
get fruit buds forming.
You get a canopy of fruit
and everything below
would die.” Answering a
question from a visitor,
he explained that to
attend to a neglected
tree it’s best to cut out all
the diseased branches
first and then deal with
the branches rubbing
against one another.
If it isn’t how to
produce apples, but
what on earth to do
with all those you’ve got that
concerns you – and it’s been a
bumper year for apples – you
could always make your own
juice. A demonstration using a
domestic-sized apple press –
available at Afton – showed that
for around a kilo of apples and
not too much elbow grease you
end up with a good quantity of

life

juice. The advice was to cut
the apples roughly first, or it
does make for harder work.
The pulp could go on the
compost heap at home: here, it
gets taken to Paul’s rare breed
pigs for a special breakfast.

Island Life - www.isleofwight.net

73