That apples drop off the tree throughout the summer is perfectly normal in my experience (and I’ve been growing them for about 40 years). I normally go round my trees taking off surplus apples and limit them to 1 apple to each fruit spur. I say normally because I haven’t had to do so this year as there are not a lot of apples on my trees.
I always sow Little Gem lettuce Jan, and when they are ready I cut them off the root about an inch from the ground and they invariably grow another crop of leaves from the stump…
We are having a good year for cucumbers, I only grow the miniature variety and we have been getting a couple a week off two plants, so our neighbours have been benefitting from the surplus.
Don’t worry about the fruit dropping, in most places there was so much blossom this year that too much fruit formed much too close together, so it really needs to shed some to allow others to fill out and ripen properly. Although it always hurts to do, I always thin out the juvenile fruits on most types of tree, otherwise you get lots of small, low quality fruit rather than the full size better quality fruits that we prefer. Quality or quantity? your choice really, but the tree usually knows best 
Has anyone ever grown a cherry tree from the seed? if so, did it ever mature enough to bear fruit? If so, was it the same as the parent tree or completely different?
I ws given some superb almost white in colour cherries recently and they were the best flavour I have ever had, so I thought I’d try and grow some.
Apparently you have to chill the pip/seed in the fridge in damp vermiculite or similar, for about 8 weeks first, to mimic it going through a winter.
Can’t help you there Mups
I do have a huge cherry tree in my garden though which I had cut right back. It was here when I moved into the house and has red and white cherries but the birds always got to them first and it was too tall to net.
The stones used to get in the lawnmower and the final straw was the starlings squabbling over the fruit at dawn every morning .
This is the new variety of grafted tomatoes ‘Elegance’ I am trying for the first time this year.
I have just counted 46 tomatoes on there, they are a lovely flavour too.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v280/fieldwalk/garden/P6230002.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v280/fieldwalk/garden/P6230004.jpg
A fine looking plant Meg, the foliage on mine isn’t anywhere near as pretty…
How many years have you got Mups? It might be worth trying to buy a sapling instead…
That tomato plant looks good Meg and the leaves are a lovely bright green.
The cut and come again, were like eating baby leaf salad Barry, so many different leaves and tasty. Wouldn’t have thought of doing it with gem though.
Hi Plantman, apparently it’s likely to take 8 - 10 years before fruiting, but if I’m not still around by then, it will have been a fun experiment anyway.
I have put half a dozen pips in the fridge in the vermiculite, and if any of them start sprouting later - I’ll let you know!
I like a bit of crunch in my lettuce Jan, that’s why I grow Little Gem, but when they regrow from a cut base it forms just loose leaves like your baby leaf salad, which then makes a change later on in the season…
http://i1143.photobucket.com/albums/n640/plantman1/004_zps7da8dd19.jpg
I know what you mean about a fun experiment Mups, it is fun to try new things and I always try to find something new every season. This year for me it has been a plant called a Cucamelon, which as it says on the packet is a cross between a cucumber and melon, although only grape size. Not tried one yet but it won’t be long by the looks of it… I believe Alan is also growing one and may have eaten his first fruit…
http://i1143.photobucket.com/albums/n640/plantman1/003_zps64a0ce99.jpg
Those cucamelons look different Barry. Let us know what they taste like.
I’ve grown little orange trees from pips - nice house plants for a while
Yes I have tried one of my cucumelons and it is like eating cucumber but with a slightly lime taste. The thing is, I don’t know how you can tell if they’re ripe. We’ll just have to see what happens.
The taste sounds good Alan - did you slice them for your gin and tonic? 
I’m never sure when my cucumbers are ready to pick 
Oh wow, what a strange looking fruit, or is it a vegetable? Yes, I love trying different things too. It’s not the end of the world if nothing happens is it.
Sorry, this message was meant for Plantman, but forgot to say.
Daughter’s mother in law sent us a small marrow type fruit, it needed peeling and deseeding but the flavour was like sweetish cucumber and full of juice like a melon.
I chopped it up and had it with salad, was lovely.
I’m waiting for one bed of tomato plants to finish, so that I can prepare the ground for garlic that I’m expecting.
We ordered Elephant and Provence Wight.
Elephant for roasting whole and Provence Wight for general cooking - supposed to be sweet and big cloves.
I used some of this years garlic today, in the lasagne and spag bol.
We planted our onion sets today. (can’t remember the name :roll:)
I tidied up and brought the standard fuchsias into the greenhouse, which is bursting at the seams with geraniums -
I have left most of the flowers on still, plenty of time for taking them off
I noticed that a couple of borders need hoeing, and at last my dahlias are flowering, I’ve never known them so late!
The pink one, the avatar, is the size of a dinner plate this year :shock:
I finally picked the last of the autumn raspberries and the blackberries yesterday so I will cut the canes back today and tie in the new blackberry canes to tidy them up.
Like you Jan I’ve some onion sets to plant, I’m trying “Troy” this time, a type I’ve not grown before so fingers crossed for a decent crop next summer.
All of our fruit is now in and the freezers are bursting with the stuff, but our next door neighbour has a surfeit of Bramley apples this year, which she has asked me to help her harvest in return for a couple of boxes full for ourselves, so I’ve got to try to set up some racks in the shed today to try to store them properly.
Gosh Barry it sounds as though you are preparing for a siege 
My brother is the same, there are only two of them but they have two freezers and a pantry full of food and and a barn full of vegetables.
Janela sounds like you have been busy have you planted the garlic yet? I have just prepared the bed and will plant it this afternoon or tomorrow . I am shattered after digging and need a shower and a rest first.
Not quite a siege Meg, but I must admit that we are total fruit junkies and eat it in some form with every meal, from grapefruit or prunes at breakfast through to stewed or fresh fruit at lunch, and to apples or pears at tea time. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that we would usually get through at least six or seven varieties of fruit in a day, so as you can see even a freezer full will barely last us until next summer…
Not everything has been a success in the fruit garden though, our strawberries were a total loss, our summer raspberries were very poor, the blueberry crop was pathetic and the plums were mainly destroyed by plum sawfly maggots. :shock:
However, some things cropped unbelievably well, although I claim no particular skill or credit as it was just nature doing her thing, for example among the successes we did manage to harvest 31lb blackberries from one plant, 18lbs of blackcurrants from four bushes, 42lbs of gooseberries from four bushes and 18lbs of autumn raspberries from a ten foot run. 
So all in all no complaints this year, and thank you once again Mother Nature.