Restoring traditional orchards in Gloucestershire

Biologische Obstspezialitäten: Swiss organic fruit farming the traditional way

2011-11-22T06:34:00.000-08:00

Using the internet to document my orchard obsessions has allowed me to discover fruity wonderlands in far away lands. Recently, I was contacted by Helmut and Monika who manage such a place on the southern shore of Lake Constance in Switzerland between Romanshom and Arbon. They've generously donated some photos of their farm, and I think you will agree with me that it looks like quite a place!

It's a rare example of a commercial fruit farm of the most traditional form, with 550 trees of apple, pear, plum and cherry set over 10.5 hectares. The trees are standards, planted on vigorous rootstocks and allowed to grow to full height. These are the type of orchards that are so rich in biodiversity and are a 'priority' habitat for conservation in the UK. It has been a family run enterprise for 120 years, but the age of some of the trees demonstrates a tradition of fruit growing that stretches back much further.

This photo shows one of their fantastic old perry pear trees, a type of fruit tree that is particularly beautiful after a hundred years of growth. Sadly trees like this are becoming increasingly rare in the UK.

This tree is an apple variety called 'Gravenstein' that Heklmut and Monika make a single variety sweet cider from. You can see the poles they use to prop up the heavily laden branches preventing breakages in the Autumn - a technique I haven't yet seen employed in Britain. Tender loving care!

This is another apple called 'Muolener Rosen'. Apparently is a variety that is largely unknown but produces a very healthy vigorous tree that crops productively in alternate years. Many cider varieties show this cropping pattern in Britain, especially in unpruned traditional orchards.

Harvest time in the orchards. The farm is totally organic, with the main income coming from sales of fresh fruit and sweet cider in the farm shop. They also supply apples and pears to a local cider factory. They also supply to retail outlets in Bern and Basel.

They produce other single variety ciders, such as 'Sauergrauech', 'Leuenapfel' and 'Taffetapfel'. (Just when you thought you were making headway in the labarinthine world of fruit varieties, hey!).

A pleasing traditional orchard scene with the next generation of trees beautifully complementing the more venerable characters! If only more orchards in Britain had such a continuity of horticulture and habitat.

Autumn colours remeniscent of James Stanley's orchard near Ebrington in Gloucestershire.

I'm not sure what the winters are like in this part of Switzerland, but presumably they are pretty hardcore. Ideal for killing off pathogens in the trees and preventing disease outbreaks.

This amazing tree is a another perry pear. A fruit-growing research station near Zurich came down and aged this tree at 300 years old! The variety is called 'Wagner's Wildbirne' that is good for fermenting and drying too. Apparently its found nowhere else in Switzerland. You get trees approaching this age in Britain but I have never seen one with such wide spreading branches. She's a BEAUTY!

They have also developed their own variety called the 'Emmy' apple which is exclusively available from this farm. Thats the young tree in the foreground here. Helmut and Monika explained that they included this photo to illustrate that with vigorous 'seedling' rootstocks (e.g. M25) it is a fallicy that it takes years and years for trees to start producing.

All in all, I feel an orchard holiday in the making!

The surviving orchards of Ebrington

2011-10-28T09:46:00.000-07:00

Looking down towards Chipping Campden from one of the only old cherry orchards left in this part of Gloucestershire. In this area, it's better to focus on what is left to preserve rather than dwell on what has been lost.

This is James Stanley, a farmer who lives locally to me. He looks after several fantastic old orchards that I spotted via Google Earth. Today he was kind enough to take me on a guided tour of his orchards and the weather couldn't have been better for it. This tree is a Blenheim Orange. I've encountered a few old ones like this - they're impressive trees and always recognisably by the gnarly bark. It's a tasty late dessert apple variety found in c. 1740 as a 'gribble' by a gardener, Mr Kempster, on the boundary wall of Blenheim Palace in Woodstock. (A 'gribble' is an apple tree that has germinated naturally from a pip in the countryside, in case you were wondering!).

It is a classic traditional orchard, with all the trees widely spaced on standard rootstocks that has enabled the tress to grow large enough to cope with cattle grazing for many years. James was telling me how he used to pick from all the trees using tall ladders and sell the fruit locally. Sadly now there is no market for the varieties except intermittent custom from local cider-makers. Hooray for cider, again!

This is an interesting tree. James has a whole row of these, with spectacular claret fruit. James' father used to call these "Devlins".

Looks can be deceiving though, as they taste pretty cardboardy and apparently only really sold during the war when everyone was short on options.

Beautiful perry pear trees again, reminiscent of an orchard in Bledington and my new friends Helmut and Monika's farm in Switzerland.

Because it has been so dry and sunny recently the trees have kept their leaves really well - look at the colour of this perry pear!

Sadly this orchard has a real issue with 'generational bias', like many traditional orchards. If they no longer have a commercial use then there is no incentive to 'gap up' when trees die and an orchard with no young trees will slowly fade away...

Is this Ebrington's last plum orchard?

Reinette d'Orleans: tasting the ultimate dessert apple with Barry Juniper

2011-10-11T03:39:00.000-07:00

There's nothing like spending a few afternoons trespassing in orchards to clear the smoke of the city from your lungs! I have been missing-in-action doing a masters course in London, but now I'm back wandering the groves...

I had previously mentioned a mysterious dessert apple called the Orleans Reinette (or Reinette d'Orleans). Back in Cambridge, Professor John Parker, the then Director of the Botanic Gardens, had recommended this as the best apple he had ever tasted. Many others agree. Orleans Reinette was first described in 1776 and is now grown throughout Europe but it remains in Britain as something of a rarity. It has proven to be illusive to track down. With apple season fully underway, last Tuesday I tagged along to a filming event with one of the world authorities on apples in his own private orchard.

This is Barry in his orchard in Wytham in which he has collected around 130 different apple varieties. Barry is an Emeritus reader in plant sciences from Oxford University and author of 'The History of the Apple'. He is doing his thing for a Dutch film crew that are producing a series called 'Paradise' that is all about the future of food (it is the brainchild of a very interesting scientist, director and writer: Louise Fresco).

In 1929, the famous pomologist Edward Bunyard described how '...it seems to come from the Low Countries, where we first meet with it in 1776. Its brown/red flush and glowing gold do very easily suggest that if Rembrandt had painted a fruit piece he would have chosen this apple. In the rich golden flesh there is a hint of the Ribston flavour, much of the Blenheim nuttiness, and an admirable balance of acidity and sweetness which combine, in my opinion, to make the best apple grown in Western Europe....as a background for an old port it stands solitary and unapproachable.'

It's an unbelievable apple. (It stands solitary AND unnapproachable!) Really low acidity and fantastic subtle undertones of vanilla that emerge as you chew. It's also cracking with a mature (= runny) English goat's cheese a drop of Sauternes. Those slices in the background are Brownlee's Russet - notice how the Orleans Reinette does not go brown (oxidation) when its flesh is exposed to the air. Go out and find one!

Pump up the bramley - sky lanterns, fire and elderflower champagne

2010-07-20T03:53:00.000-07:00

Last weekend I had a party in the 1920s orchard at Charingworth. I invited the people I work with in the market garden and a few other friends and orchard helpers. Three of the guests were cider-makers so we were well supplied with cider and perry, and also got to try out my elderflower champagne for the first time. 'Too yeasty' is often the verdict with this kind of venture, but actually it was really good. Young, fresh, very fizzy and refreshing. A bit like me I hear you say? Ah gags!

A cheeky tribe of scrumpers, armed and dangerous! It takes some skill to get your face that muddy.

Orchards are great for camping as they never get too windy. I was pitched a little close to my hive of sleeping bees though.

It was the first time I had tried this back-to-nature minimalist fire pit design for the BBQ. It worked really well, and I would recommend aligning it with the direction of the prevailing wind to maximise air-flow. We cooked Cumberland sausages, burgers, and spicy 'Hungarian Hot Wax' peppers stuffed with coconut rice. Use British charcoal if you can - it burns so much better and the woodland management involved in producing it benefits many species. I like to think Ray Mears would have loved it, although someone brought tin foil and I know he hates that.

Everyone knows that there is nothing quite as entrancing as fire, and when you combine it with the gaping mouth of a drunken man it becomes a special pleasure.

No ultra-hip orchard knees-up would be complete without a sprinkling of sky lanterns (or should that be a twinkling?). I'm sure the NFU would have something to say about that, but apparently the wheat is not ripe enough to burn yet and life is too short anyway. Our ones didn't have any metal wire in them making them 100% biodegradable and safe for cows etc.

Orchards and beekeeping with Charlie the jackdaw

2010-07-03T05:44:00.000-07:00

On Thursday I was invited to a special orchardy event hosted by the Farming and Wildlife Advisory Group (FWAG) at Day's Cottage. My beekeeping guru Tanya was one of the main speakers, covering all aspects of the the longstanding relationship between orchards and bees. In this photo she is showing us the different components of an occupied hive (although it does look suspiciously like some kind of cult meeting). I also gave a short talk about orchard restoration - hold onto your hats people!

Beekeeping is crammed full of interesting facts and props and this makes it ideal for demonstrating. Look at the amazing glass-fronted display hive on that table. We all had to try to identify six different honeys by taste. They were: Cotswold garden honey (Tanya's), Salisbury Plain honey (florally diverse), Sicilian Eucalyptus honey (monofloral), English heather honey (bleak?), oil seed rape honey (lurid?) and New Zealand manuka honey (TCP++). I got two right but was impressed by the range of flavours.

Here is Dave Kaspar, chairman on the Gloucestershire Orchard Group, and that chap on his shoulder is Charlie. Dave and Helen Brent-Smith have been raising him on cat food and he's now two months old. When I first arrived he came out of nowhere and landed on the FWAG lady's head and she freaked out, thinking he was a wild bird. In the other photo Dave is doing a demonstration of budding with a plum variety called Rivers' Early Prolific. Budding is another method of reproducing varieties, like grafting, only it's quicker and is done in the summer.

Here is the pommace left over from an earlier juicing, and see how it is studded with freshly germinated apple seedlings. Back when most farms had a press and made their own cider for the labourers, this stuff was often either fed to the pigs of spread on the fields. Farmers used this latter option as a way of generating new apple seedlings to use as rootstocks for established varieties. Every now and again one of these seedlings gave rise to a brand new variety, but sadly this source of new variation has been largely lost. Pips will not germinate unless they have been completely liberated from the apple flesh and 'scarified' by the cold of winter (or a fridge).

DEAD WOOD! THAT'S WHAT I'M TALKIN' ABOUT!

Here's Jonathan Briggs - you may recognise him from one of my previous posts - a mistletoe expert. He gave a fascinating talk all about this parasitic plant which is a key component of traditional orchard ecosystems. That sprig of mistletoe is emerging from an unusually thick branch. Day's Cottage is deep within mistletoe territory and it is abundant, but up in my corner of north Gloucestershire it is far less common and the nationwide distribution patterns are yet to be fully understood. I have had some success getting it established in Charingworth, but that's for another day...

Imagine this for a pub accessory. And look at his fantastic cool blue eye. Who's a good boy?! Jackdaws are corvids, a family that includes crows, jays and magpies, and they are very bright. They can use tools and have demonstrated self-awareness. Perhaps one day he will be tempted by the glint in your eye...

A Winnie the pooh daydream: bees, drones, queens and HONEY

2010-06-27T03:48:00.000-07:00

My bee guru Tanya supervised another peek into my bee colony last week. This is the 'wild' colony that I managed to capture in my bait hive in the 1920s orchard. Since the colony is about to have a population explosion we added another story onto the hive (called a 'super') and hopefully it is from this that we will be able to harvest honey. And check out the suits...(could I bee any hotter?)!

Unfortunately to get into the hive we had to disturb this wild comb somewhat, but it provided the perfect opportunity to have a really nosey snoop around their magnificent wax world. You can see a cross-section through the brood comb and inside these cells are the white developing larvae. Along the top edge of the top photo the comb is for a different use - it has honey and pollen (the darker brown stuff) stored and this is both a food source for the workers and developing young. Do they have it on toast, you may well ask?

Look how delicately sculpted the cells are. This close up shows the sedimentation of pollen produced as different bees contribute their tiny parcels collected from a range of plants with different coloured pollen.

Whenever you open a hive and disturb the bees they tend to congregate and do this special nosier wing-fan action. This is their way of calling in any disorientated bees who have gotten lost or wandered off.

