Planting an orchard in two days

Well, life is never dull around here, I can tell you. To go in one weekend from watching the rain fall and thinking the trees were not going to be able to be planted as planned, to spending a night (got to bed at 5am) driving to a hospital over an hour away, to planting 40 odd trees and cooking a quiche for the school fête, oh, and trying to accomplish all the normal, everyday chores, I certainly am not a bored person.

So yes, the most important news is that with the help of several members of my wonderful, blessed family all the trees have been duly planted. On Friday under or between the showers of rain three helpers went poo picking - oh I'm sorry, I mean picking horse manure - I just like to say it how it is. A trailer full of sand was also collected.

Saturday morning Ivor and I went to pick up the 36 trees from the local producer - organic and rustic varieties. We already had a conference pear to plant. We also did a round trip via several shops so the planting finally started in the afternoon of the 16th December 2017. The first 8 of those 36 were duly planted before night fell, with three spaces prepared for the next day.

After a night of celebration cut short by the birthday girl's (Tana, 52 years old :) little finger being squashed inadvertently and exploding needing a night time visit to hospital plus 6 stitches and a 250km odd round trip on my part resulting in a 5am bedtime (I am stifling a yawn as I type, but it is so important that I write this), I woke after dreaming of Gravenstein trees raring to go.

So today, 17th December 2017 the rest of the trees have found their home. A massive shout out to the helpers - Nigel, Salix, Fabien, Ivor and Reuvan.

Highlights of the day - Reuvan lying down on the ground trying to work out how long a meter is.

Ivor managing to not hit anyone with his tool.

Salix having a tool handle snap on him.

Reuvan and Fabien listening too loudly to reggae music as they dug the last few tree holes.

The rain starting just as the last tree went in and I managed to walk around the new orchard (oooh, I can actually use that word now can't I?) to put all 50 trees on the plan. Which I shall share as soon as I have digitalised it.

The soil is fantastic, easy digging, grass and grass roots removed, each tree dipped in a watery mix of soil and rotted horse poo before being placed lovingly in a hole. After much consultation and discussion we have decided to go for the horseshoe swale around each tree, to try to minimise watering. The good news is that Kirsty and John and Nigel, whilst taking a walk around the land 'discovered' another reservoir for water collection, which looks somewhat like a well... We shall see.

A leap forward

Mark the date!

Yesterday the greenhouse went up! With the help of an amazing crew, we have extended our growing season by several weeks! It has taken a few days, the success of such a venture being reliant on good preparation.
From choosing what kind of plastic to put up, to measuring the arches, which as it turns out are not all exactly the same, to having trenches dug, to refilling in trenches and re-digging them by hand, great fun was had by all. Some strenuous effort, some brain work - what position as regards the sun, the prevailing or the dangerous wind - your choice. Best part? The moment when you realise that it's really time to start throwing, raking, shovelling earth onto the edges of the greenhouse plastic :

There was a competition over which side would end up with the least creases... We definitely won :D



The greenhouse is a great environment to work in and with. It's exciting to be planning the ground design, one aisle or two? Having been to visit a few and had my own this takes some thinking!

Here is a photo of the greenhouse in 2008, at the Funny Farm:

and again:

and here is the new one - shall we play spot the difference :D

As I seem to only manage to post every few months, here is a quick run down - yes, I have left things out - of our activities end 2017 beginning 2018.

One of my favourite pastimes is taking cuttings and growing them on (I am looking forward to my grafting lessons) and of course the greenhouse is a great place for this. This spring will see an increase in transplanting from the old garden up the hill. The old garden is helping fill the new one.  We have already brought down a good number of cuttings from established plants, amongst others some from the gooseberry plant that I brought from my mum's garden in London! The boys dug up a couple of plants too - black currant, gooseberry, and a rose. The cuttings I brought into the house are looking splendid.

The trees in the newly planted orchard are closely surveyed, flowers are appearing, one of the almonds is budding furiously - the blossoms will burst out soon, but for the moment all is stagnant as we pass through a cold snap.

The grape vine near the pool has been hacked at - oh, I mean pruned (heavily) - we shall see what we shall see and five new vines have been planted by Noah and Fabien. (Table grapes of varying varieties)
And the cherry was the first to explode into life:

I think we pick an average of five eggs a day and the 8 hens have been joined by a cockerel generously donated by Lolo so it looks like we shall be having chicks in spring. much to Ivor's delight I predict. Having spent so much energy on the amazing Chicken Palace The First, the reality is that the position is not the best (it stinks), so Chicken Palace II is on its way, a whole new design for our girls (and cock).

Also over the last month or so a local lad put up a chicken-proof fence between us and the neighbours - the garden is now completely secure from donkeys or any such-like orchard destroyer. While he was here he couldn't resist swiftly rebuilding this dry-stone wall! He made it look so easy.

An important part of modern farming imho is water recuperation. So the brains of the operation have been busy researching ways of making this a reality reusing one 1000l container from the old farm, plus two 'new' ones bought through the internet.

Music to my eyes. I believe in watering an absolute minimum, and I believe that water is becoming increasingly scarce. So recuperation, storing and minimal use are in order.



Here are my favourite surreal photos of the project so far:

yes that is a gate in the middle of a field

and yes that is a heater in the middle of the greenhouse!