Many thanks to all those that turned out for the April work party last Sunday. We were very lucky with the weather which was quite mild and sunny. It was great to finally be able to get together safely and resume working in the orchard.
Paths have been mown/strimmed back into the grass and the orchard is looking very well cared-for. There are flowers peeping up all over – primroses, celandine, wild daffodils, dandelions (of course!) and even signs of yellow rattle starting to grow which is great news. The new wildflower areas were cut back and prepared to give the flowers the best chance of being successful.
Most of the trees are in bud, and leaves and early blossom should be appearing soon. Seaweed meal has been applied around all the trees and compost spread around most of them. The soft fruit bed was weeded and chicken manure pellets scattered around the bushes.
A thin green ribbon has been loosely tied around trees to identify those that have been allocated to individual members to look after. If anyone else would like to have one or two trees to look after, please let us know and we’ll get them allocated.
During the lockdown, some new tree stumps have been placed around the picnic area, replacing the plastic crates. The crates have been retained to give us a little bit of extra height when trying to net the trees etc.
The old pallets and rotten wood which had been piled near the compost clamps were taken to the fire area and burnt. There were loads of fallen twigs from the large ash tree which were collected up and also disposed of on the fire. The warmth of the fire was very welcome when we stopped for a break but the swirling smoke which seemed intent on attacking each of us in turn was less so!
The orchard is looking in good shape so far - which is great news considering the issues we had last year. Many thanks to all of you who came and helped out individually during lockdown. I’m sure that the good health of the trees now is down to the extra care given by so many of you over a number of months.
Hopefully things will continue on a positive note for all of us and we can have a successful harvest this year.
Take care all.
.jpg)