I know what you're thinking: who's this handsome lad? He's a male bee (or 'drone') and slightly larger than the female workers. A proportion of each colony is made out of drones (even though all of the workers are female) because no colony can reproduce without a fertilized queen. He was skulking on his own on one of the frames. Pull your wing out son and get pollinating!

We made some frames to go into the brood box and encourage the bees to build their comb on them. In this photo I am helping Tanya attach this wild comb onto a frame before returning it to the hive. Ideally we should have filled the box with frames very early on and then the bees would have had no choice but to build comb on them.

The advantage of the removable frame system is two-fold: Firstly, you can take them out to check up on their progress. Secondly, it is less energetically expensive for the bees to build comb on a frame with a sheet of wax that has the hexagonal cell pattern embossed into it (a 'foundation'). Wax takes about six times more energy than honey to make so this foundation reduces the amount of energy the bees spend on wax and thus they can produce more honey.

That metal grid thing is called a 'queen excluder'. It separates the brood box at the base with the 'super' above and has gaps that are just too narrow for the queens abdomen to fit through. This prevents her from laying eggs in the super, keeping it just for honey and pollen. Royal discrimination.

Picnicking with winnie the pooh? I got to take home some of the honey comb and it tasted goo-ood.

Inspecting the hives...I'm covered in bees!

2010-06-06T09:45:00.000-07:00

At the end of April my beekeeping guru Tanya came over and helped me to install two bait hives, one in each orchard. The aim was to try and capture a wild colony when they start to swarm around this time of the year. It seemed like a real long shot, but amazingly I started to see bees going in and out of one of the hives about two weeks ago. So on Thursday evening we went back to have a peek at the colony and see how far they had got with their empire...

This is Tanya carefully lifting the lid on the hive in the 1920s orchard. That beautiful construction is wild bee comb and represents the natural form of a bee comb, the home of the colony. It is so pale because it has been made recently - over time apparently it will become browner with the build up of propolis. Unfortunately, comb like this is more tricky to manage than comb built on the removable frames you can see to the front of the hive. Ideally we would have filled the hive with these frames before they managed to build this natural comb and thus forced them to build on the frames. Still, what a wonder to behold!

Most commercial beekeepers would break up the natural comb into flat sections and attach it using string or elastic bands to the frames, thus allowing the colony to be managed much more easily. Since I don't have to be as efficient we decided on a compromise where we left the bulk of the natural comb but filled the rest of the hive with frames for them to move onto as the colony grows.

Here I am using the smoker to move the bees around and try and prevent any from being squashed. Smoke irritates them and they shy away from it. Amazingly, the bees didn't seem to get too bothered with our meddling and they didn't try and sting us. Phew!

We took a small piece of comb out to have a taste. The cells on one side are filled with nectar and the darker cells contain pollen which you can also eat. The bees have not yet started converting the nectar into honey. They do this by adding an enzyme and reducing the water content. This allows them to store energy supplies since honey will not ferment (it is in fact the only type of food that never goes off in pure form!). When the colony gets bigger I can add another story to the hive and sustainably harvest some honey periodically. We ate it with the first strawberries of the year. Very decadent!

Charingworth Orchard Trust on the road

2010-06-02T12:57:00.000-07:00

I work part time in the market garden at Daylesford Farm and on the 22nd of May we had our summer show. Over a thousand people came and I had a little stall promoting traditional orchards and their many wonders. I met Monty Don who seemed pretty knowledgeable on the topic and said he had his own garden orchard with 38 varieties - go Monty! That jam jar by the dead log is full of beetle poo, or more accurately, the characteristic lozenge shaped frass of the Noble Chafer beetle. Its a rare beauty and an old orchard specialist so I thought it would be a good prop to have in case I met anyone really keen! I had a selection of some of the good orchardy books too:

The Story of the Apple, by Barrie Juniper and David Mabberley

Man-made Eden: Historic Orchards in Somerset and Gloucestershire, by James Russell

Ciderland, by James Crowden

The Northern Pomona, by Linden Hawthorne, Elke Laver, Bridget Gillespie and others.

All worthy additions to any garden library. I also had a few copies of my article for Historic Gardens magazine - The Traditional British Orchard - A precious and fragile resource. It's not in print yet but stand posted...

Looking for water voles on the River Evenlode

2010-05-29T04:26:00.000-07:00

Recently I accompanied two ecologists from the Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust, along with Tim Field (Daylesford Environmental Scientist) and John Field (Water Vole Officer, no relation!) to look for water voles on the River Evenlode. One of the main areas we were inspecting was a wetland ecosystem beside the river that has recently been created by Tim on behalf of Daylesford Organic. The project has already looked at several Cotswold rivers recently and is part of a nationwide scheme to help reverse disastrous recent declines in the mammal.

The highlighted area is the wetland reserve, photographed in May 2009. The Evenlode is visible as a thin line passing down through it. Until quite recently this water-meadow was very 'horse sick' - that is to say it had been heavily overgrazed by horses. Two years ago the culverts, ditches and pond (visible as lighter brown marks) were added using a JCB with valves to allow the water levels to be adjusted. Over the winter months the area is flooded, providing valuable habitat for migrant waders and waterfowl as well as flood alleviation for people living up- and downstream. In the later summer and autumn the regrowth is enjoyed by Gloucester cattle, an old breed hardy enough to handle rough grazing land.

Already a number of key meadow and wet meadow species have emerged in the sward, including meadow foxtail, marsh thistle, common knapweed, marsh woundwort and meadowsweet. The ecologists suggested that the sward could be further enhanced if a hay cut was taken off the site, followed by a transfer of wet hay from the fantastic wet meadows at Greystones Farm Widllife Trust reserve near Boughton-on-the-Water. This would provide seed from some of the rarer species (e.g. orchids and sedges) that are unlikely to naturally recolonise.

The main dyke and surrounding marsh. Exposed soil and algal blooms betray the young age of the water feature, but it will already have been colonised by many invertebrates, particularly dragonflies and damselflies. A pair of Lapwing were diving and calling over the marsh and perhaps had a nest nearby or were prospecting the site.

We looked for water vole latrines as the only sure fire way of confirming their presence (apart from spotting one obviously!). There are a number of secondary clues that can be used for further evidence such as,

1) their burrows - BUT can be old and uninhabited or confused with the brown rat's
2) piles of chewed grasses and reeds - particularly yellow flag iris - BUT also displayed by bank and field voles so unreliable.

Overshading of the riverbanks by trees and bushes has made many river banks unfavourable for the water vole, combined with the other big factor, American Mink. These hardcore predatory mammals are often foolishly released from farms into the wild by so-called 'animal rights protesters' (ha!). Unfortunately they have quite a taste for the water vole. This stretch of the river looked like quite good habitat so mink are probably why we didn't find any.

A mallard's nest in an old coppiced willow. Is this an unusually large clutch?

Otter spraint and footprints on the riverbank. They have very large territories (40 miles!) so it may not live nearby. The spread of the invasive signal crayfish may well have helped otters recolonise much of the country. A large contributor to their decline were the endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) used as agricultural pesticides that accumulated in the food chain from the 1950s until recently. These are now banned and otters are doing well.

1920s orchard in full spring glory

2010-05-24T11:54:00.000-07:00

Before and after shots of the 1920s orchard. The 'after' photos were taken two weeks ago and the 'before shots in the winter of 2008. Fifty trees have been pruned, the grass has been cut and the birds are nesting all over the place.

Areas of long grass have been left to provide nectar sources and cover for birds and small mammals. In combination with the short grass this will provide some variety of habitat. Better air circulation will improve the health of the trees and reduce scab on the fruit. Mechanical mowing is a short term solution - in the long term we will hopefully fence the site and reinstate sheep grazing.

Bait hives for honey bees

2010-05-16T12:11:00.000-07:00

My friend Tanya is a natural beekeeper- that is, one that does not use chemicals and tries to encourage as natural a life cycle as possible for her colonies. She has loaned me two bait hives, one for each of my orchards in Charingworth. Bait hives are the empty first story of a hive that has been used by a colony previously. Theoretically, the smell of residual amounts of propolis and wax attracts scout bees that are on the look out for a new home for a naturalised colony that is ready to swarm. This swarm then may colonise the hive, and as it grows you can gradually increase the size of the beehive to accommodate them. The bees will then help pollinate the orchard effectively, and you can harvest HONEY from them! Mmmm.

Have a look at this secret glade I made in the 1940s orchard last week using my strimmer. It is quite magical to be enclosed by blossoming trees on all sides.

Preparing for the blossom...

2010-05-11T03:41:00.000-07:00

After all the pruning activity of February and March, spring finally arrived and it was time to clear up the enormous volumes of prunings that had accumulated. Issac, Will and Freddie helped me spend a day consolidating the piles. Pruning offcuts are very sappy and extremely difficult to burn en masse. We decided the best option was to make several huge bonfires and leave the wood through summer to dry out before burning most of it. Any larger diameter pieces have already been stacked under each tree and on the orchard perimeter to slowly rot down.

In the middle of those two piles you can see one of the new trees I planted in March. This one is Ashmead's Kernel - an old Gloucestershire variety that makes excellent juice.

The exciting revelation of the tidy up was that for the first time we could see down the length of the avenues in the 1920s orchard. This photo was taken about a month ago and since then the grass has grown considerably. I have arranged for someone to come in with a topper and small cabin-less tractor and cut in on Saturday. After that I should have the photogenic combo of freshly cut grass and blossoming trees to spoil you with!

We also cleared out both of the barn owl boxes. I had seen the Jackdaws going into one of them, and it transpired that both boxes we full with sheep's wool and sticks from their nest-building attempts. Jackdaws fill the boxes with material and then build a nest right at the top. Barn owls will only ever colonise a box that is empty and they do not make a nest. I think it will be an ongoing task to keep them clear until they are colonised - but once barn owls are in residence they can use the same box year after year. I have also found this Jackdaw-proof owl box design which may be something to consider if you are thinking of installing one yourself...

Pave over paradise to put up a parking lot? Wold's End orchard, Chipping Campden.

2010-04-03T12:06:00.000-07:00

Wold's End orchard is close to the centre of my beautiful local town, Chipping Campden. Over the last 30 years this orchard has been at the heart of an argument that has polarised opinion in the town. The land is owned by The Campden Society who successfully applied for planning permission to convert a section of the orchard (about 1/3) into a car park. Later the permission was changed to permit the building of a new doctor's surgery. Fortunately, The Campden Society does not currently have the money to undertake the development and things are on hold - but the plans have not been retracted.

The Campden Society is established for the public benefit for the following purposes (bold my own):

1. To secure the protection of the architectural and historic quality of Campden, its open spaces and its natural setting.
2. To promote high standards of planning, architecture and landscaping in Campden.
3. To stimulate interest in and concern for the character and beauty of Campden.

The tarmac path in this picture was added for 'pedestrian access'. Some work had to be undertaken to prevent the planning permission from expiring.

Ordnance survey map of Chipping Campden from between c.1843 and c.1893. Notice the abundance of small orchards in the land to the right of Wold's End.

Wold's End orchard is a rare example of an old traditional orchard that retains most of its original trees close to the centre of a historic Cotswold market town. Traditional orchards in towns and villages are very vulnerable to development and successful resistance to such changes happens only rarely (e.g. Brockworth orchard). Campden appears to have changed relatively little in the last 160 years, but many of the orchards to the east of the town have succumbed to development. Interestingly, apparently the boundary for the 'conservation area' includes all the green space surrounding the orchard, but not the orchard itself. Has it always been earmarked for development?

There are 47 old trees left in the orchard, many of great age and rich in veteran tree features that are so ecologically diverse. This is one of the reasons why traditional orchards are now a UK Biodiversity Action Plan 'priority' habitat. The one in the foreground here is almost completely hollow and would be a good place to look for Noble Chafer (Gnorimus nobilis) frass.

All the fruit trees populating the edge abutting Back End lane will be lost in the proposed development. That includes the three seen here in the foreground (the nearest is an ash). I'm not sure security lights will age so gracefully. A huge amount of soil will also need removing to flatten this section.

