Blossom looks great

Cherry Blossom

Older Cherry Blossom

The orchard is now in full blossom and looks great, we have loads of flowers and still more to come, however some of the early blossom which started over 2 weeks ago has started to die and the trees have begun the process of producing fruit and gathering and storing energy to grow for the next couple of months via the leaves that have starting to grow. I can see the start off the leafs growing but most of these are still small but they are growing. The apple trees are starting to blossom and that is one of my favorites as the scent that they produce is one I really like.

Crab Apple Blossom

I have however found very small aphids and caterpillars on a couple of trees which is disappointing. I plan to spray an organic spray made from chrysanthemum petals. I haven't used it in a couple of years but I am considering using it this year. The conditions for fruit production so far this year have been very good. I want the orchard to be a success at producing fruit as well as attracting insects, birds, people etc. I am hoping that this year will  be successful.

Someone has removed the Rabbit Guards from a number of trees. What seems to be happening is someone or probably children are removing the bamboo sticks that keep the home made rabbit guards in place. I have more bamboo sticks which I will replace. This has happened before, but this time it affected more trees.

The grass is getting longer, I was meant to get it cut over the weekend with my brother, but its rained on and off and I had various things to do. So it hasn't happened. I will try and get that done over the next couple of days perhaps next weekend, but lets see.

I currently had fenced off the bee hives and some of the fencing has fallen down. I will have to get that replaced. That will be a slightly harder job, but one that needs to get done.