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!!

Cheering up the kitchen sink & Speeding up Spring!

After 1 day indoors

After 3 days in doors!

We can get a little impatient at this time of year so I've been speeding up spring! I have been cutting Prunus twigs, arranging them in water in the kitchen and forcing the flower buds to open well ahead of their natural timing.  I know that many people smash the woody stems and leave them to stand in water in a cooler room first but, I find this also works well and the buds will open in about 3 days depending on room temperature.  Even when the flowers drop, the leaf buds will continue to open.  The same can be done with Forsythia and Horse Chestnut bubs look very dramatic when forced.  A few spring flowers in an old teapot can cheer up the kitchen sink on a dull and miserable day - and we can never have too much cheer at the sink!

Spring in February?

In between the dark, mizzly rainy days, we have had the odd sunny and frosty day and, yes!  More Snowdrops and Hellebores are popping up in the Woodland Border. In the greenhouse, Hyacinths and Tete-a-tetes have popped up along with more Pansies and Polyanthus so, it's looking pretty colourful.  The Violas have battled with our winter weather and some have won, others are looking a little care worn!  The Irises are beginning to bloom - all in all, on these precious sunny days, it's looking really quite spring-like!

Wild White Winifred is Well...........again!

Fiona & Winifred

Henny Penny, Cicely, Fiona, Winifred & Marigold

Following a period of looking most unwell and going through 'mini moult', Winifred has made a full recovery and is even laying again.  We were most concerned for her and had sought advice from Sarah of Newland Poultry who made an instant and accurate diagnosis.  Winifred had chosen the coldest and frostiest period to lose all her neck feathers.  Her (floppy) comb had lost all is colour and she looked extremely sorry for herself.  Although the smallest of our flock of five, she had always been by far the bossiest and the most prolific layer and so it was a shame to see her looking so poorly and vulnerable.  I'm thrilled to say that she is now fully recovered and back to her normal bossy self!  We are lucky to have a very happy flock and unlike others we've had, these five display very little spite.  Hens are very unforgiving birds and are often super spiteful to each other so it's a treat to see such a contented flock. Hopefully, we're doing something right!

Winifred

February Border Work.

Woodbury Hill from the Lower Lawn

'The Border With Nothing In It!'

Without doing too much trampling, we have managed to actually do some border work.  In a border known as 'The Border with Nothing In It'.  Long story!  It lies at the bottom of our little orchard and is south of the Henclosure.  Fair enough - it is a bit of a hotch potch of a really nice shrub rose a couple of Lilacs, some Sedums, a young Hornbeam an old coppiced Hazel some Pulmonarias, an Epimedium, an ancient, weak and woody Weigela, a Hemerocallis and a low spreading conifer to say nothing of a HUGE amount of bindweed!  Being at the bottom of a 15' slope it tends to be rather wet.  However, Sedums were deadheaded, Lamium as well as the usual weeds were all removed.  The soil was turned over and the lawn edged.  The ground was wetter than ideal but we tiptoed around without compacting the soil and it really did look much improved  The days are noticeably lengthening but, looking across to Woodbury, we still have the long early morning shadows.

Witch Hazel Spiders.

Despite constant battles with Red Spider Mites indoors, we now have an epidemic of yellow spiders all over the Witch Hazel and, very pleased we are to see them.  I have no idea how such tiny spidery flowers emit such a sweet perfume but they certainly do and on miserably cloudy February days they are even more welcome.  This particular Witch Hazel (Hammamellis Mollis) was a prezzy from Chris a few years back.  We planted at the base and in the corner of the trellis so that, when walking past the old brick chimney, it's at nose level!!

Our Little Flock

Winifred far left

Winifred centre

Our little White Star (known to her friends as Winifred) has been looking quite poorly and had lost nearly all her neck feathers. Of all our 5 girls, Winifred is the smallest, the bossiest and the most prolific layer by miles so, if anyone deserved a break from laying, it's her!  However, her comb was pale and anaemic (which can be seen in the photos) in appearance instead of being its usual healthy bright red and, somehow she just wasn't thriving.  As well as her physical symptoms, it looked as if some had emptied a whole pillow down in the Hennery!    Having spoken to Sarah at Newland Poultry she suggested that maybe a mini moult was the reason.  A week later, it appears that Sarah's diagnosis is correct as, neck feathers are quickly regrowing and she is becoming her (not so) old self!  With a couple of weeks of cold and frosty weather, this is not the time be losing feathers - anywhere!

Henny Penny drinking!