In 1994 there was a topographical survey of the site undertaken by the Cotswold Archaeological Trust. It found that the most significant archaeological feature of the site was the ridge and furrow earthworks that are likely to be of medieval origin and 'lend themselves to a visual appreciation of the medieval and later agricultural activity surrounding the settlement of Chipping Campden'. Orchards and woodlands are excellent places to see these agricultural fingerprints that are quickly eroded by mechanised farming methods.

Certain members of The Campden Society seem to have forgotten that its role is for promoting conservation and not development. Fortunately there are people in the town that appreciate that our heritage does not always come packaged in Cotswold stone - the group 'Caring for Campden' have been fighting to preserve the orchard, listing arguments against the initial parking justification. I can now add to their arguments my own: that from my experience of visiting and surveying the ecological aspects of traditional orchards, the Wold's End orchard is site of immense value.

Crucially, recent efforts have been made to restore the site, with many new trees on appropriate vigorous rootstocks that will ensure there is a new generation to replace those that die. A central position in a historic and popular town should allow school children, residents and the general public to be educated in the value of traditional orchards: the ecological value, their place as a legacy of our farming heritage and as a means of reconnecting an increasingly urbanised nation with biodiversity. Acres and acres of the countryside are monocultures of arable crops with very little variety or room for nature - why do the car parks and new houses have to be built on these rare fragments of land that have interest above and beyond a focus on productivity?

However, the future is not entirely gloomy for Wold's End orchard. Unlike the majority of traditional orchards in Britain, this one is not left unused. Chipping Campden School has rented the site on a 'peppercorn rent' (i.e. very small amount) and uses it as a practical space for their Environmental and Land-based Science GCSE and 'rural crafts' course. Children have helped to restore the orchard by grafting the existing varieties and caring for the Gloucestershire Old Spot pigs that have provided pork for the school canteen. 20 new apple trees, 2 pears and a walnut have been planted and trees have been pruned. Numerous fruit trees have been planted around the school as well.

Have a look at this article.

And if you can, go down and visit the orchard and make your own mind up. And get in touch with the Campden Society and get your views heard.

It's spring and the birds are moving in...

2010-03-16T11:07:00.000-07:00

Two hours ago I took this photo of a red kite flying over the 1940s orchard! What a sign of how successful the Chilterns re-introduction program has been. Indeed, whilst I was getting a bus to Gatwick airport last week I saw over fifteen of them when we passed down through Buckinghamshire towards London. In medieval times they were common in towns and cities where they fed on carrion and waste in the streets, rather like vultures do in other countries.

My funding has stretched further than anticipated and so I was able to direct Issac into the 1940s orchard for a spare day. Here he just concentrated in doing the chainsaw work I can't do on my own, such as raising the crowns and removing any large diseased branches. I saw a few yellowhammer down by the pheasant feeder where they always seem to hang out. It's a red list species due to recent population declines that are almost certainly due to the intensification of farming methods.

We have finished pruning the 1920s orchard now and its looking pretty amazing. The main job left is getting rid of the immense volumes of prunings that we have created. The offcuts are all very green and sappy and I have been agonising over the most efficient way of dealing with them. A mobile chipper is one option, but the prunings are quite hard to handle and I think the best option may be to make several large bonfires and leave the wood to season for five months before burning it all.

Victorian orchard eccentricities

2010-03-07T09:39:00.000-08:00

Here are a few more gems from "The Fruit Grower's Guide" (by John Wright F.R.H.S.), an utterly comprehensive three volume orcharding bible published in 1892. More specifically they are some of the more bizarre "illustrative diagrams" by Worthington G. Smith and George Shayler. Oh, to have a son and call him Worthington!

A diagram that forces all of us to reconsider how committed we really are to growing fruit. Imagine calling across from your young espalier in the walled garden - "Worthington, any idea where I may have left my Parisian?" And would you even feel worthy enough to wield a Wharncliffe, with it's ivory handle and three blades? They were in another league, those Victorian pruners.

Look at this. It takes my breath away. Was this his first knapsack pump design or do you think it may have been part of a range? Chelsea, Battenberg, Cob (a basic model)... What a man.

No words.

Planting vintage varieties

2010-03-03T13:06:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I drove across to Drakes Broughton to visit Kevin at Walcot Organic Nursery and see if I could shark a few late trees to plant out. Finding fruit trees anywhere on proper standard rootstocks (i.e. M25) is quite difficult as more dwarfing forms tend to be preferred and are more convenient for a garden scale. Couple that with the fact that it's quite late in the year to be planting fruit trees and I was lucky they hadn't been completely cleaned out. I came away with an Ashmead's Kernel (Dave Kaspar's favourite) and the cider varieties Dabinett, Michelin and Tom Putt. I also got a crab apple as they are traditionally used to help improve pollination rates since they hold their blossom for a long time. I wanted to buy a few maidens to put in the ground this year and then by this time next year I will hopefully have fifty more trees of rare local varietes that I am grafting onto M25 next week. If you can't buy it, make it yourself.

The pruning is also going at a great pace - we now only have three trees to go before the 1920s orchard is completely pruned. (That's six years growth off fifty 90 year old Bramley apple trees.)

You can almost hear this old beast sucking in the fresh air!

38 trees pruned, 12 to go!

2010-02-28T06:35:00.000-08:00

This sequence shows Isaac helping me tackle a tree that we thought was in danger of splitting down its trunk. It had become very spreading, with a large weight of wood a long way from the crown. The trunk appeared to have a clear weak point as well.

By bringing the arms in, the tree would be much less likely to split in two. Fortunately Issac is trained to undertake this kind of major surgery. It makes you think what would have been involved before the days of chainsaws!

On the right of this shot you can see the water shoots I have partially cut and bent down horizontally to grow out and eventually replace the branches we have removed. This technique seems rather brutal and may increase chances of infection at these wounds, but the trees are remarkably resilient and thus it is a risk worth taking.

Here is a tree we didn't get to in time to save. It is now supported by the ends of its spreading branches and will gradually decay. I plan to leave it in-situ as a habitat feature of these wood-pasture ecosystems.

The blue trees have been pruned by Issac and myself in the last few weeks. The five pink trees were pruned by my friends during the pruning party I hosted last weekend. The two yellow trees are standing dead or have split and will be left to decay gracefully.

Pruning party 2010

2010-02-23T07:42:00.000-08:00

It was a question we had all been asking ourselves: what can a dozen people armed with saws do to an old orchard in a day? Will the outcome be disastrous? Can the ecological and horticultural aims be kept in balance? Will the cider kill the work ethic? Perhaps more than anything we were blessed by the weather on a day fine enough to inspire even the most dendrophobic Londoner into considering all those water shoots and congested crowns.

Teaching people about pruning is difficult, and especially so with the unusual situation at Charingworth. Here Bramley apple trees on vigorous rootstocks have been commercially managed for over 70 years. We are now attempting to ease them into a less intensive management regime, whilst at the same time preserving all the valuable types of habitat that orchards can accumulate over time.

I started my friends off on a couple of trees I had already half-pruned. This eased them into the basics of dealing with the water shoots without too many confusing or important decisions to make.

The basic message was: clear the crown and lower branches from water shoots and then thin the majority of the rest, choosing a few well positioned shoots to take the vigour. Remove anything crossing or pointing back in. Easy, breezy, beautiful.

I was lucky to have Harry and Tommy back from the pruning weekend last year. It looks like Harry is giving some advice to Luca in this photo - knowledge sharing for fruit bearing!

We brought a load of well seasoned wood into the orchard to try and create a fire ferocious enough to consume the piles of sappy offcuts that have been created. I think the only workable solution will be to hire a mobile chipper for a day once the pruning is finished.

A "Blitzkrieg" campaign on tree 31.

I picked up twenty litres of medium sweet Prior's Tipple cider to keep the mood buoyant. Alongside hot Cumberland sausages with mustard and onion marmalade, this made for an idyllic lunch amongst the trees.

By the end of the day we had pruned five trees (shown here in pink). This was more than I had hoped for and it was so thrilling that everyone seemed to really get into it. This takes the total up to 27, which is over half way!

More importantly it allowed a few people to experience the beauty of old orchards first-hand. There is nothing quite like sitting in the arms of a pruned apple tree with a glass of cider to allow communion with, in James Russell's words, that "man-made Eden".

A professional pruner in the orchards

2010-02-17T06:15:00.000-08:00

This week Isaac Nixon started working for me at Charingworth to help with the pruning. He is a professionally qualified tree surgeon with lots of experience pruning in commercial orchards.

That smaller chainsaw in the middle is designed for carving wood. It is good to use for pruning as there is less kick back than from a top handled tree surgeon's saw and this makes it safer to use up ladders around your face. Obviously, this kind of work can only be done by a trained professional.

This tree had tilted over and needed a bit more major shaping to even up the weight distribution. Apple trees can recover from toppling and this tree should respond by increased buttressing around the trunk and more root growth. It will gradually realign its canopy over the next few years.

Chainsaws aren't often associated with the sound of progress, but this case is an exception. In three days we have pruned nine trees, pushing the tally up to nineteen. At this rate we should have finished the 1920s orchard in a fortnight!

For the first time in years we are revealing vistas through this ancient orchard. An exciting time!

Victorian orchard masters

2010-02-15T10:05:00.000-08:00

Oh what a joy to have been a gentleman fruit grower in Victorian England! My friend has been looking after this tome for her neighbour and let me have a look at it. 'The Fruit Growers Guide', written by John Wright to some three volumes and published in 1892. In time I will show you some of the fascinating details and superb eccentricities of this (very) comprehensive handbook, but first here's a quick peek at a few pages.

There are many of these beautiful painted plates by Miss May Rivers. I've also seen this website where they are selling these pages for £60 a go - but I fear they have been cut out of editions of this book. Antiques shmantiques! Perhaps this pear 'Bergamotte Esperen' in the 'Bergamy' perry pear I bought off Dave Kaspar?

It's full of these beautifully detailed pen and ink drawings of branch structures, grafting and pruning techniques. Such admirable commitment to detail.

Building a shelter for pruners

2010-02-09T11:57:00.000-08:00

Today, Freddie (a regular helper for the Trust) and I constructed a temporary shelter in the upper orchard to harbour chilly pruners during lunch breaks and teas. We bought a 7m x 11m tarpaulin from Stow Agricultural Services in Stow-on-the-Wold and chose a south facing side to one of the more magnificent trees. One of the biggest challenges was ensuring we created more than just a huge apple sail!

Poking the fire - an age old tradition.

In sunny weather the sides can be rolled up for a more 'alfresco' feel.

Freecycle for less landfill.

2010-02-07T11:24:00.000-08:00

My friend made me aware of this very cool website today. I can't work out if it is just catching on or if everyone has known about it for ages. A simple idea - it matches people who have things to give away with people that want those things, and in doing so results in less usable stuff being buried in the ground. There are lots of regional groups in the UK - Stratford-upon-Avon group here we come!

How to plant a fruit tree

2010-02-01T11:27:00.000-08:00

Over the weekend I planted the 'Bergamy' perry pear maiden (1 year old) I bought at Day's Cottage last Thursday. It will take at least 15 years to get going fruitwise, but could live 350! 'Plant pears for your heirs', as the saying goes. Planting trees of any sort (even Laylandii?!) is very addictive, but there is much more to it than just digging a hole. A few things to remember with fruit trees:

1) Choose a site. Avoid anywhere that remains waterlogged for long periods or is really exposed.

2) Dig a big hole and fill it back up again with well rotted manure/good composted organic matter.

3) Don't plant the tree too deeply. As the soil settles the tree will sink leaving a bowl that may fill with water. If much of the trunk becomes buried the tree will struggle. It's best plant the tree quite shallowly and then mound the soil up to cover the roots.

4) Water in well.

5) Staking is important as it will prevent the tree from blowing over and give the roots a chance to establish. Recent thinking suggests that it is also beneficial to avoid securing the tree to firmly to a stake as some wobbling encourages the tree to establish a more sturdy root system at an earlier age. So basically, if you're on quite an exposed site then use a stake that's as big as your tree and attach it with a rubber tie quite high up on the tree. On less exposed sites (like mine) you can get away with a lower fastening.

6) Mulching is also a good idea to prevent weed competition. I used some cardboard pegged down that will slowly rot. Bark chips or breathable/biodegradable plastic are other alternatives.

