Tree damage

I was at the orchard on Saturday and was gutted to discover someone had damaged a couple of the trees one of the new cherry trees is practically dead, they broke the trunk in half. The b*****ds. I know its only 8 months growth at the orchard, but its 1 years worth of planning, and all the effort of planting protecting and nurturing, that is wasted.

They had also damaged a couple of other trees including breaking branches from one of the apple trees. This wasn't as serious and with time the trees should recover. The vandals have also taken some fruit, mainly apples and plums. However the most infuriating thing is that they kicked one of the bee hives. It disturbed the bees and they had left the hive partially open to attack from other insects animals birds and other pests. They must have been discovered by the guard dogs and look like they hid in some of the talk grass before clearing off.

I have reported it to the police and I can only presume it was kids, as they have only taken fruit that was on some of the lower branches. The fruit that was on the higher branches is still fine, but as the trees are aren't huge it doesn't leave much.

I did more weeding and maybe getting the hay gathered for the farmer next to me. I am also expecting my first amount of manure.

Peaches had been picked

I picked some of the peaches over the weekend. I haven’t tried them yet but plan to this evening. They look lovely, though they are slightly smaller than the conventional ones from a supermarket.

I have also cleared a number of trees of weeds and checked on the bees. The trees seem fine, no new rabbit damage though I have seen a small number of branches damaged probably by birds. It’s not serious and I’m not overly concerned about it.

The bees are fine and the supers are almost full. I may need to get the extractor ordered soon, so that I can start feeding and applying the varroa treatment.I met a local farmer I say local he has cows in a field across the road from me and he travels 20 miles to check on them. The cows are all young and are not producing milk yet. His name is Pat Sultan and I talked to him about manure and my need to get some on the orchard. He would like to supply me but as it would mean moving the stuff 20 miles it would be difficult. He did give me the details of another local farmer that may be able to help me. The other farmer is called Stuart Wilson. I met Stuart on Sunday unannounced visit to his farm house for a quick chat.

He is willing to supply me with manure and I will see him in a couple of weeks to get a couple of lorry loads delivered. I’m not sure how much I need but my plan is that each tree gets one wheelbarrow load at least, over the winter period.

Thats good news.

I also hear my picture is in a magazine this month, Living Woods. I haven’t managed to get a copy yet as it’s not something that my local shopkeeper has much demand for.

Fruit is being damaged by birds

While I was away the birds have been feasting on the fruits in the orchard. They have damaged some of the apples and most of the remaining cherries.

Not all the apples have been damaged, just some and its fine with me, at least the fruit was and is being eaten, not wasted.

I have removed more of the brown fencing that was around the trees, I still have more that 25 trees to go. Each tree takes about 20 minutes to remove the fencing and then clear the weeds so its time consuming. This weekend I was working alone, but made good progress.

The rabbits have tried to nibble around some of the trees that have already been cleared. I have to replace the fencing with a smaller type of protection. I have seen various methods in orchards around, and will be using one similar to ones used at Ryton gardens.

I didn’t check the bees this week; they seem fine and will have to do a more vigorous check next week. It will be the end of the honey season in about 6 weeks and I will start ordering in the varroa treatments.

Week in Cornwall

I was in Cornwall last week and visited a couple of orchards, lots at the Eden Project; smaller ones at the Lost gardens of Heligan and more commercial ones at the Cornish Cyder farm.

The picture shows some statues in the vinyard at the Eden Project.

The various orchards at the Eden Project were as you would expect well maintained, they had various trees all on differing root stocks. Primarily outside the bio domes they were on dwarf root stocks; most were apple trees. However in the tropical bio-dome they have mango trees as well as pineapple and banana trees, and even tropical palm trees with dates growing. One of the employees managed to get a pineapple from one of the trees with the aid of a machete.

In the Mediterranean bio dome they have olives, various lemon and lime trees as well at other fruits like nectarines and peaches. I put my head into one the nectarine trees and the smell of the fruit was fabulous. I went back for another sniff a couple of times. I was also lucky in that a young girl was singing in the dome, she was very good and made the trip even more memorable.

The picture shows Straw Skeps in a Skep wall at the Lost Gardens of Heligan.

At the lost gardens of Heligan they have established more traditional orchards; they even have an Orchard walk which was limited, as the trees are fenced off. They have a map of the trees listing the varieties that they have planted but you couldn’t get close. They did have chickens and geese in the orchard and they also have what looks like a newly created pond that is establishing itself, as it had a couple of ducks but no noticeable vegetation. I liked the idea of a pond in the orchard as it would encourage more wildlife and creatures like frogs which may help in controlling pests, and entice other larger animals for a drink perhaps. However I don’t know enough about on the matter to comment.

They did have other fruit trees in the various gardens, all very nice and pretty, I just wish I had the time and resources that they have to make mine as nice. I was very impressed with the fruit and vegetable gardens and for ideas the place gives off. It is definitely worth a visit. I had read so much about the place that my expectations were massive, I was a little disappointed on the day but in hind sight it was great.

The Cornish Cyder farm was interesting, but it does look like they are copying the Julian Templeton business model. In that they make cider spelt cyder “the Cornish spelling”. They have started making sprits and even wine. They also make and sell preserves. They have a couple of animals on show to please the kids and my son was impressed with the Shire horse and the various cows.

They had pictures of when Prince Edward and his wife Sophie must have visited, but it wasn’t as good as Julian Templeton’s or on the scale of Julian’s enterprise. Then again when I met him Jullian I found him very charismatic and he was willing to have a chat etc and also showed us around his orchards, and his excise warehouse. The people at the Cornish Cyder company just wanted you to buy stuff and move on. We went for a tractor ride though the Orchards which was very quick. They mentioned that they had a more traditional orchard and tours or the bottling plant were available, but it seems a far more commercial enterprise. People were buying plenty of cider and bottles of Rattler a cyder brand that they sell.