Where’s Waldo?

planting season

As Anthony said last week, ‘tis the season for winter planting and we’ve been doing just that.

Last winter, we planted upwards of 700 or 800+ trees/bushes. (We lost count in the end.) We did that mostly over Feb/March as we were waiting for the stock-proof fencing to be installed. This year, we’ve planted about 200 or so trees to-date, and we have about 200 more to plant.

Thought we’d send you a few highlights so far:

Welcome to our main (eating apple) agroforestry orchard!  Amazing, eh? What is that I hear? You can’t see anything? Yes, well, it does require a healthy dose of imagination, but hopefully in a few years, instead of seeing loads of naturally seeded broom shrubs (which are wonderful for pollinators), you’ll also see berry bushes and fruit trees where all the circles of woodchip are. Sit tight and watch this space. (And, yes, broom WAS actually used for brooms!)

Now, to our cooking apple orchard!  Again, a solid dose of imagination is required, but I’ve planted a mix of privet, hawthorn, rosa rugosa, hazel and rowan down along the fence line. If you look really hard, you can see them. No orchard trees yet, but those shoud be arriving in the next few weeks

And finally for today, here is a sneak peak of our new alder and willow woodland near the stream at the bottom of our fields. This is a very soggy area, perfect for alder and willow.  Alders grow very quickly - 2 feet per year and up to 40-50 feet high. Willow is also fast growing and can reach the similar heights. When these guys grow up, they may form another coppicing woodland or we may keep it as a mini-woodland. 

Next Up

We may actually have solar finally hooked up the next time you hear from us! Anthony will be sharing the calculations for our heating system/electricity needs and will be explaining how many batteries we’ll be installing. More on that next time. 

Have a great weekend!