2 weeks news its been pouring

Last week was a washout, It has rained daily and it has meant that I have not been on the land much.I checked the trees once, and sprayed a couple of trees that had large numbers of Aphids, these days very few trees have aphids. The natural predators are out and about.
I have ordered a number of books on Permaculture and am awaiting for delivery.
The books arrived on the 16th and I have started to read the first "Permaculture in a Nutshell".
This week has been better, I checked on the trees again and visited a number of large gardens to see how they have set up gardens and what they are growing.
I have also been to the bee course and attended the monthly meeting. I have been learning about bee diseases. I have ordered my hive and a jacket etc and await delivery.
I have also completed "Permaculture in a Nutshell" it was interesting and some of the ideas are interested however many of the ideas seem like common sense.

The trees are growing and look good to me.

Manure

I have checked the trees for aphids and caterpillars. I have also moved roughly 40 wheel barrows of horse manure on to the site. That was hard working. I did have help but it was hard. I now have access to as much horse manure as I could want, but if I ever want to move it I will be using a 4x4 dumper.

I have also had a couple of horses on the land eating some of the grass. The horses seems to love it they were running a rounding chasing each other and munching the grass. I must admit it was nice to watch them wonder around grazing and playing.

It looks like I am noting going to get any sheep at the moment. I will have to buy them from the auctions but I think I may have to wait until next year.

Aphids and Caterpillars 2nd May

I have found caterpillars and aphids on a number of trees. I discovered them on Monday the 27. I wasn't prepared to find them. I didn't know what to do, even though only a few weeks ago I had read a journal on pests and diseases for organic apple growing.

I knew that organic chemicals were available and that I should remove the aphids asap as they suck out the sap. So I collected in them in the only thing I had to hand an old crisps wrapper.

I dumped them in a bin, and started trawling the internet wikipedia and various organic websites. I also joined Organic Gardening and have received my membership card etc now.

I have also purchased an organic spray for the aphids its called Vitax 2 in 1 and have sprayed on the 29th April on any trees that I found aphids. I sprayed again on 2nd May again only on trees that I found aphids.

I am not worried as much by caterpillars, I know I should be worried about moths espcially this time of the year.

I have also show some friends and family around the orchard.