Erddig nr. Wrexham. Wales

[Palustris]

Again these are not flower power gardens, though very pretty. They do have the National collection of Ivy and a huge number of old apple varieites.
I did not take any pictures of the garden this time, but I did photograph 67 of the 143 apple varieities on display.

[ideasguy]

I'm lookng forward to to photos of the National Collection of Ivy, Eric. I'm curious to know how they grow them.
The common Ivy scares me! It can destroy a hedge.

Thats a lot of apples, Eric!
I recall one particular variety from my childhood (in the old days children used to eat apples  )
It was yellow and had distinctive ribs. Any idea what variety it might have been?
It was a lovely taste!

[Palustris]

  No chance G.! You would need to look at the varieties closely to see any major details like that and they were well protected to keep people from touching!
They do have an Apple Day (as do other NT places) where you can take apples for identification and ask the experts about them. They also on occasion sell some of the varieties too.
It is a n old walled garden so the Ivy is grown up the walls , shaded from the sun by a line of Holly trees of all different kinds (not named as far as we can see so hard to id). We watched a gardener go along and trim each ivy back to a manageable size and height in Summer.

[ideasguy]

RE:

We watched a gardener go along and trim each ivy back to a manageable size and height in Summer.

Just one? Poor guy 
I imagine they have varieties which are less vigorous that the common ivy, and with various variegations etc.

What's the main attraction for you at that garden, Eric?

[Palustris]

It is a nice walk round and we paid for some of the Apple trees which are planted there.

[ideasguy]

High winds and rain expected on Sunday, so I'll harvest most of my apples toimorrow, before they are classified as "windfalls".
Have you pulled all your Bramleys already?

[Palustris]

All our apples are off all ready. We had the winds last week.

[NightHawk]

George and Eric, are either of you cider drinkers?

It occurs to me that there's another use for all your surplus apples.

Far be it from me to encourage this alcohol drinking activity of course 

Laurie.

[Palustris]

Apart from the fact that I cannot drink alcohol (no not AA, I am allergic to the stuff), the kind of apples we grow will not make Cider. that needs a specific type of apple with a high tannin content otherwise the resulting drink is so sweet as to be unpleasant. We did make apple wine with them years ago, but even that was too sweet for us. 
I don't know about G., but our fruit does not go to waste. We puree and freeze, juice and freeze, bake and freeze and most of the types we grow will keep in the shed until deep mid winter to be eaten as they are. Then of course there are the birds to be fed on anywhich do go off.
The ones at Erddig are sold to visitors and are used in NT cafes I beliieve.

[ideasguy]

I'm not a Cider person, and I've never been a fan of "home brews", so I'll stick to the Purees and trying to preserve them.
We were invited to a harvest thanksgiving service followed by Sunday dinner earlier today, so I filled the boot with bags of cookers and eaters for my sisters and brother.
The weather isn't too bad here today. Its breezy and coldish, but only a few light showers. I'm just about to go out make some space to store the harvest! I didn't pull all the apples yesterday. I took a chance of risking leaving them on the tree for another week.
They keep better on the tree!