7) Guards. Essential in some form for any new tree. Use a spiral or mesh guard for planting a tree in your garden to stop rabbits. If your field is going to be grazed then you need to think about something more substantial. For sheep you can probably get away with a 4ft metal mesh guard or similar. If you know there may be deer about this will need to be 6ft. For cattle or horses you need a mega post rail and wire construction that will look ridiculous compared to your stick like maiden but is very necessary.

8) Keep an eye on it! Most people make the mistake of planting the tree and thinking that's the job done. Aftercare is essential for success and the first year is when you are most likely to lose the tree. Lone trees in fields are also very tempting perching spots for raptors so it may be an idea to have a taller 'perching post' that will prevent unfortunate accidents!.

A talk from mistletoe man Jonathan Briggs

2010-01-30T09:48:00.000-08:00

One component of the National Trust orchard training day I attended on Thursday at Day's Cottage was a talk by mistletoe enthusiast and expert Jonathan Briggs.

Mistletoe being harvested near Dieppe, France around 1930 to be exported to England for Christmas. (courtesy of J. Briggs)

Viscum album, the European species (that exists as several subspecies across Europe and Asia) is just one of ~1300 species of mistletoe worldwide. In the 1990s a national survey of the plant's distribution showed gardens to be the most common habitat, closely followed by orchards, or parks (in eastern counties). It thus favours the open habitats of wood-pasture, especially where preferred host species can also be found. In order of preference, these hosts are 1) apple, 2) lime 3) hawthorn, 4) poplar, 5) maple and 6) willow, but it has been recorded on many others as well.

Nationally, mistletoe is distributed across much of Britain, but sparsely, yet it becomes abundant in the counties of Worcestershire (e.g. Conderton in above photo), parts of Gloucestershire, Herefordshire and Somerset. This correlates with those areas with the most orchards BUT this is not a causal relationship. If you took away all the orchards in these counties it would still be relatively abundant compared with other regions. Mistletoe can survive across much of the UK, but it won't spread naturally except in these areas. Quite why is still a mystery!

Image courtesy of Mistletoe Matters Consultancy

As well as being important for Druid ceremonies, mistletoe is a valuable component of orchard biodiversity. Firstly, as it is winter flowering it provides a valuable nectar source for insects like flies in February.

The berries are food for birds, especially mistle thrushes (hence the name) and blackcaps. Indeed blackcaps are the primary vector for spreading the seed since they only eat the outer casing and wipe the sticky seed off on a convenient branch. (The best way of seeding your own tree with mistletoe is to mimic this technique on branches of a suitable species. Choose younger branches, 1 - 2 inches in diameter and use berries harvested in February and March for the best germination results. The seeds will take 4 years to produce the first two leaves, but after that will grow exponentially so you need to be careful for things not to get out of hand! )

Mistletoe also has a group of insects that are specifically associated with it. It is a hemi-parasite and will sap strength from the host tree if not controlled but in general it is certainly a beneficial component of any traditional orchard.

National Trust orchard training day at Day's Cottage: A tour of the orchards

2010-01-29T09:22:00.001-08:00

Yesterday I went to Day's Cottage in Brookthorpe near Gloucester for an orchard training day. It was hosted by Dave Kaspar (GOG chairman) and Helen Brent-Smith at their Orchard Skills Centre on behalf of the National Trust. The day started with a tour of the orchards, the oldest of which was planted by Helen's great aunt in 1912. In this picture Dave is explaining that this dead tree is the most important tree in the orchard from an ecological viewpoint, due to the value of standing dead wood for invertebrates and the things that feed on them. As you can imagine, I was in my element!

This Newton Wonder apple tree was blown over only recently, but it is far from doomed. The tree will respond to this stress by putting out more roots and over time it will gradually re-align its canopy. I think it is healthy to encourage a more Victorian perspective on tree beauty, where the gnarls and warpings of time are celebrated and admired.

We also visited an old perry pear orchard which had several trees about 150 years old. We were shown how pear trees have very obvious graft marks even in old age. Perry pears have been recorded to live over 350 years, far longer than any apple. Dave explained how they are best left to their own devices and he regularly advises people not to try and prune them. I think the tree pictured is the variety Butt.

They have about 16 acres of orchards around the site that are being managed very sensitively for wildlife with mistletoe, bird and bat boxes, standing dead wood and no chemical inputs. This tree in the foreground has been toppled for a lot longer, and you can see it has recovered its posture quite admirably and still produces fruit. It reminds me of the Blenheim Orange trees at Mount Pleasant.

This is the museum orchard that was started around 15 years ago in partnership with Gloucestershire council and the GOG as a bank of Gloucestershire apple varieties. New varieties are still being found by people like Charles Martell so it's an ongoing project but it is old enough for the trees to be starting to take off. It's so exciting to think of returning in twenty years to see an established orchard and for an apple off each tree...

Here is my friend Freddie, a longstanding volunteer with the Charingworth Orchard Trust and Tanya, a beekeeper with her own company called Apples and Pears. We were pretty pleased to be able to purchase some perry for tasting later on!

The loot. Mistletoe for seeding at home, a perry pear maiden of the variety 'Bergamy' ("pronounce carefully") and superior grog.

Three portraits of an oak: 1907, 1997 and 2008

2010-01-17T13:32:00.001-08:00

(For many months now I have had this posted on another blog that is now defunct. Since I have encountered many tree fans in the blogosphere, this oak has been upgraded to 'standard fruit tree' status, albeit a larger, older and (dare I say it?!) more impressive fruit tree than any I have yet seen.)

1997- I am 12 in this photo.

I always admired this huge oak tree, standing alone in a meadow near Bourton-on-the-Water. It had a huge trunk and thick branches that reached right up into the sky. I passed it daily on the way to school, photographed it and drew from the pictures for an art project.

The tree had clearly lost may of its great arms over the years, and back in 1997 the most recent of these losses was still piled in the corner of the field. In December 2008 I was in communication with the photographer Archie Miles about the oak and he pointed me in the direction of this old tree book, The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland (7 volumes 1906-1913), that had a mention of a great oak near Boughton-on-the-Water. I tracked down the reference, and amazingly there it was as photographed in 1907.

A magnificent specimen in 1907, in the prime of middle age (at 250 years old?).

'...remarkable on account of the perfect condition of all its branches...'

The oak in 2008. A little weather beaten, but nothing to stop another 200 years of nobility and awe. The farmers said it was once pollarded, but that must have been quite early on in its life.

Orcharding in the USA

2010-01-17T11:53:00.000-08:00

God I love America. This video is a real cracker. Just think, with Allen-Smith at the helm the Charingworth Orchard Trust would be attracting significant benefaction by now. And maybe I should soak my trees in dormant oil? Ah only joking, that would kill e-v-e-r-y-t-h-i-n-g! Still, check out the height of the standards in Chuck's orchard. Mmmmmmm.

Thinning fruiting branches by hand

2010-01-16T09:36:00.000-08:00

Today I made up a flask of hot chocolate and scampered into the 1920s orchard above Charingworth village to make a real start on the pruning. I was only using a pruning saw as each tree needs a certain amount of trimming before its safe to get the pole pruner involved. The tree pictured is one of the largest in this orchard - can you see the water shoots protruding vertically from the main boughs? This is regrowth from the last pruning and tells me the tree is healthy and vigorous. You can also see a fair amount of congestion in the lower fruiting branches that needs to be reduced.

I plan to thin these congested lower areas by hand. I have three main things in mind while doing this:

1) to take in any excessive growth lessening the weight carried by the main boughs, thus minimising the chance of major splitting.
2) increase the gap between these fruit bearing branches and the floor to improve air circulation and (when the time comes) keep the trees out of reach of hungry sheeps
3) to thin the branches out allowing more air and light to the developing fruit

One thing to remember when doing this is to consider the characteristics the variety of apple tree you are pruning. Bramleys, for example, only fruit on growth that is at least two years old. This means that if I went around clipping the tips off all the shoots no fruiting buds would form in the coming season. Once this thinning is done I will have the room needed to safely manoeuvre my fairly unwieldy pole pruner that will help me to quickly remove most of the vertical water shoots.

Copyright © Cass Turnbull Plant Amnesty.

Basically there is a LOT of different advice about pruning fruit trees around. I need establish what pruning will keep the trees in the best health for the longest time. I think the trees I tackled last year were pruned too hard and so I plan to experiment with a few different approaches within a general framework of reducing the chances of splitting, raising the canopy, increasing fruit health and preserving ecological value (in scenarios where it doesn't immediately condemn the tree).

Getting serious about pruning

2010-01-14T10:21:00.000-08:00

I have now invested in a Stihl pole pruner. It's basically a mini chainsaw on the end of a pole and will allow me to work much more quickly (and reach into first floor windows!). Not as accurate as pruning by hand so I will try and make any of the more critical cuts with a saw. Could struggle to fit it in my mini too...

How can you describe pollarding as 'degrading'?

2010-01-06T04:51:00.000-08:00

Another Christmas present this year was this, No. 102 in the Collins New Naturalist Series: 'Garden Natural History' by Stephen Buczacki.

I am only half way through the book so will reserve an overall judgement of its quality, but there are parts where the Buczacki's awareness of habitat value seems a little lacking. The coverage of orchards and fruit trees is fairly limited. He mentions mistletoe (but not the associated fauna) and different suites of bark dwelling organisms but fails to highlight the importance of dead wood and rot holes (e.g. Noble Chafer), blossom, and windfall for overwintering birds. On page 100 there is also this passage that I have to highlight to you as perhaps a little benighted (N.B. highlights added by me):

"Both coppicing and pollarding are among the most functional and degrading uses to which a tree can be put and the resulting plants are unsightly; witness the pollarded limes of many of our urban streets which should teach gardeners a lesson in species selection. If you cannot accommodate a full-grown tree of any species in your available space, then choose a small species rather than hideously abbreviate a large one."

Woah now!

© Copyright

Gordon Hatton / CC BY-SA 2.0

1) Do you think this ancient alder pollard has been hideously abbreviated?

2) How can anyone take offence to the pollarded trees that grace our cities? As a counter-example, consider the London plane, a tree allowed to reach huge sizes in our capital and that can be pollarded to suit. Does Stefan think a more dwarfing species would have a high enough crown to avoid blocking passing buses and lorries? Is he suggesting we do without roadside trees altogether if no natural tree form is both very tall, pollution resistant and has a compact crown? This height is necessary to provide natural balance to our lofty city architecture.

2) How can a man who has spent his life advising people in the manipulation, control and propagation of plants for gardens suddenly be offended by an ancient form of tree management? Pollarding and coppicing have been practiced in Europe for over a thousand years. Pollarding is also only a special type of pruning after all - can he be suggesting that pruning is also 'degrading'?

3) Take a look at the UKBAP for 'Lowland wood-pasture and parkland'- surely this type of tree management has beneficial consequences that far outstrip any romantic notion of tree exploitation?

Pretty snow, and pretty hard to prune

2010-01-06T03:14:00.000-08:00

The weather has been, and continues to be, exceptional. I had intended to start pruning yesterday but have a look at this photo comparison of the 1940s orchard: Christmas Day on the right, today on the left. It's flaking away again right now. I saw a flock of long-tailed tits yesterday which is encouraging as they are very vulnerable to hard winters, being tiny and insectivorous. At night time they often roost communally with their bodies together and tails sticking out, a sight surely very few people have ever seen. Get the fat balls out!

Look at how the snow crystallises the branching shape of this old sycamore.

Starting the New Year in 'Ciderland'

2010-01-02T06:36:00.000-08:00

This is what I found in my stocking this year. James Crowden's "Ciderland" takes you on a journey through many interesting cider and perry producers in the South West of Britain. Alongside culling my intake of smokes, a resolution for 2010 is to learn about these processes, visit the orchards and (clearly) taste, taste, taste!

Look at the bluebells in Half-Moon orchard, Melplash, Dorset. Have they been planted? Looks almost too good to be natural! I expect they get a great rate of pollination. Could there be a more photogenic scene in the British countryside?

A pleasing series of photos showing the making of a cheese prior to pressing. I particularly enjoyed reading about all the different attitudes and approaches to cider making. One of the key themes of the book seems to be that small-scale artisan producers are using hygienic methods to create a sophisticated product that is facilitating a change in the way we all think about cider. I also hadn't realised that many of the larger cider producers (e.g. Bulmers, Magners) use imported apple essence to flavour their drinks and there is no legislation currently forcing them to display the percentage of real fruit juice used. A pint of strongbow many only be 30% fruit juice, whereas proper farmhouse cider will be over 90%.

