Posted by Dave Hill on December 28, 2011, 4:55 am
> wrote:
> > My son and daughter-in-law have bought a cottage in North Wales which is
> > 1000 feet (330 metres) above sea level. The garden and grounds have not
> > been cultivated for 30 too 40 years. They've made a start in clearing
> > the ground and are now wondering what will grow at that level. They are
> > interested in veg. and fruit trees predominately.
> > Any suggestions will be appreciated.
> > Thanks in advance.
> > --
> > Macey660
> Heh heh.
> I spent 20yrs in the same situation.
> You are on a hiding to nothing.
> The soil will be light and sandy = dry in Summer and impoverished.
> Any compost etcyou put in vanishes in a few weeks.
> You will lose 6 weeks out of the growing season due to altitude.
> Nights can be very cold.
> Wind can be a majorproblem.
> Forget about brassicas but roots do OK.
> Potatos do OK, get blight resistant varieties.
> A tunnel greenhouse is imperative.
> You need to make preparations to collect and store irrigation water in
> Winter for Summer use.
> Most fruit trees are a disaster even if sheltered. The shrubby ones
> do mediocre Raspberries, gooseberries etc
Balderdash
It's North Wales.
1000ft is not that high, what's more important is it's aspect, is it
North, South, East or west facing?
It's easy to check the soil type, The majority of the soil is clay
based and wet.
Remember the rainfall is high.in a lot of North Wales.
Are there trees growing in the neighbourhood?
If there are other people living in the area, what are they growing?
Posted by Sacha on December 28, 2011, 6:34 am
>> wrote:
>>
>>> My son and daughter-in-law have bought a cottage in North Wales which i
> s
>>> 1000 feet (330 metres) above sea level. The garden and grounds have not
>>> been cultivated for 30 too 40 years. They've made a start in clearing
>>> the ground and are now wondering what will grow at that level. They are
>>> interested in veg. and fruit trees predominately.
>>
>>> Any suggestions will be appreciated.
>>
>>> Thanks in advance.
>>
>>> --
>>> Macey660
>>
>> Heh heh.
>> I spent 20yrs in the same situation.
>> You are on a hiding to nothing.
>> The soil will be light and sandy = dry in Summer and impoverished.
>> Any compost etcyou put in vanishes in a few weeks.
>> You will lose 6 weeks out of the growing season due to altitude.
>> Nights can be very cold.
>> Wind can be a majorproblem.
>> Forget about brassicas but roots do OK.
>> Potatos do OK, get blight resistant varieties.
>> A tunnel greenhouse is imperative.
>> You need to make preparations to collect and store irrigation water in
>> Winter for Summer use.
>>
>> Most fruit trees are a disaster even if sheltered. The shrubby ones
>> do mediocre Raspberries, gooseberries etc
>
> Balderdash
> It's North Wales.
> 1000ft is not that high, what's more important is it's aspect, is it
> North, South, East or west facing?
> It's easy to check the soil type, The majority of the soil is clay
> based and wet.
> Remember the rainfall is high.in a lot of North Wales.
> Are there trees growing in the neighbourhood?
> If there are other people living in the area, what are they growing?
David, was it North Wales that wonderful Eucalyptus nursery operated?
Used to be Celyn Nursery and then just became the Eucalyptus Nursery,
iirc. The owner was killed in an accident about 5 years ago.
--
Sacha
Posted by Emery Davis on December 28, 2011, 6:55 pm
On 12/28/2011 12:34 PM, Sacha wrote:
> David, was it North Wales that wonderful Eucalyptus nursery operated?
> Used to be Celyn Nursery and then just became the Eucalyptus Nursery,
> iirc. The owner was killed in an accident about 5 years ago.
Not David but I think it was. I have 4 trees from there. It was very
sad what happened.
FWIW we are at somewhat > than 1000 ft, south facing with quite a bit of
wind. Not as rugged here in Normandy as N. Wales (much warmer I think).
We manage to have a small orchard and lots of garden including maples
which are not the easiest in the wind...
The wind does really fry thing out.
