Help in the Orchard

A pleasant change to the routine yesterday evening. We had a volunteer helping out. This young man, who lives locally, is helping as part of his voluntary service for his Duke of Edinburgh Silver Award Scheme. We started him gently with using the field trimmer to cut down a large area of grass and weeds. He probably now has a good feel for the unevenness of the ground. He discovered the powerful motor (5.5 HP) can be stubborn when it comes to starting on the recoil cord.

He did a great job and was learning fast. As preparation prior to starting work he'd spent a couple of hours viewing safety videos on YouTube. The objective is for his assistance to help us improve safety so we can open the Orchard to the local community.

Himalayan Balsam at Turnditch Orchard

The River Ecclesbourne which runs along the foot of our orchard is a conduit for the seeds of the Himalayan Balsam (HB). This is an invasive weed which needs to be controlled. Over the  past couple of years we've been removing any HB we've found growing on the land. It is under control now. You have to be very ruthless about its removal before it has the chance to go to seed. The seed pods pop and explosively scatter seed over quite a distance when they are ripe.

However the adjoining field and the river upstream of our site are full of this resilient weed and provide a source of new "infections" of HB. I noticed some growing in the silt at the edge of our river a few days ago, so I donned some waders to deal with the weed. It is fairly easy to uproot the  weed roots and all by gently pulling on the stem. If you leave any broken off weed stems they soon regrow.

Here's a picture of before and after:

Himalayan Balsam at the Turnditch Orchard

Himalayan Balsam removed from river bank

Note I removed the pile of weeds shown in the lower photo, they'll be incinerated. There's useful leaflet about controlling the weed from the Derbyshire Wildlife Trust here.

Respect for the Landowners

I visited the orchard in Turnditch yesterday afternoon to trim back some weeds and to check the trees. Those familiar with the site will know there's a public footpath across one end of the land adjacent to the river bank. I've no problems with allowing the public to walk across that part of the land and generally the public are well behaved, except for a couple of dog owners who do not clear up their dog's shit from the land. 

The longer term objective of the project is to open up the orchard area as a permitted recreation spot for the local inhabitants/school kids from Turnditch, Shottle and Cowers Lane. At present it is not safe thanks to debris dumped during the previous owners tenure, but we're working toward the target. We also need to undertake some work to make the river bank safe but accessible. 

When I arrived I noticed someone had wrapped bright red marker tape around the top bar of the roadside gate. They'd also affixed an A5 sized red plastic notice on the inside of our gatepost announcing the name of an Ashbourne running club. I can only presume they are planning some event which follows the route of the public footpath. They'd made no attempt or the courtesy to contact us to seek permission to place these markers on our property. It's not difficult to contact us; this blog address and a contact phone number is shown on the same gate post.  The notice makes it clear the orchard is private land but the public footpath remains open.

Normally when someone wants access we'll bend over backwards to help out, but this lack of respect does make us wonder whether we should be so free with permission. I removed their litter from our land. Let's hope their event causes no further damage.

Spring in the orchard

The orchard is bursting into life with Spring flowers and baby fruit. Many wildflowers remain in the borders, but we are now keeping the grass and weeds short in the main field to reduce growing competition for the fruit trees.

The Serbian Gold Quince is looking particularly healthy with attractive pink flowers just opening. 

Serbian Gold Quince in bloom

The cherries will bear fruit this year too, though we might pinch off 75% to avoid draining the young trees of energy.

Cherries forming in Turnditch orchard

Dead lamb in the river

While I was loading the field trimming machine into the back of my car yesterday, after a grass cutting session at the Orchard, I noticed there was a dead lamb at the edge of the river. The animal looked to be about 3-4 weeks old and was marked with a blue number "8" on its back. I presume it was caught in the river upstream and drowned before being washed down. We've had a few days recently when the rain was heavy causing the river levels to swell.

I'm not sure who's responsibility it is to deal with the carcase. It's not our property and there are strict rules for the correct disposal of dead farm animals. These usually involve the services of a specialist contractor.

Orchard site trespass

Recently we've had some unfortunate incidents of trespass on to the orchard site where damage has been caused by the unwanted visitors. Firstly someone investigating the shed has damaged the sliding doors. We deliberately leave the doors unlocked and nothing of real value in the shed overnight. However some idiot poking his/her nose in the shed, possibly with the intention of theft, managed to force one of the doors off the slider runners. He/she must have used a lot of force to create this damage.

