It's 10 years since we planted the orchard. When we moved here I was digging holes by head torch to get them in and our eldest was just a few weeks old. It's beautiful to walk round it now and see the sheer abundance it provides us with now.
This video is only short (about 10 minutes), doesn't have me talking and just shows our little orchard in all it's Autumn glory.
Let me know what you think.
How has your orchard cropped this year?
That was fun! What a dream to have a variety of fruit and I can't think of medlar without remembering "Mrs. Medlar" in 'The Secret Garden'. Hard on the outside but soft inside. We have been struggling to produce fruit on our property for years. Spent a fortune on trees that were sold locally but were not meant to grow in our zone. We finally have a good production on a 5 -in-1 which is actually now a 3-in-1; "yellow transparent" ( a good early ripener but not a good keeper) "spartan" and "cortland". We have several volunteer trees from a dump of apples many years ago. The "northern spy" is gorgeous and a heavy producer. "Cox's orange pippin" is too shaded and did not fruit. We have a japanese plum (read cherry sized fruit) and a black walnut tree which is still young; blossoms but doesn't set fruit. Your hen is lovely; I'll bet she'd jump up and snatch a moth that was headed for your trees. It's a constant battle here with worms, birds and squirrels but this year we will have all we want for ourselves. yippee.
ReplyDeleteSometimes the rootstock can heavily affect how well it crops as well. Sounds like if you have a few varieties that do well stick to those or ones like it.
DeleteThe hens really do keep the pests down, everyone asks me about pests at my talks and honestly we have so few they're not worth mentioning. Even the worms in the plums are low.
Spartan is a tree that we have here (in the cordon apples) and it reminds me of our first house as the orchard down the road sold boxes of them and they were always lovely.
You certainly have a good selection to go at. Do you store any? If so it would be interesting to see how.
ReplyDeleteYes we store loads of apples! In three main ways. In two sets of drawers I've made, dried and canned. That way we have plenty to see us round the year, especially when it comes to cooking apples.
DeleteMy orchard is one of my most favorite places. I replanted mine from scratch beginning now about 20 years ago. I add a few trees every year - and a few go under every year, too. Grafting my own trees has become a true joy, although it is a 'long term' pleasure. Cheers!
ReplyDeleteYes, I love adding to different areas every year, I'm always finding somewhere new to add trees! I didn't graft any last year but think I should probably get a few rootstocks in and do a few more this winter, they make great gifts as well!
DeleteThat's just fabulous Kev, you've done so well in ten years. So many apples this year, I think it's been a good year for them everywhere. Could you do a short video/piece on how you store them in your drawer units please? Ours don't seem to keep but I'm trying the wrap in newspaper method this year so we'll see how that goes.
ReplyDeleteIt's been a great year for them, maybe it knows of a hard winter to come? I'll do a video on storage - We store in three different ways really. All good, although some last longer than others. Main thing is keeping them with a bit of air flow.
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