Perry also seems like an intriguing creature- as Tom Oliver says: "Cider is a hard master but perry is a beautiful but fickle mistress."

Merry Christmas from the Charingworth Orchard Trust!

2009-12-25T08:45:00.001-08:00

Pruning advice under a snowy sky

2009-12-18T08:30:00.000-08:00

This morning Jim Aplin, a market gardener and experienced orcharder, came to Charingworth to give me some pruning advice. It was very useful to walk around with a pair of experienced eyes and helped to give me some confidence before the New Year's assault.

Jim was saying that a cold spell is often good for the health of an orchard as it helps to kill diseases and pests within the trees. It will also help the sap to sink out of the branches and reduce the stress from pruning.

The weather was bleak and moody.

Charingworth Orchard Trust in the National Trust orchard newsletter!

2009-12-11T12:13:00.000-08:00

This is 'Orchard Matters', a newsletter produced by Kate Merry who is leading the National Trust's recent traditional orchard renaissance. At the end of the summer I sent her an article to include in the Auntumn issue. Just in case you missed it, here it is (let me know if you want me to email an electronic version of the whole newsletter):

Shifty pose? I think so!

Four quality blogs I have recently encountered

2009-12-01T08:29:00.000-08:00

http://www.tomtheappleman.wordpress.com/

Tom is also in the orchard restoration game, but at a more professional level than me. Have a look at some of his projects involving seriously overgrown sites. He can also lay hedges and dry stone wall. Skills to pay the bills!

www.davidcooksonimages.blogspot.com/2009/08/fruitful-day.html

This photography blog is excellent, and the link above should take you straight to the post entitled 'A Fruitful Day' where he has managed to snap two illusive bird species that are real orchard specialists. All the more impressive since he lives in Lancashire, where orchards are pretty thin on the ground.

www.jamesrussellontheweb.blogspot.com

James Russell has written a book on the history of traditional orchards entitled 'Manmade Eden' - it's on my Christmas list! He is also researching 'The Naked Guide to Cider', 'a quirky and encyclopedic book about cider and the culture surrounding it'.

http://www.avondiary.net/?p=91

This diary is written by a keen angler who has some very sensible things to say about the countryside around the river Avon. See if you can find his picture of a stage beetle, it is epic.

Heavy machinary in the Charingworth orchards

2009-11-24T05:03:00.000-08:00

Last Wednesday my neighbour John Langston brought his tractor to the orchards to help me do some grass mowing. It was such a beast that we couldn't take it between the trees but we managed to cut a few more open areas that were beginning to succeed to scrub. Flailing can be a destructive process, but it is probably the best way of dealing with large areas of really rough grass and brambles. For that afternoon at least, the crunching sound of the flail carried by the wind really was the sound of progress!

The lowest of these three 'before and after' shots shows the 'meadow area' at the back of the lower (1940s) orchard. It has always had a bad dock infestation that has made farming this patch impractical. However, I believe that chemical fertilizers have not been heavily used here and as a result there are already patches of Birdsfoot Trefoil and Meadow Vetchling that flourish in summer. Flailing will hopefully encourage these and prevent blackthorn, buddleia and poplar saplings from becoming dominant. I plan to seed some areas where the tractor has exposed soil with a wildflower mix and see whether anything establishes.

Here is a clearing in the 1920s orchard that we also flailed. I am planning to do some replanting in this area before Christmas. I am currently tempted by the idea of a couple of Blenheim Orange (likes clay) and an Orleans Reinette (fantastic eater, apparently) and perhaps some bittersweet varieites for cider. They have to be on M25 rootstocks though as I want them to grow BIG!

Checking the barn owl box in the lower orchard at Charingworth

2009-11-19T10:43:00.001-08:00

On Tuesday my friend Freddie and I took a ladder into the lower orchard to retrieve a pulley from up in a tree. We also took the opportunity to have a peek into one of the two barn owl boxes we erected in the orchards one month ago. The photo on the right shows why its good to check the boxes when it's not the breeding season. I removed that pile of ivy (hat for scale) that had been crammed into the box by a wood pigeon or dove. Barn owls are unlikely to use a box that has been filled with debris and so a respectful amount of intervention is necessary to give them a hand.

Sunglasses were appropriate (a rarity for November!) as a precaution against the slim chance of us disturbing a grumpy tawny owl. Neither of us wished for the fate of Eric Hosking, 'the most celebrated British wildlife photographer of the 20th century' (Birds Britannica), who lost an eye when scratched by a territorial tawny he was photographing. He got a fantastic photo of the culprit for his pains though.

I also discovered that one of my neighbours, Louise, is well on top of the agenda as she has a fantastic box she erected two years ago. It has been checked and so far, no signs of owls. Having a range of potential nesting sites gives the birds some choice and flexibility, hopefully increasing the stability of any population that establishes locally.

'Wild' honey bees in the lower orchard at Charingworth

2009-11-15T10:18:00.000-08:00

Today I was in the 1940s orchard clearing brambles away from the fearsomely shrouded branches of tree 40. I found a surprisingly active colony of honey bees in the south facing base of one of the trees nearby. Honey bees are not actually native to Britain. There are 'feral' populations of the European honey bee, a domesticated form of the bee Apis mellifera that originated in eastern tropical Africa. Beekeepers and orchards have a long history of symbiosis, with the beehives traditionally brought into the orchard in late spring for the blossom. This way the pollination of the blossom is maximised, helping ensure a good apple crop for the farmer and lots of nectar for the bees to make honey with.

I remember that the cavity had had unoccupied combs in it last winter and has clearly been repossessed by the bees. The photo on the left shows this comb in November 2008, with the one on the right taken today. Honey bees are not doing well in Britain currently. They are suffering from a range of new diseases, including the parasitic varroa mite that has spread viruses throughout wild and captive bee colonies.

The press often deal with these issues rather clumsily, confusing the causes of the decline in feral honey bee populations with those of the truly native bumblebee (23 species) and solitary bee (~250 species). The basic reason for the decline in most of our true native bee species has little to do with diseases- agricultural intensification has removed the majority of our species-rich grasslands and thus there are no longer enough nectar-rich plants to support bumblebee colonies and solitary bees (this photo shows a unimproved lowland flood meadow near Bledington, with abundant clover and birdsfoot trefoil). A lack of appropriate nest site habitats is also probably a factor limiting some bumblebee and solitary bee species. I went on a bumblebee walk on Salisbury Plain in August and met Damian who is interested in all these issues and has his own charity dedicated to helping bees.

Betty Daffurn's orchard legacy at Kemerton

2009-11-10T02:56:00.000-08:00

© Copyright David Hawgood and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence

The other day I went on a pilgrimage to Daffurn's community orchard in Kemerton. This is the cottage Betty lived in for 94 years. It was the first true community orchard I have visited and looked very carefully maintained. The area has a fantastically motivated and established Conservation Trust that owns several wildlife sites and oversees the management of some 1,280 acres of land around Bredon Hill. The orchard restoration work carried out by the Kemerton Conservation Trust recently received a significant amount of funding from the National Trust. If only all British villages were as well endowed with enlightened perspectives on farming and wildlife.

I think they may have snowdrops, wild daffodils(?) and bluebells in the orchard. To get a true feeling for any community orchard I think you need to meet some of the workers that maintain it. Unfortunately I didn't have enough time to prearrange such a visit, but the orchard in itself is very interesting as wildlife sanctuary and piece of local history. I look forward to them releasing the species lists for the orchard from the directory of 45,000 records for the local area!

No one has ever been killed by a sheep. They were doing a good job of keeping the sward down when I visited, which looked distinctly unimproved and herb-rich.

Conderton, Worcestershire: an orchard of national importance?

2009-11-03T10:34:00.000-08:00

Today I braved some fairly angry rain storms to visit a big pear orchard in Conderton (near Tewksbury), Worcestershire. At several hectares in size, several hundered trees and over a century old, there's an awful lot to try and condense into a few photos. It is certainly one of the best orchards I have yet visited and perfectly illustrates the similarity of old traditional orchards to woodland pasture. Indeed, because of it's size and scale I don't expect there are many in the whole county to rival it, especially in terms of habitat diversity and potential for biodiversity. It is begging out for a full species inventory to be undertaken.

That hole was perfect for a Little owl and they love orchards like this one. This is also one of the first orchards I have documented that have had abundant mistletoe (Viscum album) in them. It just doesn't seem to be as common around Charingworth. Misletoe is interesting because it acts like a minature ecosystem supporting six invertebrate species that entirely rely on it.

One of these mistletoe-dependent species is the Mistletoe Marble moth, Celypha woodiana, a UKBAP species. You can detect it by looking for characterisitic damage done by the leaf-mining larvae to the leaves (but alas I did not know this until now and so did not check for it!). The other five species dependent on mistletoe are the weevil Ixapion variegatum (first recorded as a new British species in a Herefordshire orchard in 2000) and four ‘true bugs’ (belonging to the Order Hemiptera): the capsid bug Pinalitus visciola, the predatory Anthocoris visci, the Jumping Plant Louse Psylla visci, and Hypseloecus visci (discovered as recently as 2003 in Somerset).

How about that for a wildlife woodpile? An incredible spread. Fortunately there are also many dead trees that have been left standing as well. The orchard has an incredible range and volume of dead wood; standing, shaded, large logs, full fallen trees and even logs submerged in water. This provides much of the substrate for fungal and microbial decomposition, which is in turn exploited by a whole suite of insects that provide food for all the larger animals.

A lesser stag beetle I found underneath one of the large pear logs pictured.

Orchards often contain other structural features of the landscape preserved around or within them. This one had several very large old ash pollards (and one of field maple). These could house larger raptors and owls and add a different dimension of habitat complexity.

Only whole-dead trees like this provide enough appropriately decomposed wood to support the development of large beetles like the stag beetle, and some species of longhorn beetle and click beetle whose larvae can take seven years to develop.

I'm certainly no lichenologist, but every tree seemed to have a quite varied lichen community and traditional orchards like this are excellent lichen habitats with old trees and low chemical inputs.

What a fantastic orchard landscape that is. I'm betting on Blenheim Orange for the gnarly gentleman in the foreground. It seems to be a real bird haven too, for even though I went without any binoculars, I immediately saw two green woodpeckers take off with their characteristically undulating flight. I spotted many yellow meadow ant hills that they love to feed in. There were also clouds of fieldfare that were pestered by a sharking sparrowhawk at one point. I must make a concerted effort to contact the Overbury Estate and learn more about this special place.

Tracking down traditional orchards online

2009-11-01T12:13:00.000-08:00

© Copyright Philip Halling and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence.

A guy I work with, Richard, has tipped me off about a big pear orchard that he looks out into from his house in Conderton, Worcestershire. In the photo I think it's almost certainly the field at the back of the village and it looks very promising. I tracked this photo down on Geograph, a really handy website I often use to search for interesting orchards.

This image is from the latest Google Earth program. There looks to be well over 100 trees here, and most look mature. If so it could be the biggest pear orchard I've ever visited. I will keep you updated. How exciting!

Grass strimming for biodiversity in the 1920s orchard

2009-10-29T14:22:00.000-07:00

Last month I hired this 'DR mower' to make a start at cutting the grass in the 1920s orchard while the ground was still hard. As you can see, five years of growth has left it looking pretty tropical! This 'rank' vegetation is really good for small mammals (and the things that feed on them) and provides cover for all the birds that nest in the trees. However it is largely made up of coarse grasses such as Cocksfoot, False Oat Grass, Yorkshire Fog and Perrenial Rye grass that outcompete most wildflowers and thus limit nectar supplies for insects. Tall vegetation can limit air movement around the trees and this is detrimental for the development of fruit and can promote fungal infections in the tree.

When the orchards were under commercial use the grass swards were fertilized quite regularly. This has had a couple of unfortunate consequences for my restoration.

1) Coarse grasses and nutrient-loving plants (e.g. nettles, hogweed, docks, creeping thistle, cow parsley) have come to dominate preventing less competitive wildflowers from co-existing.
2) Without consistent management the orchards quickly become overgrown.

Simply cutting the grass is no long-term solution as the nutrient status of the soil remains unchanged. To re-establish wildflowers the soil muct be stripped of nutrients either by removing the cut material and not letting it rot down (= hard work), or grazing with sheep/cows/geese (=need fencing, wire to protect trees, animals..!). I am yet to find the best solution.

