First post - an orchard with no trees.

This is a blog about an orchard. Blindingly obvious, given the title and the URL, but we like to do what it says on the tin.

At the moment there isn’t an orchard, just a field. On a slope. But this is progress from what it was a few months ago, when it was a field full of brambles and nettles. We, Richard and Sarah Kamm, are trying to make this field into an orchard, on the basis of no previous knowledge or experience. It just seemed a good idea, when the land went up for sale, to do something with it that was closer to its previous existence as agricultural land, before the brambles got to it. And the Japanese Knotweed. That’s something for another post. We don’t want to wreck this first entry by spending time on that thug of a plant.

We got an initial clearance of half the site in the summer, and since then it’s been strimming, strimming and more strimming, just to keep the nettles down and allow a section to be cleared for the first trees to be planted. We’re told that the nettles are a good sign, since they mean the soil is nutrient-rich. “Oh goody!!” we think as we embark on yet another strim. But at least in winter everything dies back, so we can see the place the trees will go, looking down the hill:

Barely visible canes where trees will be

and looking up:

The trees will be small, since the slope will make it impossible to use ladders to reach the tops of full-size trees. The trees will be varied – a job lot of apples, pears, plums and quince should be arriving later this month, courtesy of Days Cottage. We’ll also be talking to the Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust about the general capacity of the whole site to be nature-friendly. We’re also going to have to book ourselves onto courses on pruning and general tree management from the same Days Cottage people.

In the mean time, the neighbours’ cats have decided it’s a good place to go.

Oi! That's where a tree's supposed to go!

What have we got ourselves into?......