Prune apples and pears between November and early March, to stimulate new fruiting wood (1-4 year old wood fruits best) and to encourage light and air around the fruit.
Remove any dead or damaged branches/shoots.
Remove any crossing branches/shoots. Keep the better-placed outward facing one unless it’s badly damaged.
To encourage branching, remove a quarter of the previous year’s growth on each main branch. Cut just above a bud that faces outwards.
The side-shoots (laterals) growing from the main branches will eventually form stubby shoots with fruit buds (spurs). Only remove them if they’re crossing or overcrowded (closer than 15cm apart at the base).
Look to remove about 10-20% of a tree each year. Any more and the tree will produce too many new (non-fruiting) shoots.
Some DO’s:
DO use sharp, clean secateurs or loppers, or a pruning saw for bigger branches.
DO remove any dead, diseased, damaged, crossing and rubbing (DDDXR) branches first. Cut these out at the base. You might find you don’t need to do much more pruning for shape once you have removed the DDDXR.
DO encourage light and air to reach the fruits and lardeaves. Light helps the tree to grow and fruit to ripen. Good air flow helps prevent disease. In practice this means going for either a goblet shape, with an open centre to your tree; or a Christmas tree shape with shorter branches nearer the top and a wider spread lower down. Look carefully at the tree to help you decide which shape it is trying to be.
DO ask for a second opinion if you’re not sure what to cut and what to leave.
DO give your secateurs / loppers / saw a clean between each tree. A thorough wipe of each blade with antibacterial wipes will do nicely. This is like a doctor washing hands between patients – it helps prevent disease from spreading.
And some DON’T’s:
DON’T prune PLUMS or CHERRIES in winter. The spores that cause silver leaf disease are in the environment at that time of year and can infect plum and cherry trees through open wounds. If they need pruning, this has to be done in summer.
DON’T get too cold! Go in and warm up with a hot drink if you’re getting chilly.
Other trees: we also have a QUINCE, a MEDLAR and some HAZELS in the orchard. The quince and medlar can be pruned now, in the same way as apples and pears. The hazels (cobnut and filbert) are treated slightly differently, and pruned when in flower.
Braehead, Broomridge and District Community Development Trust (BBDCDT) have been a community anchor working with Stirling Council to reach people who have needed help with shopping, prescription collection etc during the Covid-19 restrictions.
Leading on from this was the decision to use all available raised beds at the Community Garden to grow fresh fruit and veg to share with garden members, volunteers and the wider community.
A much reduced but dedicated team of Braehead Community Garden members have prepared, planted and tended raised beds with fruit and vegetables to share.
Thursday 25th June saw the first harvest wheeled round to North Parish Church hall to be made available through the Heart of Braehead food project.
There were lovely new potatoes, radish, beetroot, tomatoes and lettuce – all freshly picked, full of goodness and very, very local….
We are delighted to be able to contribute to this fantastic community food project.
On Saturday 26th October 2019, Braehead Community Garden will be holding its third Pumpkin Festival – and you and your family are invited to join in the fun.
Pumpkin Carving. 11am-1pm
Bring your pumpkin along to the Community Garden Polytunnels where we’ll have carving kits and lots of ideas for great designs.
The event is FREE for Garden Access Pass holders and their children, £2 for non-members. Don’t forget to bring your own pumpkin!
Children must be accompanied.
Pumpkin Cooking Demonstration. 1.30pm-2.30pm
Ever wondered what you can do with the leftover pumpkin from a carving session? Bring it all in a bag and we’ll show you how to make some delicious recipes. Places are limited, so please book in advance via
Entries Accepted for Braehead Carved Pumpkin Show (1.30pm and 3pm)
We want to see the best carved pumpkins in Braehead. Open to everybody, there will be prizes in the following categories:
Scariest Pumpkin
Funniest Pumpkin
Most artistic pumpkin
Best Pumpkin that references a movie
Best Pumpkin carved by a (supervised) child under 6 years old
Best Pumpkin carved by a (supervised) 7-10 year old child
Best Pumpkin carved by a (supervised) over 10 year old child
Best carving by an adult
The winners will be announced and on display at the lantern festival.
Pumpkin Lantern Display. 5.30pm-7.30pm
All of the entries to our pumpkin carving competition will light up the darkness at the Community Garden – come and see the spooky display!
ENTRY OPEN TO ALL. Outside if dry, in the polytunnel if raining.
Tea, coffee and hot chocolate, dookin’ for apples, hot dogs and candy floss
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