This photo sums up what I want to achieve with this strimming. The maximum biodiversity potential for the orchard will incorporate the greatest range of diffferent habitats. Areas of long grass will be left for small mammals (and forage for birds of prey), insect overwintering sites and bird cover. Areas of short grass will imporve the health of the fruit and trees, provide opportunity for less vigorous plant species and allow sun to warm standing dead wood and aid insect larval development.

A golden day

2009-10-27T15:17:00.000-07:00

Can you belive that I took this photo last week? Amazing Autumn weather. Also, I found this nice website set up be a guy called Neil Phillips. Some excellent photos of more modern orchard setups and older ones. He's also got an interesting project underway recently too which should be interesting to follow...

Owl feathers

2009-10-26T15:05:00.000-07:00

Three barn owl feathers I found in a roosting site inside a disused sheep shelter near my house. Barn owls have very soft feathers for flying silently and are vulnerable if they get too wet. They use a few familiar spots to retreat to if caught in the rain on a hunting trip. The last feather in the photo I found in our unused stable block- I think it may be from a tawny owl since I once disturbed one in there during the day.

Wonderful dead wood for wildlife

2009-10-23T10:53:00.000-07:00

I made this woodpile today out of old plum tree wood. It is tailored to suit the Noble Chafer (Gnorimus nobilis) with a large surface area facing south to ensure the wood is warmed as much as possible by the sun, thus aiding the development of the larvae (it should be good for all sort of other insects as well). Really looking forward seeing the first adult beetle hopefully next summer.

There are two fully dead apple trees located in clearings within the 1920s orchard, this being one of them. They are fantastic habitat for insects and I hope to leave them untouched during the restoration. There are not enough examples of large exposed dead trees within the British countryside and as a result many specialist creatures have suffered.

I think this is a type of wasp, but any further than that I don't know. It was on one of the dead trees in the upper orchard.

BBC's 'Autumnwatch' undersells the wildlife value of traditional orchards

2009-10-21T11:27:00.000-07:00

This year's series of 'Autumnwatch' started recently on BBC 2. Included within the first show was a trip to the orchards associated with Westons cider in Herefordshire to have a look for some of the wildlife associated with orchards. They set themselves a few conditions for selecting an appropriate site: 'The chosen location had to be a working orchard and there had to be an abundance of wildlife'.

A photo of a commercial cider orchard at Westons, Much Marcle. (This one is younger than the ones where the bulk of the filming was done but it gives you an idea of how different commercial cider orchards are to your typical traditional orchard.)

Surely the first proviso should have been to film somewhere that most resembles the orchard that the largest number of British citizens are likely to encounter? I felt that Westons extensive orchards were inappropriate on two counts. 1) They are managed intensively and are largely not traditional orchards. In the footage you can see herbicide strips, mown grass and semi-dwarfing trees that do not provide habitat for many of the more interesting or rare orchard species. If you want to film orchard wildlife, why choose an orchard that is unlikely to have many species? 2) The majority of British orchards are not like that. They are small, often not currently in use, extensively managed through grazing and have much older, larger trees. Because of this they are much richer habitats. They are also much more threatened and far less appreciated (and thus could really do with good PR from the BBC!)

Autumnwatch is aimed at engaging the largest possible audience with wildlife in Britain- there is certainly an important place for a program like this. Why try to engage people in the widlife value of orchards with animals that can be found in the average London park or back-garden though? The list: rabbit, grey squirrel, wood mouse, tawny owl, greater spotted woodpecker seems less than inspiring. Would it not be more engaging to spend a little more time filming and track down orchard specialists like lesser spotted woodpecker, barn owl, little owl, noble chafer, stag beetle or fieldfare?

For example, Westons buy organic cider apples from a fantastic heritage cider orchard (and nature reserve) at Tidnor Wood. Here they have older trees, mistletoe and surely more of interest for the Autumnwatch team. Or virtually any other old farmhouse orchard. It was a very disappointing piece of television that makes me feel a little less hopeful for the future of traditional orchards in Britain, but a little more steely too.

Second barn owl box installed at Charingworth

2009-10-18T04:27:00.000-07:00

The second barn owl box has now been installed about six metres up in a poplar tree overlooking the lower (1940s) orchard at Charingworth. Percy and Herbie can only stare up and dream of having such luxury accommodation. It took three evenings to get it done after a few complications...

The 'improved' design sporting a few modifications undertaken by my dad under the advice from the Barn Owl Trust website: 1) roofing felt for extra waterproofing; 2) a baton-to-baton attachment for increased strength (over the previous single bolt and keyhole attachment); 3) a small rim around the balcony to prevent young chicks falling off so easily. Should be interesting to compare the success of this box with the unmodified one in the other orchard...

Without the impressive upper body strength of my friend Angus, a new way of installing the box had to be thought up. Ideally you need three people and a long ladder. The basic method was:

1) attach a pulley into the tree above the height you want the box at, i.e. as high as feasibly possible,
2) attach a baton (with pre-drilled holes for bolts) horizontally (spirit level) onto tree at desired height,
3) build a net of rope (see photo above) and hoist the box up,
4) marry up the corresponding baton on back of box to the attached baton on tree, using pulley to hold the bulk of the weight of the box,
5) secure with bolts through both sets of holes, and
6) tea.

As you can see from the quality of this photo its probably best to give yourself lots of time to do this. We flirted dangerously with the twilight hours but it feels amazing to have got another box up.

The view from the box into the 1940s orchard. I had to do a fair amount of trimming to ensure the box entrance had a clean flightpath in. This is really important though- barn owls are very unlikely to use a box that they can't easily fly into because of obstructing branches.

I was also fantastically lucky yesterday. This is the ash pollard we have been keeping an eye on since I found pellets and feathers inside it. On a dog walk I decided to have another look up inside it and I saw a barn owl perched right at the top up against one of the hollow sides! I will give it some distance now as I don't want to disturb it. It doesn't look like there is enough of a platform in the tree for a pair of birds to breed in there so maybe it's only using this tree as a roost. Good news though.

An orchard from the 1890s at Girton College, Cambridge

2009-10-12T13:50:00.000-07:00

I was in Cambridge today and headed up to Girton College on the bus to check out their orchards. The head gardener, Mr Robert Bramley helpfully filled me in on what is known of the Old Orchard and its history and upkeep. Planted in the 1890s to provide a supply of fruit for the College's kitchens, it has plum, pear, apple and cobnut trees with over thirty varieties. Its really beautiful- many of the original trees remain in good condition and the area is a haven for wildlife (including lichens apparently). The visit provided an invigorating contrast to the bland planting schemes and quick turnover borders that Cambridge Colleges can be tempted by in their courts.

Can you spot the treecreeper?

This tree in the foreground is a fine example of a Blenheim Orange. Note the characteristically gnarly bark that is reminiscent of some of those veteran trees from Mount Pleasant, Warwickshire. This variety should like the heavy clay in Charingworth.

Girton College has not been very pro-orchard in recent years. A quite extensive orchard was planted in 1948 as an alternative fruit source to the Old Orchard. Recently it was removed to allow for a 're-organisation' of their sports pitches. My friend Lester was at Girton at the time and signed a petition to try and stop this, but to no avail. I think the trees were all only semi-dwarfing and so its some consolation to think it wasn't a majestic orchard of standards. Fortunately the Old Orchard at Girton is rather more respected but it's frightening how little protection these places have currently have under British law.

The area highlighted in blue was the 1948 orchard circa 2006. Now it's a rugby pitch. Ouch.

I also met Sir David Attenborough who was in Borders for a book signing to promote his new book 'Life Stories'. I couldn't resist giving the Charingworth Orchard Trust a little plug and he said: 'Ancient orchards are very precious places'. Here here! I got really star-struck and nearly wandered out without paying for my book.

A giant 'Green Horse' spotted near Broadway

2009-10-11T10:37:00.000-07:00

Many thanks to Karen and Mark for sending me this photo of another giant perry pear tree near Broadway, Worcestershire. (They think it's the variety 'Green Horse', hence my rather lame bit of wordplay!) They are the craftsmen behind Rockingham Forest Cider and have an excellent blog too which has a good bit of detail on the process of making perry, that softly sophisticted English drink.

Perry pears in Bledington, Gloucestershire

2009-10-06T09:26:00.000-07:00

Next to an old farm by the King's Head Inn, Bledington is this superb perry pear orchard. It has twelve trees, all of different varieties and all well over 100 years old. I expect it is particularly beautiful when the blossom is out so we may have to pencil in a revisit for early next year...

Apparently, 'You plant pears for your heirs'. Not sure about my heirs just yet, but I like the idea of investing in such a long lived fruit tree. I really want to get a few planted at Charingworth but I need to track down somewhere that supplies them and see if I can get any varieties unique to the Cotswolds. (Then heirs?)

All twelve trees are different. I expect this is quite usual for old farm orchards, where having a lot of different varieties to choose from was more useful than just one or two. Perhaps having a range of fruit helps with making perry too. Unfortunately I am a complete beginner with perry pears but it would be great to take along an expert and get these identified. Must learn more!

This tree was particularly impressive, with its huge twisted trunk an ideal habitat for all kinds of creatures.

This is the same tree as the previous picture, with me sitting for scale. I think it may be the biggest pear tree I have encountered so far, even larger than the beauty at Mount Pleasant near Shipston-on-Stour. I wonder if anyone out there knows of a bigger one?

Cleeve Prior cider weekend

2009-10-04T08:21:00.000-07:00

My good friend (and boss) Jez is the man behind Prior's Tipple, a cider that uses fruit from old orchards in the village of Cleeve Prior, Worcestershire (see 15/8/09 post). Each year he hosts a cider making weekend where friends from across the country get together to pick and process fruit, camp amongst the trees and drink cider. The old orchards of Cleeve Prior are being used, and because of this they are admired, maintained and play an important role in reconnecting people with the natural world. Old orchards that have a use stand a far better chance of surviving.

There are several orchards in the village, and on the Saturday thirty of us moved between about five different sites collecting fruit. Prior's Tipple is made from a 'geographical blend' of fruit and thus although there is no exact recipe, the same trees are harvested from each year ensuring that a broadly consistent mix of apples goes into the press. You don't want the juice to be too sweet since it is often the sourer flavours that provide levels of complexity in the cider.

We picked three tonnes of fruit from this orchard. It had some fairly ancient trees in it, including a couple of perry pears like the one in the foreground here. Interestingly this one had really sweet fruit whereas I expected all perry pears to be quite bitter to taste.

You can't really shake a big tree from the ground, but climbing fruit trees is often sketchy. Everyone was in quiet agreement about one thing though- knocking the fruit down is far more fun than picking it up again off the floor!

A beautiful apple that Jez calls the 'still life' apple. Not sure about the real variety but this shouldn't be impossible to find out considering how unusual it is.

Many hands making light work of a haul of fruit the weight of which almost became scary. That's about a tonne in the van there.

The business end of proceedings; apples are 1) washed, 2) roughly chopped, 3) scatted into pulp, 4) organised into 'cheeses' and 5) pressed. The juice is filtered and collected in large tanks to begin fermentation.

I was really impressed by the work of the Cleeve Prior Heritage Trust. They got the villagers to club together and raised thousands of pounds to buy land in the village to save it from development or misuse. This is a photo of the Cleeve Prior Community Orchard and Parish Ponds, a nature reserve with old plum and apple trees and several fantastic ponds. It is a wildlife haven, with unimproved grassland that apparently has fantastic wildflowers in the summer (including pyramidal orchids). The ponds are thankfully free of fish and gaps in the orchard have been replanted with cider apple trees that we harvested, a diversification that keeps the orchards productive.

In a cavity in one of the old plum trees I found the frass of the Noble Chafer (Gnorimus nobilis)! Unmistakable lozenge shaped droppings of a very rare beetle. (I think these orchards have already been fully surveyed so sadly no glory to be claimed for that spot.)

This was in another orchard, mainly plum again. Jez provided many of the maiden cider-apple trees that have been used to replant the gaps. There were also a few much older standard apple trees such as the one pictured. We saw a Little owl flying across the grass and there were huge ant hills along the fenced edge.

Oh apple tree, we'll wassail thee
And hoping thou wilt bear,
For the Lord does know where we may go
To be merry another year.

