Planting an Orchard during Lockdown

We’ve been very busy during lockdown. Our latest project was to plant up a new orchard at the top of our camping field. Its got 12 apple trees, a good mix of eaters, cookers and cider apples plus 2 plums and a pear and closer to the house we’ve got two pears and a plum. They are all varieties local to the SW with the majority from Devon. We picked up our saplings from Adams Apples. They need pruning but that will have to wait until it stops raining.

They will give us a good supply of fruit throughout the season and we are doing our bit for the environment and to combat climate change. Planting trees on this slope will slow rainwater run-off and capture carbon dioxide.

So far the deer have only damaged one tree. In response we moved the trail cam up to the orchard, put in a temporary fence and coated the saplings with homemade deer repellent.

The pile of wood in the background is the prunings from the old apple trees neglected by the previous owners had neglected. The wood pile will still be there when we reopen for you to use on your campfires. Hopefully it will have dried out a bit by then too….

More stories will follow letting you know what else we’ve been up to.