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More bargains

Saturday, February 23, 2013 12:21

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Latest post from MARKSVEGPLOT – a blog about food and gardening in England”

The other day I saw on A Whole Plot of Love a post about the supermarket Aldi offering fruit trees for £3.99 each… This was an offer that sounded too good to miss, so I went along to see for myself. The trees certainly looked very good specimens, and at that price it seemed foolish not to buy one. At Jane’s suggestion I bought a “Bramley” apple tree, because if in due course it produces fruit this will be the most useful type for the kitchen. I’m sure most of you know that the Bramley is the best cooking apple of all – it “falls” (disintegrates) very well when cooked, producing a lovely smooth puree. Anyway, such things are a long way off still! It will probably be a couple of years before we get a viable crop.

The label says that my tree will grow to between 6 and 10 feet – it must be grafted onto a miniature stock – so I have planted the tree by the fence, over near the minarettes. The tree I chose has a particularly long leader (the main growing stem), so maybe it will eventually be very tall. As you can see in the photo below, the tree is already taller than the fence, and the fence is 6 ft.

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New Bramley apple tree in the centre and older Pear tree at left

Here’s a close-up. There’s not much to see at present, but at least you can see that I have provided the tree with a hardwood stake, to which I have strapped it with a couple of sturdy plastic ties.

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Now of course as all gardeners know, it is impossible when shopping to buy just the thing you went out to buy, so I must now admit that whilst buying the apple tree my eye also lit upon some packs of Rhubarb plants which were nearby… At a mere £1.99, how could I resist?

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It’s a pack of 2 plants of the “Timperley Early” variety. When I say two plants, I mean two chunks of plant evidently sliced with a spade. I’m not complaining though, since they seem very vigorous and are already putting up a couple of lovely strong and colourful stalks. This variety has really bright red stalks – though they will be pale pink if artificially forced.

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They have already been planted, so that they have the maximum opportunity to settle in. I’ll not harvest any stalks from them this year though. I’ll wait until next year, by which time they should be well established.

I never cease to be amazed by the economics of the supermarket. How on earth do they manage to sell a decent-sized, healthy, well-packaged fruit tree for as little as £3.99? How much do you think they pay the grower?

To read more articles like this, on Gardening and Gastronomy, please visit * http://marksvegplot.blogspot.com/ *

2013-02-23 10:51:56

Source: http://marksvegplot.blogspot.com/2013/02/more-bargains.html

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