overgrown project 3

[Pun]

In the last write up I told you we got the complete orchard turned over and we had started to prune as many trees as we could befor the spring arrives and the sap in the trees starts to rise,

Well all but two trees got a prune like they,d never had for at least 15 years, "proberly longer" the house hadnt been lived in for 15 years but who know,s when it had any gardening work done on it?

Now because of the on going work inside the house and as Ive said making sure we didnt spend for the sake of spending,

we found we could work one way or the other depending on the weather, if the weather was wet ect we,d do stuff inside and if we got the chance we,d be outside

The orchard ground we decided to have as a rough grass area rather than a bowling green sort of lawn and we ,ve just let the now bramble free grass grow,

we cut it every couple of weeks or so and it was this last Sunday I was cutting the orchard grass when I had to stop and look at the amount of apples we have "now" this year,

We thought we,d not see any apples on the pruned trees for at least two years if at all,

Some are cooking, eating, and we have one variety thats a scarlet and bluish tinge to the skin, as all the apples are small at the moment we cant say if this ones an eating or what it is,

But the fact Im trying to get over to all the new gardeners/house project people is this by pruning we have a good larger individual apple rather than lots of very smaller ones and a sight well worth all the back ache and  that feeling of did we do the right thing coming here to take this on!!!!

As I get back on the mower and drive it to the compost bin area to be emptied (no chemicle, so can be composted) I feel great, We,ve got an orchard and every tree is alive Including the one my wife said "I dont think we,ll ever see any fruit on that tree (bluish red apples)

Tip for all who are doing this kind of work, dont give up, go and carve your initial in a tree just to leave your mark!

Tomorrow,

sorting the front entrance garden area out as a low maintenance area