Checking the new hedge

I paid a quick visit to the orchard today armed with a pair of  long arm shears. The objective was to trim the weeds away from the base of the hedging shrubs I planted last month. It took about an hour to complete the work as this can only be performed by hand. There's eighty shrubs to tend. I'm pleased to say they all appear to have taken after their bare root planting. A good set of leaves is appearing at the top of these plants.

Less healthy is one of the bare root apple trees I planted last December. The small whip apple tree is proving slow to sprout leaves. It was probably not helped this week when a fox dug up the roots to get at the bone meal I used when planting.

Saw for sale

Following the recent success of a major wood working project I've gained confidence in my abilities. I'm upgrading our tools to add a Dewalt Sliding compound  mitre saw for some ambitious projects. This leaves our existing saw redundant. It is an Ebauer ERB608MSW double bevel mitre saw 230V with a 254mm blade. It's in good working order and lightly used since we bought it two years ago. It is a good robust saw which I like, but is not a "sliding" mitre saw.   We're selling it, as seen, for £50 (inc VAT), Buyer collects/inspects at our place in Belper. Call 01332 895130 if interested.

Update: The saw was sold and collected within 3 hours of posting on Facebook.

Wild flower in the orchard

We've sown 30 square metres of wild flower seed in the orchard last month. The wild flower seed is a native woodland mix from Emorsgate Seeds EW1F mix - "Wild flower for woodland". We've sown in the areas of tree clearance on the embankment. The idea is to bring some natural plant variety back into the wilder areas of the orchard.

Hedge restoration

The South boundary hedge of our orchard forms part of the parish boundary between Turnditch Parish and the Shottle and Postern Parish. Most of the hedge was restored by us when we took over the land. It was a neglected hedgerow which had been left to grow unchecked. We employed a professional hedger to re-lay the hedge a couple of years ago.  Where it has been restored it is a dense and healthy hedge comprising mainly of blackthorn, though there are other species such as holly, dog rose, and hazel growing.

However a section of the hedge, between the old large ash tree and the footpath, has long since vanished to be replaced by wire stock fencing. The section is about 30 metres long. I've no information as to why it was removed. However, this Spring (2017), we are planning to replant the hedge with the objective of letting it grow for a few years before having it laid in the traditional local fashion. We've chosen native hedging plants which match those already growing in the area. The hedging will be primarily Hawthorn with some Hazel, Ash and Dog Rose added in to the mix. There's already a couple of crab apple saplings from the orchard growing in that section

The plants will be protected by the existing wire fence and rabbit guard spirals. The greatest risk of damage is from sheep in the neighbouring field. We'll be dipping the roots of the plants in Rootgrow at the time of planting to help them develop good roots and have a good start in life.

Update: 10th March.   I've just returned from a planting session. We're about two thirds through the planting work having planted 75 bare root plants. The work has been slowed by the heavy clay which has, in the past ownership, been dumped on top of the top soil. There's also the odd block or two of concrete in the way. The young bushes/trees include: mostly Hawthorn, some Blackthorn, Field Maple, Hazel, Dog Rose, Bird Cherry.

Yellow notice on the Lamp Post

Some of the eagle eyed residents of Turnditch will have noticed an official yellow notice affixed to the street light standard outside the gate of the orchard. I've even noticed people stop their car to get out and read the notice.

Don't worry folks we're not applying for permission to build refugee housing on the orchard site. No, the notice relates to permission for an advertising board. It's not advertising per se, but that's how the regulations go. We've given permission to the Derbyshire Wildlife Trust to place an Interpretation Board at the top of the river bank. It will give nature related information to walkers using the footpath. It should appear once the permission is granted by the Council.

Some new apple trees in Turnditch Orchard

We've just planted three new apple trees in the orchard. They are bare root trees. We've put them in the gaps between the existing fruit trees.

D'Arcy Spice -  This is a cooking apple.

Genet Moyle - A cider apple tree, it can also be used for cooking.

Tom Putt - A cider apple tree.

We have been a bit disappointed with the progress of the trees we planted a couple of years ago. The problem is probably the soil in the orchard. In places there's heavy clay soil on top of the floodplain alluvial soil. This arises from dumping on the site by previous owners, possibly with the waste from building sites.  So this time we've taken some extra care with these new trees. 

We bought some bags of top soil from an agricultural supplier. We added approximately 30% of well rotted farm manure and some bone meal into the top soil and then mixed it thoroughly. We dug holes large enough to comfortably accommodate the root of the new trees. In the base of the holes we added a 4 cm layer of sand and aggregate to improve drainage. We covered  the sand with a couple of cms of the soil manure mix. Next, we poured in water to the depth of approximately 5 cms deep. and let it soak away. On the side of the prevailing wind we drove in a treated 7cm tree stake to the base of the hole ready to help support the new trees.

Meanwhile we'd been pre-soaking the apple tree roots for about 30 minutes in a bucket of water. We lifted the tree into the hole and then coated the roots with Mycorrhizal fungi treatment powder. Next we lifted the tree into place in the hole, then we carefully added the soil mix around the roots to plant the tree. Once we had filled the hole we gently pressed down on the soil to firm it in place before added some water to soak the soil around the roots. A tree stake tie was used to secure the tree from wind damage, then finally we added a plastic spiral tree guard to prevent damage by rodents such as rabbits, rats, squirrels. We checked the other trees in the orchard to ensure they all had spiral plastic tree guards.

The Mycorrhizal fungi forms a symbiotic bond with the tree roots and helps the tree to absorb nutrients from the soil. The bone meal also provides nutrients which encourage root growth.

River bank erosion at the Turnditch Orchard

We had a nice bright sunny, but cold, Winter's day in the orchard today. The focus of the work was using willow cuttings to undertake some spiling to reinforce the river bank. The willow cuttings will take root and quickly grow next and subsequent years. The root system will help to stabilize  the soft earth banks of the river as the willow grows larger. I was inspecting the river bank while standing in the river today. I could see that the recent river spate caused by the recent heavy rain is undercutting the river bank. In places there were some small collapses of soil into the river. If you look at the junction of the river and the bank in the picture below it is possible to see the dark under-cut area.

During the year part of the bank was damaged by overweight farm machinery trying to maneuver too close to the edge of the river bank. This caused a deep wheel gouge next to the river fence, damaged the fence, and also pushed some of the bank soil towards the river.  We've planted some willow spiling today which will strengthen the top of the river bank once it has grown for a few years. The deep roots will help bind the soil.

We cut the willow wands from the willow grove we'd planted a couple of years ago in the orchard. We're using a hybrid of Salix Verminalis willow which grow 2 - 3 metres in a year. Once the willow is established we'll cut and layer the branches to form a low hedge at the top of the river bank.

Some of the harvested willow wands

We pollarded the willow at roughly waist height to encourage new growth next year. It also allow the bark to thicken around the base while the tender new branches grow out of the reach of marauding sheep.

While inspecting the trees in the orchard, after completing the spiling, I found a rodent, probably a grey squirrel, had damaged the bark at the base of the Egremont Russet Apple tree. It is so annoying because the damage will stay with the tree for the rest of its life. It just goes to show the tree protectors we'd installed on most of the other trees help prevent such damage. We've already ordered some replacements to cover the trunks of all of the young trees.