Sandwell Valley

Its been a quiet week. I have checked on the trees and they all seem fine. The buds are getting bigger and I calculate that the peach trees will be in blossom next week, the others are still a couple of weeks away.

Driving around I have seen lots of trees in bloom and while in Nottingham I have noticed that the cherry trees their are in full bloom. It is worrying that my trees are not in bloom yet.

I visited Sandwell Valley over the weekend I know of a farm with a walled garden which has a number of fruit trees 100+, that make up a large orchard. Its open to the public and I had a good look around.

I have noticed that I look at trees in much more detail, and I am looking at trees waking up and then leaves start to open up slowly. However this process is not as slow as I thought it would be. It is a fluid movement almost. In fact it only lasts a couple of days then the tree is green. It is a case that if you don't look at this time of the year you will miss it. It is something I can honestly say, that I haven't noticed in as much in previous years as I do now.

At my orchard I have found that the peach trees are starting to bloom, the buds a red and they look like they are about to open.

I also checked the base of the trees at the orchard in Sandwell Valley and see that they are using lots of straw and manure around the trees. The trees within the orchard all look strong, the pear trees seem to have large buds which have not fully opened yet, and the apple trees are in the same state as mine.

I have had lots of information from the DEFRA agencies and now have a SBI number and a CPH number. This means that I can now keep sheep on the land. I still need to register with a vet the relevant DEFRA agency has sent me a list of suitable vet's practices which are reasonably close.

20th March 2009 Fencing

I ordered the plastic mesh and the posts on Monday. They arrived yesterday and today I started to get each tree fenced off. It has been slightly easier than I expected. I did have help from my parents, my wife and daughter who have been doing various things around the orchard to assist.

I hurt my finger, its not that serious but it did hurt. I managed to hit it with a sledgehammer it bled, I wrapped it up and continued working. We continued to use the sledgehammer however we have a new tool, a post hammer, which does the job and is twice as heavy as a sledgehammer. Chris the chap who owns the stables has lent us the post hammer.

We started about midday and my parents and wife helped till about 3pm then they went off and I carried on till dusk. We have put up wooden structures around 30 trees and and we have managed to put the mesh around 21 of those. We start back in the morning, we are hoping to get the rest of the trees all protected by tea time tomorrow.

It was such a beautiful day; we had a picnic on the land and it was fantastic, enjoying a meal with family sitting on the floor on mats talking laughing and munching your way through what I can only describe as a feast.

I have had news from Defra's agencies this week; the RPA (Rural Payments Agency) wanted more information which I have provided and the second agency Natural England have sent me information on environmental stewardship.

15th March Mushrooms and Horse Manure

Its been a busy week I have been looking at getting fencing around all the trees. I have looked at everything from metal frames, wire mesh to plastic mesh for all the trees; then stakes of varying sizes and shapes. I have not put an order in yet, but will have to get it in soon. Some of the options look very expensive and others are cheaper but I got to pay it, without them I would not be able to keep sheep on site, they may damage the trees.

I have also been talking to various government agencies looking into what subsidies and grants are available. I may be able to join the single payment scheme "Common Argricultural Policy (CAP)", the government also has help for Orchards, and as I'm going to have sheep it which falls under an additional scheme. I may also get help with the bees not sure about that though. I have had to talk to loads of people and I'm expecting paperwork through the door in couple of days.

The trees are fine and doing well, most have buds that seem like they are ready to blossom. As you can see I have mushrooms growing all over the place. They look nice. I haven't picked any and don't intend to take any home to eat. People are telling me that if I lived in France I could take them to the Pharmacist who would identify them and inform me which are safe to eat. Well I don't live in France and I don't know about mushrooms.

I spoke to Donna again today and she informs me that she can supply the sheep. She has given my details to the person who has them and they should be contacting me shortly.

7th March 2009 Met Donna

Checked on the trees and bought my wife the kids and my parents along. My parents have been on holiday for a couple of weeks and they wanted to see how the orchard is progressing.

The trees are fine they are growing well, even my mum agrees she also feels that the damaged trees will be ok in the long term, I'm not so sure.

Met a lady called Donna in the next field. She was with her dog clearing up the paddock.

We had a conversation regarding the the orchard and she asked my questions and gave me ideas. She asked if I was going to keep the grass short, or if I was going to let it grow. Hay would be useful to her. She also asked about the bees. I told her I planned to trim the grass using a sit on lawn mower. She and others have recommended sheep. The bees are still a while off as I still have not started the practical course.

I want to get sheep in the orchard but need to protect the trees. I had discussed sheep with my family a while back. The plan is to get a couple of sheep perhaps 5 or so and protect the trees using solid wooden pallets and building a square fence around all the trees. Similar to the compost heap that I have made. However to do this I would need roughly 400 pallets. The plan is to enquire how much they will cost on Monday. The sheep would be easy to acquire as its lambing session at the moment.

I also need to order the final 20 + trees.

The picture is of a small yellow flower that I first saw last week and now the number of these flowers is growing rapidly. They are pretty and definitely a sign of spring.

1st of March - Compost Leaf Mulch

Checked the trees, 3 had rabbit damage nothing serious. These three have now got additional protection. The extra protection does seem to be working.

I have also now taken most of the compost from my own garden to the orchard and the good compost has been spread around all the trees. I have rebuilt the compost holder that I had originally made with 6 wooden palettes with 4. I have uploaded a picture showing an empty compost heap and again later after we had dumped several bags of leaf mulch into it.

The large bird is back and with a friend or a mate. The two were soaring around the skies and they look neat. The birds are large, brown in colour with silver/white pattern underneath. They look great. I have uploaded a picture of the two flying around either playing or hunting perhaps even some mating ritual, as they seemed to be having fun, swooping and hovering. The picture is not great even with my full zoom on.

My daughter and brother have been helping me, and they spent some of the time feeding apples to the ponies and horses in the next field. My daughter is still afraid of the ponies and her excuse for not feeding them with her own hands was that she had hurt her finger in the last couple of days.

Lots of buds still no blossom, looking forward to it. I haven't water the trees yet, but the weather over the coming days is meant to be wet. Which should soak the ground for me.

Some of the compost that I had applied less that two weeks ago has be drawn into the soil, which is good news. The claying parts seems to get pretty dry when left on top.

Fiz was out and about and his usual barking loud self. Though I think he is getting more used to me being around.

Also I have intentional removed the rabbit guards on some of the trees that were ring barked, they have been annihilated by the rabbits. It shows the amount of damage that they can inflict on a young tree. Shocking.