The Orchard

Saturday saw a small group planting the last of the fruit trees in the orchard.

The tree guards were closed off with chicken wire. Weed control material was put around each tree.

It was a fairly cold day but the sky was sooooooooo beautiful, full of blue colours and the sun peeked out at us.

I sometimes resent going out to the orchard to work on a weekend but once I get there all that resentment disappears, even when the snow was falling in January looking around at the surroundings was enough to lift my spirits.

There is still quite a lot of work to do at the site to get it working properly. Theres going to be watering the trees once the weather warms up, a couple of us are going to sort out quite how to bring water from the edge of the uphill site onto the orchard site. I imagine that watering the trees could be needed several times a week.

Are you interested in going to the site and doing some watering ?

If so you only need to tell us via the site info link.

And hey,,,,if you only fancy walking along and looking that'd be fine too.

We have put weed control material around  the base of each tree to stop the weeds competing with the trees for the nutrients and this material needs covering with wood chips. The chips will be made on site from whatever material that lies around the site. We'll be using a noisy machine to do the chipping so try and avoid that day for a visit, Ok ?

Also we are going to look at the whole of the two plots, one plot holds the fruit trees and the other plot has to be managed by us. The two plots are linked at the moment, a stone wall down the middle of the two plots has fallen down, this wall needs putting back up, because it could be useful to seperate the two plots at times.Sheep are going to be put onto both plots to keep weeds under control. A local farmer is going to bring some sheep onto the site once the local council has repaired the wooden fencing which seperates the plots from the railway.

KMC has been very good in letting us use the orchard site, I hope that they can hear me shouting,

" Thankyou KMC "

They are continuing to assist us as well, the people who work for KMC have been very helpful as well, because a council makes decisions but how that is implemented is down to the people who work inside the organisation. And the peeople are lovely, very helpful but at the same time looking after the interests of the council. Professional is the word I'd use to describe them.

Whoops, I went off on a tangent there with a bit of passionate applause for KMC.

Ah yes, the work left to do. bu the work aside leaves us as a group needing to set up a management group for the orchard and to tackle the issue of just what to do with the whole site. We need a plan.

If you feel inclined to get involved at any point in this process do come along and take part, don't be shy now.

Well work , real life work beckons me, time is ticking on and somebodies house needs mending. So with a smile and a nonny noo its off to work I go.

Have a good one today folks where ver you may bee.