To grow well and to bear well,
And so merrily let us be,
Let every man lift up his glass
And a health to the old apple tree,
Brave boys, and a health to the old apple tree.

(Traditional English wassailing song.)

Barn owls discovered in the area

2009-09-29T08:45:00.000-07:00

Today, whilst walking the dogs I found exciting new evidence that there are barn owls around the orchards. This indicates that the chances of one finding my new owl box are pretty good.

There are several ancient hollow ash trees in the hedges around Goose Hill. Many years of repeated pollarding would have reduced the strain of large limbs on the trunk and allowed them to remain healthy for much longer. Trees like this are an undervalued wildlife resource and provide habitats similar to those provided by over-mature fruit trees. The exposed holes at the top of this one seem like an ideal potential barn owl roost.

This photo of the base of the hollow cavity of the tree clearly shows white feathers, the white splashes of droppings and (most characteristically) several fresh large black pellets.

A barn owl pellet from inside the tree. Small mammal populations can be estimated by analysing the proportions of bones from different species in these pellets. They are coughed up rather than excreted.

Herbie and Percy surveying the close proximity of this tree to the orchard containing my new barn owl box. Looks promising!

Barn owl box erected in the upper orchard in Charingworth.

2009-09-24T14:31:00.000-07:00

Yesterday two friends helped me put a barn owl box up in a tree next to the upper orchard at Charingworth. The rough grassland supports large rodent populations and owls have been observed in the area. I believe that a lack of appropriate nesting sites is limiting the local population from reaching its potential.

The assembly team (from left to right): Angus, myself and Freddie and a host of tools (and skills!).

Siting the box appropriately is very important, otherwise it is unlikely to be used by a barn owl . I used information on the Barn Owl Trust website as a guide. The entrance hole needs to be high enough up, free from any overhanging vegetation and preferably facing away from the prevailing wind. Apparently barn owls are not the least interested in boxes, but are very interested in holes. I chose this ash tree as especially appropriate as the box can be positioned high up and facing along a green track bordered by the long rank grassland of the bottom end of the orchard.

1) Tie the ladder off to the tree at the top and drill a hole for the supporting screw (for this box design).
2) Screw in the screw, leaving neck exposed.
3) Slide box onto screw and tighten until secure.
4) Cut away any branches growing from below or hanging from above that may obstruct the flight path into the box.

Now we wait and see... Jackdaws are likely to be the most probable competitor and are problematic as they will build a huge nest to fill up the box. Since barn owls like to have an empty cavity other constructions should be sensitively removed (i.e. before any eggs are laid, and as long as they have not been built by an endangered species). Hopefully the entrance will be too exposed for other owl species and the box too large and deep for sparrowhawks, kestrels or pigeons. I have another box that I plan to site somewhere in the other orchard and hopefully soon the evening air will be hissing with ghostly beasts!

Apple weekend at Wilsford Manor, Wiltshire

2009-09-21T00:15:00.000-07:00

Last weekend I went to Wiltshire to meet up with seven friends and spend time in honour of the apple. We picked and pressed fruit from the orchard to make delicious juice. We were blessed with glorious autumn sunshine and I was all eyes and ears to learn as much as possible at my first ever juicing event.

A geographic mix (ie. all from the same area) of fruit was used, with Russets (a good cider apple) going in at quite a high proportion to ensure a tasty flavour.

Once picked the fruit was washed and roughly chopped prior to pulping.

The roughly chopped fruit then goes into the scatter to be pulped before pressing.

We used a modern press which involved a perforated metal barrel that has a bladder inside that inflates with water from the tap, squeezing juice from the pulp at pressure. The residue from pressing is remarkably dry. A really clever machine for producing juice quickly and easily. The first tasting was superb- really sweet and exceptionally flavoursome, it put any supermarket juice to shame.

Bottling proved to be a really satisfying activity.

A giant walnut tree in Wiltshire

2009-09-20T13:24:00.000-07:00

This beautiful old Walnut tree is in the grounds of Wilsford Manor in Wiltshire. It is the largest I have ever seen and had a bees nest half way up it in one of the cavities. What a beauty.

Two centuries of the Bramley apple!

2009-09-20T12:04:00.000-07:00

(Photo © Archie Miles, not to be downloaded or reproduced in any form without prior permission.)

2009 marks the 200th anniversary of the Bramley apple. The founding pip was planted in 1809 by a certain Mary Ann Brailsford in her garden in Southwell, Nottinghamshire. This is a photo of the original tree alongside it's long-time owner and curator, Nancy Harrison. Every tree in the Charingworth orchards is a direct descendant of this one. The Bramley industry is now worth £50 million per annum, but sadly very little of this money is generated by fruit from full size trees in traditional orchards.

Welcome Gloucestershire Orchard Group members!

2009-09-07T13:41:00.000-07:00

I am hoping that after the little feature on the Charingworth Orchard Trust that Ann Smith included in the most recent Gloucestershire Orchard Group (GOG) bulletin, some GOG members may have recently encountered the blog. If so, fantastic and welcome. Feel free to email me if you have any questions, tips or further info. about my posts.

It has been a quiet August in the orchards at Charingworth but internet coverage should snowball as we enter the picking, and later the pruning seasons. For the moment, here are a few photos of really monstrous Bramley apple trees from Upwells near Wisbech. Michael Clarke of Tewin Orchard kindly sent me them. Perhaps in 20/30 years time a few of the Charingworth trees will be in this league. Or perhaps that's a bit of wishful thinking!

These trees at Upwell have been allowed to grow naturally. In contrast, many fruit trees are cut back at 'maiden' (1 year old) stage to produce an open crown.

Anna Clark of Tewin Orchard here showing the sense of scale of these huge fruit trees. I can't wait for the opportunity to go and see them myself...

Local orchards and old maps

2009-08-15T05:02:00.001-07:00

I found an image of the 1889 ordnance survey map that shows both the Portabello orchard (see August 4th post) and Mount Pleasant (August 10th post). Proof that there have been orchards on these sites for at least 120 years! Look at the hedgerows we've lost since then too...

Prior's Tipple, an old orchard cider.

2009-08-15T03:28:00.000-07:00

I have just started working part-time in a large organic kitchen garden. My boss Jez makes cider in the Vale of Evesham and yesterday he gave me a bottle to try.

It's very nice (not too sweet). On the back it reads:

"Every autumn friends of Prior's Tipple meet in a barn in the Worcestershire village of Cleeve Prior, on the edge of the Vale of Evesham. Here we press the mixture of desert, culinary and cider fruit, collectively gathered from the neglected old orchards of surrounding villages. We have revived a cider which has been enjoyed in the Vale for generations. And by replanting standard trees of old varieties, in partnership with the local heritage trust, we will ensure this age old tradition continues." "Drink Prior's Tipple and celebrate old orchards."

Sounds like my kind of gathering. And I like the old map they've put on the bottle. Apparently you can taste it at The Fleece Inn in Bretforton near Evesham.

Mount Pleasant Orchard

2009-08-10T08:44:00.000-07:00

Last Sunday morning I went to Mount Pleasant near Shipston-on-Stour, Warwickshire for a second visit to Roger and Gudrun's fantastic orchard there. At ~4 acres, this non-commercial family orchard has around 220 standard fruit trees and a total of 93 identified varieties of apple, plum, pear and walnut. There is the full range of fruit tree ages, from those planted last year to the original trees from the first planting in about 1850. In other words, its a real treasure trove!

There are several features that make this orchard exceptional, and one of these is the abundance of very ancient apple trees. A sensitive regime of yearly pruning has allowed these trees to become 'over mature' and survive into old age still producing a few good fruit. The veteran tree features found in these trees hold great ecological value and they also develop fascinating twisted shapes. These trees are all Blenheim Orange and probably date from when the orchard was originally all this variety (with a few perry pears as well). It's a local variety that seems to like the heavy clay and makes for delicious eating.

This plum tree is quite bizarre- it is actually made up of two different varieties. The lower branches to the left and right are a wild form of Yellow Bullace (-apparently it is the first tree in the whole orchard to blossom, filling the air with a beautiful almond scent) and the top of the tree is a Blue Pershore. I think that technically you describe the Yellow Bullace as having been 'cuckolded'. This occurred when the Blue Pershore seeded itself in the original tree's crown and then grew down through its trunk.

This eating apple is called a Domino and is unusual on account of its hardness. The apples lie whole on the grass until well into spring and are an invaluable late food source for the overwintering fieldfare.

This is a Russian apple called Emperor Alexander, and one of Roger's favourites.

The illusive and mysterious Orleans Reinette. I have been told by the head of the Cambridge Botanical Gardens that this is best eating apple he's ever tried. Definitely worth a taster in a couple of months...

A multipurpose variety of apple that dates from Roman times called the Quoining. It was still producing until it toppled over this year, so the photos on the right show the tree in 2004 and the strange shape of the fruit. Roger took a graft from the remaining shoots but unfortunately the apples on that look more like a Bramley. Perhaps a second attempt will yield better results.

The orchard has a yearly prune where certain trees are taken in to balance them and minimise toppling or splitting. Recently one of the big original perry pear trees looked like it might split, so here are the before and after pruning shots. Even though it may look quite severe, the tree will quickly recover. This regime of continued maintenance has enabled so many of the trees in this orchard to reach a great age and remain in good condition.

These lumps in the foreground are ant hills of the Yellow Meadow Ant (Lasius flavus) . These ants need a well grazed sward to survive. The size of these ant hills indicates that this land has not been cultivated for a very long time.

The dead wood habitat provided by the orchard is phenomenal. Pruning offcuts are stacked in various places, both beneath trees and in more open areas along the orchard edge. This has provided a great range and abundance of decomposing wood habitats that will support a great diversity of invertebrates. It is a common misconception to assume that wildlife woodpiles must be damp and shaded for maximum benefit- dead wood that is dry and sun-warmed represents and equally valuable and endangered substrate. Gudrun says she can remember seeing stag beetles in the past and the trunk of this perry pear (photographed on the right) shows some evidence of quite large larval bore holes.

This picture says a lot about how well this orchard is managed. By replanting whenever gaps have appeared there is a full range of tree ages, something that is so often lacking in traditional orchards in Britain. Roger takes cuttings from exiting old trees and re-grafts them onto vigorous (M25) rootstocks ensuring they will develop into full size standard trees. This way varieties are preserved and the orchards future is planned for.

National Trust visits Charingworth orchards

2009-08-05T09:44:00.000-07:00

On a fairly damp Wednesday morning Kate Merry, the Orchard Officer for the National Trust, came to Charingworth for her first visit to the orchards. Grahame Fisher (owner), Kate and myself toured both the 1940s and 1920s orchards, braving soggy undergrowth to give Kate an idea of the sites. We also went through the budget of where the money is to be spent over the next year and a half. We have been awarded six thousand pounds to help fund the restoration pruning of all 85 standard and half-standard apple trees, along with bramble removal, strimming and replanting the gaps where trees have died. It was fantastic to finally have a meeting between our funding partner and the landowners.

from right: Kate Merry (National Trust), Grahame Fisher (landowner) and myself.

Kate, Grahame and one of the more stately trees in the 1920s orchard.

Portabello crossroads orchard, Warwickshire

2009-08-04T03:14:00.000-07:00

This is a beautiful orchard associated with an old farm on the Fosse Way in Warwickshire. Many of the trees are well over 50 years of age, including several of considerable girth. The grassland underneath is also very rich in wildflower species.

Note the Selfheal (Prunella vulgaris) in the foreground.

Standing dead trees are a fantastic habitat for insects and birds, but are often tidied away. Leaving them standing preserves this precious contributor to the diversity of your orchard.

One of the larger trees, although I have no idea about the variety...

A Brown Argus butterfly (Plebeius agestis) basking in the sun on the fringe of the orchard. Old orchards are great for butterflies since they combine an open canopy with many of their foodplants and nectar sources, as long as the sward beneath is rich in plant species.

A fantastic open cavity in the massive trunk of a large tree. Perfect access point for saproxylic invertebrates such as stag beetles, certain hoverflies and the Noble Chafer (Gnorimus nobilis). Also potential for bats roosting above.

