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.