DIY tree planting

Well well well, so the government has dropped the forest sell-off. We can't really stay with the status quo, though, so I hope that 38 Degrees and the other campaigning organisations will contribute constructively to plans.

We have starting planted our fruit trees in the claggy muck that passes for topsoil outside the walls of the kitchen garden. Just three today, so we could 'learn from our mistakes'. It involves a lot of forks and spades and metal hole-makers and other implements and stakes and ties and mouse guards and deer guards and root grow. But in went:

• Gladstone, which is on a vigorous root stock, so planted on the edge of the orchard-to-be. It's a very early, deep red dessert apple, for picking in early August, but doesn't keep. It's a local variety, raised in Worcestershire, and introduced in 1868, named after the then Prime Minister.
• Crab Apple Harry Baker is planted on the edge to encourage pollination. It is a new variety named after a Fruit Officer at RHS Wisley, with dark red fruits with dark pink flesh, lasting into mid-October.
• Crab Apple Red Sentinel is planted on the opposite edge. It is a hybrid of Asian trees, first bred by Notcutts Nurseries. It has deep red fruits lasting well into January.