26th December

Visited the Orchard, and examined all the trees. They seem fine and dormante. They are sleeping for the winter period and seem to have settled in well.

I can see buds on many of the trees.

I may have suffered a little more rabbit damage but nothing that I consider to be serious.

14th December

Went by every tree and have made notes as to which trees have been damaged and how. I may have lost 6 trees to rabbit damage. These are the trees nearest to the motorway and had hard wood. The rabbits have nibbled parts of the bark and in some cases may have ring barked the trees.

These damaged trees will have to be replaced. I will have to put this down to experience and it has been an expensive lesson. I am going to put a spreadsheet together which will allow me to report on each tree individually. It will highlight problems etc.

The gate has a new lock, I don't have the key and have spoken both to Chris and to Leisha. I have been told I will be getting key in the next day or so.

13th December 2008

Went to examine the trees that have been planted. We have had a couple of trees damaged by rabbits. I had put up guards but they have managed to get to the tops of the guards and they have nibbled both the branches and the trunks. A couple may have been damaged and will have to be replaced. I am going back in the morning to put up larger guards.

I think that the apples trees are the worst effected. However I didn't take a pad and paper and was not able to make notes.

This will have to be put down to experience and I will learn from it. Some of the trees are water logged.

Some of the land has become water logged, in fact so has must of the Austrey village it was very scary driving through today.

We have also visited a garden centre to look at willow trees and have discovered that it is best to plant them in March. Once the water has resided.

I also called Andy from the orchard group and and told him about the issues. His advice was to build a mount around the trees. That may work. And the rabbits ensure the guards are up correctly.

30th of November More planting

Up early we have called in lots of help. Including my brother in law, and his daughter my sister, some of my wifes friends Stuart and Victoria.

We still have more than 30 trees to plant and with their help we have managed to get them all planted. We did start much earlier and didn't have to wait for trees etc.

We had new problems though. First when we arrived the gate was locked so we parked the cars on top of the hill. Then carried the trees and the tools down to the orchard.

We found that all three of the Rotweillers were on the lose. They barked at us for ages and when they finally went back to the where they must live my brother and I went to close the gate in the home that they would not be able to come near the orchard. One of the dogs probrably the youngest and smallest managed to get though the gaps in the fence and chased us. We jumped over the fence and all. When my parents came we throw bits of bacon at them and they seem much friendlier.

We have managed to get all the trees planted. We were two stakes short and we are not sure if they were stolen overnight or they were missing from the order. Next time we will have to be a bit more organised and count stuff.

Leena's friends have started to stake out the next trees spots. I will have to put the order in for the next load soon.

We have more people that want to help with the next batch.

29th November Start Planting

Up early I couldn't sleep. Its excitement, worry and adrenaline the want to get the work done and get the trees planted. I meet my brother at Homebase (New Oscott) to picked-up some additional compost. We have purchased Miracle glow organic compost.

We arrived at the Orchard with my brother early. We started digging relativity small holes. When the trees finally arrived we realised that we were going to have to dig much larger holes.

We had help from Mum and Dad and Lynda a colleague from work.

The rottweilers were out and about they are scary. I am hoping that they will get use to us working on the land. Meet lots of people today including Leisha who I bought the land from.

We were still planting as it got dark. We haven't plant half the trees yet. Tomorrow is going to be a long day. My brother and I plan to get to the orchard early, first light, to start planting.

We took the trees we hadn't planted back to my parents to ensure that the roots were not affected by the frost.

When I got home that night I needed a hot bath, with aromatic oils and dettol.

28th November Walkie Talkies

I had ordered a set of walkie talkie to use on the orchard and they have not arrived yet. I have had to resort to going to Screwfix to pick up some additional ones. I am going to need them for the planting. We have found that talking and shouting across the field is pointless and they will be a very useful tool when working on site.

My brother had bought a Post hole shovel. This may help with the digging.

26th November

I have had confirmation of the order. The tree planting starts on Saturday. The trees should be delivered at 9am.

I have ordered a coupe of Walkie Talkies which I hope will arrive before Friday.

I am having problems locating a post shovel. One of these would help with the planting.

16th November

My brother and I have started putting stumps in the ground to show where the trees are going to be planted. My daughter also helped. We have found that the 60 trees are not enough. We need a further 100 trees to fill the land.

13th November

We have order the final trees. 5 types of apple trees all traditional and on M111 rootstock. All the trees will be here in a couple of weeks. I have to see if I can organise some help to plant the trees.

10 th November

Its official we now own the land to build the Orchard. We have completed the transaction today. Hooray.

Now I need to put the work in to build an Orchard. Trees will need planting and then looking after.

9th November

The suppliers of the trees have emailed. The trees will be ready for delivery on the 28th great.

We have not decided on the apple trees yet, Leena is working on it. She is going looking at the cultivator book and deciding which trees to plant etc.

I also took mum and dad to see the land today. They seem supported and were happy seeing the land, it was bigger than they had expected. They walked around and as it has rained heavily for the past copy of they days, we were able to see where the puddles and water is going to build up. I think that much of it will improved once the trees are in. They should suck up much of the water.

5th November

I have transfered the funds into the solicitors account. The money should be in the account within the next couple of days. They should then put the money in to the sellers solicitors account, and we have completion.

The existing owner called and she is a little worried about the water situation. I have reassured her and the lawyers are putting a clause in the contract.

The result is if I want water on the land then we have to build our own pipe etc, however I can take the water from there land and feed the trees etc.

4th November

Water issues raised by the solicitors and Leisha.

30th October

We have been to see the Solicitors and have signed the contact to purchase the land. The lawyers are still working on access to water but it all looks good and we should have in within a week or two.

The lawyers seem to have made some mistakes the diagrams of the land were incorrect and they seem to think we were buying more land, than we were.

The lawyers also recommended that we not put the land into trust just yet. No need too.

I also rang Leisha and gave her an update.

29th October

I was expecting a call or letter from the solicitors last week but have hear nothing. I decide to give them a call and it turns out they were about to send me a letter. The letter would have contained a request for me and my wife to go to the office and sign the docs. We are going to go tomorrow at 9:30 to sign etc.

The land is almost out and the Orchard will soon be planted.

22nd October

The person selling the land called she wants me to push the solicitors so I gave them a call, they are waiting on the results of the search and the the sellers solicitors have send the wrong invoices "Something to do with VAT".

I called the North Warwickshire County council they have not sent me anything ablout planning permission. They gave me a call later and have assured me that no planning permission is required.

I have also received a letter from them when I got home, confirming that I do not need planning permission for the orchard.

The council have also checked the land to make sure that no archaeological stuff is beneath the land.

21st October

I have order the trees for the Orchard. 60 trees in total 15 Cherry 15 Plum 15 Apple and 15 Pear from the Heritage Fruit Tree Company. It costs £1000 and I have paid £490 via a Bacs payment.

19th October

I have been looking at which Cherry trees to plant. We have a selection and also what root stock. Many of the newer hybrid trees are smaller and easier to pick.
Should I go with more traditional trees that would grow very tall and mean that picking would be difficult meaning much of the crop would be enjoyed by birds.

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