In half an hour my plant tally for the orchard pasture included:

Selfheal (Prunella vulgaris),
Red Clover (Trifolium pratense- pink, pictured above),
Meadow Vetchling (Lathyrus pratensis),
Agrimony (Agrimonia eupatoria- yellow, pictured above),
Lady's Bedstraw (Galium verum),
Meadow buttercup (Ranunculus acris),
Knapweed (Centaurea nigra),
Red Bartsia (Odontites verna),
Silverweed (Potentilla anserina),
Ribwort Plantain (Plantago lanceolata),
and the grasses,
Meadow Barley (Hordeum secalinum) and,
Meadow Foxtail (Alopecurus pratensis).

Pretty impressive since these were just some of the obvious species that I could identify, indicating that the pasture has had very little inputs from fertilizer or herbicides. This sward greatly increases the ecological 'value' of the site.

I love finding gnarly old trees like this. Nothing worse than the indignity of being propped up.

Visiting other traditional orchards

2009-07-30T06:42:00.000-07:00

Every week or so I plan to visit another local old orchard to get a feel for the diversity of fruit varieties, the biodiversity, and the distribution, age and condition of traditional orchards in this area. Each new orchard I visit will be featured in a post on the blog.

Today I briefly checked out a magnificent family orchard just over the border in Warwickshire, close to Shipston-on-Stour. With more than 200 trees over 4 acres there was much to take in (a Roman apple variety, little owls, giant perry pears..) - indeed so much that I have arranged to go back and have a longer look. For the time being these photos are just a little taster ...

HABITAT.

Isn't that fantastic? This perry pear tree would make many an oak cower in shame. It reminds me of one of the trees at Awnells Farm in Herefordshire.

Inspecting a woodpecker hole

2009-07-29T06:50:00.000-07:00

Can you spot the woodpecker hole?

I got up onto a friends shoulders to take this photo right into the hole. It was probably made by a greater spotted woodpecker or a green woodpecker which are both quite common in Britain, but always fairly spectacular to see. You can just see where it opens onto a rotten cavity above. This is an ideal bat roost. I knew about this hole in 2008 but the feathers around the rim indicate it was used this year for nesting, possibly by a smaller bird like a blue tit.

Strimming and scything for the National Trust visit

2009-07-28T14:39:00.000-07:00

A compact team of three with various tools (some modern, some archaic) on Monday afternoon. We cut a path through the badlands of the lower orchard in preparation for the National Trust's visit next week. Hot but satisfying work followed by a well earned pub pint.

(from right) Will and Freddie, Gloucestershire locals and noble volunteers.

A bat survey in the Charingworth orchards

2009-07-25T03:48:00.000-07:00

This morning I went out into the orchards with my neighbour Andy (pictured above) to survey potential bat roosts. Andy is an ecological consultant and bat enthusiast and has an endoscope for looking into cavities. I had previously located 6 likely looking cavities where there were openings into upwards slanting internal spaces so we went and checked them out...

There are seventeen species of bat in the UK, and 3/4 of these can use trees as roosting sites, each with their own different preferences. They generally prefer roosts that are dark, fairly well insulated, dry, quite humid and away from potential predators such as rats. Finding summer tree roosts is very difficult in places like Gloucestershire due to the number of trees and the fact that buildings often provide more suitable sites. Common pipistrelle (Pipistrellus pipistrellus) is the commonest British bat and the most likely species for the orchard to have as a resident.

Andy using the endoscope to inspect a cavity in the 1920's orchard. Promising potential roosts had very little cobwebs across the entrance or inside as the presence of these is both a deterrent to bats and indicates that the hole hasn't had any animal traffic passing through. Droppings are another giveaway. Sadly we did not find any bats in the trees, but there is great potential for some of the hollow limbs to be used either infrequently by solitary males or for hibernation in the winter. Another survey has been scheduled!

Three examples of the many (9+) woodpecker holes in the orchards. These are also often ideal bat roosts. Noctule bats (Nyctalus noctula) and Daubenton's (Myotis daubentonii) have been known to roost communally in the rot holes that form above old woodpecker nests. Cobwebs in several of the ones we inspected suggested no-one was currently using them.

What's there? What's to be done? A management plan emerges...

2009-07-24T10:12:00.000-07:00

This is a satellite photo of the 1940's orchard that I have modified to show the positions and state of the trees more clearly. The numbering is completely arbitrary, but you can see there are 40 standard trees and three rows of bush-stock trees (in the centre). There are also several gaps and two standing dead trees, represented by stars. Yellow is for decrepit trees that have either tipped over, been felled to the base and are resprouting, or have split trunks from excessive regrowth weight. Blue is for the fourteen trees I pruned over this last winter. Tree 40 is haunted.

The larger 1920's orchard with 52 half-standard trees. This orchard is in better condition with only three decrepit trees (9 has a split trunk; 19 is standing dead as well as the un-numbered standing dead tree marked by a star). However, last winter I did not prune any of the trees here. I intend to focus on this older orchard with the grant money over the next two years and hopefully get all 50 remaining trees into good shape. Any gaps will hopefully be replanted too.

The value of dead wood in orchards

2009-07-19T01:43:00.000-07:00

One of the most interesting aspects of the two orchards is the abundance of standing and fallen dead wood- a nationally scarce habitat important for many rare insects, especially beetles. For example there are apparently around 700 species of saproxylic beetle found in mainland Britain. It will be exciting to see what turns up...

Piles of old prunings at the base of many trees combined with cavities provide a range of rotting wood habitats.

The somewhat tragic end to a vast apple tree's life in the 1940s orchard. Its all about allowing these fallen giants to decay gracefully.

Whole standing-dead trees. There are two of these in the 1940s orchard (another can be just seen behind the one in the foreground of this photo). These are particularly valuable as the wood rots from the inside out, providing a range of stages of decomposition. The rotting of this wood is facilitated by fungi and various micro-organisms that convert the wood into substances that can be digested by a range of insect species, since very few insects can actually digest dead woody tissues directly.

Strimming in the 1940s orchard

2009-07-10T02:23:00.000-07:00

Did a spot of strimming yeasterday. Nice contrast between the head-height weeds and my newly cleared patch. Horseflies very bad this year.

Rick Stein and the BBC in the Charingworth orchards

2009-07-08T09:09:00.000-07:00

An extract from an episode of Rick Stein's 'Food Heroes' series for the BBC. The slope he drives down is along the highest boundary of the 1940s Bramley orchard. This was filmed a few years ago when the orchards were still being managed commercially. The trees Margaret and Rick are picking from are the modern 'bush' style, with smaller semi-dwarfing root-stocks than the standard trees found in traditional orchards. This allows for picking and pruning without ladders, and as a result they are much more economical and are thus favoured by most commercial fruit producers. There are three rows of these trees in the centre of this orchard, flanked on both sides by much older, standard trees. However, apple trees on semi-dwarfing rootstocks are far less valuable for wildlife because they will never develop into the big old trees that have an abundance of valuable 'veteran tree' features such as rot holes and standing dead wood.

We can see in a snapshot some of the problems associated with traditional orchard conservation; primarily an active tension between the trend towards intensive management of younger, smaller trees for economically viable production and the long time periods and more extensive management that allows the orchard-woodpasture habitat to develop and become home to so many species.

Rot holes and cavities - a survey

2009-07-07T13:00:00.000-07:00

For several days during November 2008 I surveyed every standard and half-standard apple tree to get an idea of the condition of the orchards. I measured the trunk height and circumference of the trees. I also counted and photographed each 'rot hole', 'cavity' and dead limb, since it is these veteran tree features that account for much of the habitat value in traditional orchards.

An example of a 'rot hole'. Great habitat for saproxylic invertebrates including the Noble Chafer, Gnorimus nobilis (a UK BAP species) and many species of fungi . And snails.

An example of what I would call a 'cavity'. It is more of an internal space than a 'rot hole' and often forms where a hollow limb or trunk is accessible through a hole in the bark. Good habitat for a range of cavity nesting birds and bats. You can see some fungal hyphae hanging down inside this cavity- it is in one of the oldest trees and has an entirely hollow trunk, along with several hollow limbs.

Out of a total of 34 healthy and 8 decrepit trees in the 1940s orchard, I found a total of 77 rot holes and cavities (thumbnails above). The average trunk circumference was 160 cm, measured below the lowest branch, illustrating the considerable size of trees in this orchard.

Out of a total of 50 healthy and 3 decrepit trees in the 1920s orchard I found a total of 164 rot holes and cavities. The average circumference was smaller though, at 143 cm. I think the reason this orchard has a greater density of ancient tree features than the one planted in the 1940s is due to the trees being older on average, as well as perhaps having been pruned more intensively being half-standard trees. More veteran tree features = more unusual habitat.

A resident of tree 28, 1920s orchard.

The largest apple tree in Charingworth

2009-07-07T12:54:00.000-07:00

Noble tree 35 from the Bramley orchard planted in the 1940s.

Bramley apple harvest

2009-07-05T07:06:00.000-07:00

My good friend Freddie with some of last October's crop. He pioneered the single stick apple harvesting technique.

A sprinkling of snow in the lower orchard

2009-07-05T06:20:00.000-07:00

A sprinkling of snow in the 1940s Bramley orchard in February. Two of the largest trees of all can be seen in the foreground. It took me three days to prune the tree nearest the camera- tree 35, and a personal favorite. It has huge internal cavities and I think there may be potential for a bat roost in one of the hollow limbs. In twenty years time these trees may well approach the size of some of the giant trees in Wisbech.

December 2008 - February 2009: pruning

2009-07-05T04:02:00.000-07:00

I concentrated all my pruning efforts on the smaller 1940s orchard since I judged these trees to be more in need of a trim. Over 25 days I managed to prune 13 trees, with a bit of help along the way. Hugely therapeutic to be up a ladder on a crisp winter's morning, surrounded by cackling fieldfare and redwing, releasing a gnarled tree from its beard of shoots.

In February 2009 I managed to rope in a couple of friends for a weekends pruning, Tommy and Harry. I had been working alone so it was great to have some help from two strapping lads. We finished a tree each, 'prunbelievable'.

From left: pruners Harry Guinness, myself and Tommy Adeane.

Harry up tree 17.

Tree 35 pre-prune.

Tree 35 pruned.

Tree 26 pre-prune. Note how congested the crown is after 6 years of growth.

Tree 26 pruned. I took a lot of wood off this tree, especially at the ends of branches where the spider-like shape of the tree was starting to grow out.

Tree 5 pre-prune.

Tree 5 post-prune. I removed the water shoots and thinned out the fruiting branches. The aim was to increase air circulation and light reaching the crown and reduce the strain on the main limbs.

Tree 5 regrowth (July 2009). Notice how already the water shoots have regrown considerably. However if pruning can be done each year then only very thin shoots are being removed so several trees can be pruned in one day. Since 2nd year buds are where fruits form, this type of pruning concentrates all the fruit on the more accessible outer branches.

2009-07-04T08:45:00.000-07:00

This is one of the original Bramley apple trees from the orchard on Goose Hill. It is about 90 years old. The trunk and several limbs are completely hollow. Old pruning debris provides valuable habitat at the base. 'Water shoots' can be seen sprouting up from the main branches; usually removed every winter, these have been unpruned for around 6 years.

A panoramic view from above the larger orchard on Goose Hill, facing towards Chipping Campden.

October 2008 - February 2009

2009-07-04T07:46:00.000-07:00

I first started to notice that the orchards were no longer being farmed during the summer of 2008. The grass had not been cut for several years and no pruning had been undertaken. I went for a coffee with the farmers to find out more. It transpired that they had recently retired and no longer farmed any of their land, with the arable and pasture leased out and the orchards left to their own devices. Old apple trees with a long history of yearly pruning become unable to tolerate a long break in maintenance since the weight in wood from several years growth can break branches and even split trunks. It is an agricultural environment that needs to be maintained through constant management, especially with the vigorous Bramley variety. I decided that if I didn't try and save the orchards, there was a good chance they would be lost.

An introduction to the Charingworth orchards

2009-07-04T06:19:00.000-07:00

This bramley apple orchard has 34 older full stock trees planted from 1940 onwards and three rows of smaller bush stock trees favoured by modern commercial growers. There is much standing dead wood on the site (including 2 full standing trees), an old hedgerow with dead elms and 2 ponds on land bordering the orchard.

This orchard has 52 half stock trees dating from 1920 onwards, all bramley as well. The trees harbour a huge diversity and abundance of rot holes and cavities.