2016 Starting

I have just managed to find room for another eleven trees taking my total to seventy seven all planted and spaced at five meter centres.  I have no idea how three of the apple trees and three of the plum  trees that I planted will turn out as they were home grown.  The apples were grown from pips that I took from Smitten apples.  The pips appeared to have sprouted within the apple and took very well when I planted them.  I expected nothing and was extremely surprised when they continued to grow and thrive.  I know that I will most likely get something akin to a wild crab apple but I have the space and am happy with the experiment.  If I don't like what the trees produce I will graft them over to something more useful. The three plum trees were grown from stones taken from plums given to me by a neighbour I think the tree may be a Gordon Castle.  As with the apples I have no idea what I will get, time will tell.  But I expect my chances of getting edible fruit from the experiment are greater than my chances of winning the lottery and the cost is much less, only a little time and a little space.  Not only that but I will get a tree for my efforts whereas with the lottery I only get a small useless piece of paper.  And for those who think I'm daft for trying I have this to say, If a young girl called Mary Ann Brailsford hadn't planted and nurtured a pip around two hundred years ago we wouldn't have the Bramley apple.  So even for my trees there is hope, not much, but still it's there.  I'll report on the progress as and if they continue to thrive.  As for the rest my orchard seems to be surviving the winter reasonably well.  I'm looking forward to spring.

The picture below is of the little river that runs through our village, this was it's state on boxing day, a little higher than is usual, even for this time of year.

Early Autumn 2015 

The first medlar.