The green and rolling countryside of Worcestershire, England, is home to the cider apple orchards which surround the gardens of Pear Tree Cottage. They enjoy a sunny south westerly aspect with sweeping views across to Martley Hillside, Woodbury and Abberley clock tower. The Teme Valley lies just over the hill and, not far away, is the Herefordshire border. Although our climate is temperate, our seasons are often uncertain and always a challenge to a gardener! This began in 2010 & follows the weekly ups and downs of garden work chronicling both successes and failures but, above all, demonstrates the fun enjoyed by three people who regularly garden in all weathers

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22 February 2015

Orchard in an Orchard!!

At LONG last, we found time to invest in some additional fruit trees for what we can now call our orchard!  We bought a King James II Chelsea Mulberry. a Rivers Early Prolific Plum, a Lord Hindlip Apple and a family tree with 3 grafted varieties: Cox's Orange Pippin, Hereford Russet and a Sunset.  We also planted 2 very young cob nuts. These fruit trees all came from Frank P. Matthews who are pretty local to us and I do not exaggerate when I say it is 'Tree Heaven'!!  They guarantee that pot grown trees have only been in a pot for a single season so there's no poverty stricken pot bound specimens and, even better, they also sell bare rooted specimens.  It's an astonishing and impressive nursery and visits should be mandatory!!  Say no more.  They even provide their own named copper labels AND even the wire ready to be twisted on in spirals so that it never harms the tree by becoming too tight.

I should perhaps mention (for those who don't already know) King James II bought this fruiting Mulberry tree to feed his silk worms and because it was entirely the wrong mulberry leaf, all his silk worms dies and no silk was ever produced!

All our little trees are now planted and we didn't have to worry about self fertile varieties as we're surrounded by another 24,000 apple trees!!

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