The second incident, which has occurred within the past couple of weeks is where a person or persons unknown have come on to the site and cut back trees/branches to access the culvert in the embankment. Even though the land, including the embankment, is posted as private land, someone has decided they have the right to trespass on our land to access the culvert entrance.  During their access they cut back branches and also damaged fencing which had protected the culvert entrance. They have left the entrance in a dangerous state whereby children can now enter the culvert and get trapped. It had been previously secure.

We'll take some action, at our expense, to repair the damage caused by these thoughtless individuals. We'll probably have a blacksmith create a secure grille to re-protect the culvert entrance. There is no excuse for the intruders' anti-social behaviour. If someone has a need to access our land they can find contact details posted by the entrance gate.

The contractors who'd been recently working on the pavement of the footpath along the A517 also dumped construction rubbish items through our fence onto our land. There is also a recent increase in litter dumping (fast food packaging) on the embankment with a timing coincidental to the contractor activity.

It is our intention to make the site available for amenity activity for local Turnditch residents once the site is secure and safe, but when damage is caused by thoughtless people our thoughts turn to increasing security to keep people out. A lot of work is needed before we can open the site safely.

Easy trimming of weeds and high grass in Turnditch Orchard.

Last year I put a lot of effort into trimming the weeds and grass in the orchard. The previously dumped building materials and tree stumps prevents the use of a normal mower, so I used a portable brush cutter. It was hard work and took a couple of days to mow the orchard.

Weeds and long grass compete with the fruit trees for nutrients and water, so there's a function need for weed control not just the aesthetic appeal of a neatly trimmed sward of grass. Given the close proximity of the river we don't want to use chemicals to control the weed in the orchard area. We feel a combination of mowing the area and mulching around the fruit trees is probably the best compromise to control the weeds.

This year, after some research into the options, I have purchased a Hyundai HYFT56 Field Trimmer. It was a great investment.  One of the selection criteria was the machine had to be light enough and have a collapsed size which would allow transportation in the back of my estate car. Weighing in at 30 Kg I can lift it in to the car without the use of ramps. I had to use cargo straps to stop it rolling around the back of the car when I was driving.

The wheeled field trimmer works really well and greatly reduces the effort involved in keeping the weeds/grass under control in the orchard. The 5.5 horse power 4 stroke petrol engines gives plenty of power to tackle dense undergrowth and tall weeds. The 4 mm "string" does a good job of weed cutting. The field trimmer reduced the duration of the task to three hours from the two days it took last year with a hand held brush cutter. I also noticed there was less strimming debris on my clothes after three hour's use of the HYFT56 when compared with a hand held strimmer. You'll usually see me working in a white paper "forensic" coverall when I'm trimming the vegetation. I don't want a repeat of the "Strimmer Rash", but with the new HYFT56 I think it will be less likely.

The engine runs fairly slowly, this helps to reduce the noise of operation. It used about half a litre of fuel per hour which gives a current UK fuel running cost of about £1 an hour. The handbook recommends the engine oil is changed every 25 hours of operation.

Here's a video of  someone testing the machine on some weeds, it gives an accurate representation of what it is like to use in practice.

I read through the (pdf) handbook and noticed references to tools supplied with the machine. I didn't receive any when the vendor (Arb and Grounds Equipment Ltd) handed over the machine, so I'll be checking back with them.

The trimmer cord needs to be checked at the start of and during operations to make sure it is not too short. It lasts quite well, but if you hit rock/hard wood it is possible to snap the trimmer line.  I've ordered some Oregon Flexiblade Trimmer Line as a replacement. It will be interesting to see how it compares in operation with the original. Replacing the cord is easy and can be performed without tool is a couple of minutes.

Update 8th May 2015:

The field trimmer has lived up to expectations. It took only four hours, including rest breaks, to trim back the grass/weeds in the orchard. Last year I'd take two days to do this job when using a hand held brush cutter. The Oregon Flexiblade line worked well, though was a little bit trickier to install due to its greater stiffness compare to the original manufacturer trimming line.