Last Sunday in Cammo Estate we were hard at work beautifying the access paths for the benefit of the many dogs, their owners, and small children in wellington boots. We cleaned the drains with long toilet brush like implements and compacting paths with a noisy machine but in the afternoon, we were given a small tree to plant (with much pomp and ceremony) in a garden of unusual conifers. The yew is the newest addition to a collection of trees that draw botanical enthusiasts to the estate. We marched it to its home next to the pineapple wall, overlooking a giant Chilean monkey puzzle tree which looked old enough to produce loads of buttery delicious nuts. We dug a big hole, filled it partially with sand and rocks (to improve drainage) and planted the small tree.
The Dirties planted it a little skew-whiff in its fenced enclosure and christened it “Alba”. According to Martin Crawford, the Japanese Plum Yew (Cephalotaxus harringtonii) produces an edible fruit whose ‘flavour when ripe is sweet butterscotch/ pine nut and very distinctive’. Fruiting starts 4-5 years after planting and they will ripen in late October/November so dirties of the future will have to tell us how they taste.
(Information taken from: Crawford, M. 2010 Creating a Forest Garden, Green Books: Devon.)