Posted by Sacha on December 28, 2011, 7:01 pm
> On 12/28/2011 12:34 PM, Sacha wrote:
>> David, was it North Wales that wonderful Eucalyptus nursery operated?
>> Used to be Celyn Nursery and then just became the Eucalyptus Nursery,
>> iirc. The owner was killed in an accident about 5 years ago.
>
> Not David but I think it was. I have 4 trees from there. It was very
> sad what happened.
Thanks, Emery. I think you're right. I first came here to buy
Eucalyptus for my old house and Ray put me in touch with them. And the
Nursery used to buy wholesale from them. Their stock was excellent. I'm
just very sorry for them and for all of those interested in the plants,
that their business was unable to carry on.
>
> FWIW we are at somewhat > than 1000 ft, south facing with quite a bit of
> wind. Not as rugged here in Normandy as N. Wales (much warmer I think).
> We manage to have a small orchard and lots of garden including maples
> which are not the easiest in the wind...
>
> The wind does really fry thing out.
Establishing a shelter belt might be a first requirement but I speak as
a novice of those conditions. Almost all my gardening has been done at
very nearly the opposite extreme - sea level or near to it!
--
Sacha
www.hillhousenursery.com
South Devon
Posted by Dave Liquorice on December 28, 2011, 10:58 am
On Wed, 28 Dec 2011 00:32:46 -0800 (PST), harry wrote:
> You are on a hiding to nothing.
It won't be easy for sure.
> The soil will be light and sandy = dry in Summer and impoverished.
Might be soils vary considerably across wales from peat to sand via
clay.
> Any compost etcyou put in vanishes in a few weeks.
That will depend on the soil.
> You will lose 6 weeks out of the growing season due to altitude.
Yes the season is short, we are at 1400' on the North Pennines, might
be a 8 week shorter season.
> Nights can be very cold.
Temps will be 2 or 3C lower than at sea level.
> Wind can be a majorproblem.
That is the major problem here, stuff can be literally blown out of
the ground.
> Forget about brassicas but roots do OK.
If it's a windy location forget about anything that has much top
growth. It'' just get thrashed to death and the plant will spend all
it's energy repairing that rather than producing the crop.
> Potatos do OK, get blight resistant varieties.
> A tunnel greenhouse is imperative.
Ha! If you can get it to stay up in the wind.
> You need to make preparations to collect and store irrigation water in
> Winter for Summer use.
Not a problem up here, even in the driest summers the ground (peaty)
is still moist. A lot will depend on the soil of course.
> Most fruit trees are a disaster even if sheltered. The shrubby ones
> do mediocre Raspberries, gooseberries etc
We have gooseberries, red and black currants. They crop reasonably
well (without proper tending as well) the big problem is getting a
window in the weather to pick the damn things when they are just
right.
We find that stuff just takes a season or three to get established,
combination of the lower temps and short season. Things may even
appear to have died but come back after missing a season.
--
Cheers
Dave.
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> > My son and daughter-in-law have bought a cottage in North Wales which is
> > 1000 feet (330 metres) above sea level. The garden and grounds have not
> > been cultivated for 30 too 40 years. They've made a start in clearing
> > the ground and are now wondering what will grow at that level. They are
> > interested in veg. and fruit trees predominately.
> > Any suggestions will be appreciated.
> > Thanks in advance.
> > --
> > Macey660
> Heh heh.
> I spent 20yrs in the same situation.
> You are on a hiding to nothing.
> The soil will be light and sandy = dry in Summer and impoverished.
> Any compost etcyou put in vanishes in a few weeks.
> You will lose 6 weeks out of the growing season due to altitude.
> Nights can be very cold.
> Wind can be a majorproblem.
> Forget about brassicas but roots do OK.
> Potatos do OK, get blight resistant varieties.
> A tunnel greenhouse is imperative.
> You need to make preparations to collect and store irrigation water in
> Winter for Summer use.
> Most fruit trees are a disaster even if sheltered. The shrubby ones
> do mediocre Raspberries, gooseberries etc