Rebuilding a nursery - Copton Ash

[Yann]

Is towards Ashford?

[johnralphcarpenter]

Between Ashford and Faversham, Yann, but nearer to Faversham.

[Yann]

 A good idea for next spring walk. Gonna check on a map.

[Robert]

Robert - this is another picture of the 'Rose & Crown' taken on Sunday. We walk here regularly so I will aim to show more pictures through the year when I can - it will be a great excuse, if excuse is needed to sample the local ale and game pie!!

Tim,

This is fantastic.

I am very curious - not only the plants, but also this pub. Maybe a taste of culture and history for me. I am sure this is very day stuff for you folks but very different for me.

Maybe this only happens in the U.S.A.    My wife and I finally were able to visit with our friends - the Tibetan Buddhist Monks. Many years ago we would host them at our house. We lost track of them while care giving my parents. We were so pleased to see them again - and hopefully start hosting them again.    They say California is known for its "nuts and fruits". Somehow I think this is what they are referring to - not the kind one eats.     We are very pleased - the Monks are very pleasant to be around.

Next chance I will ask them about the wild plants in their area (India now, but they are still very connected with Tibet). When I farmed I asked them about their traditional agricultural crops. It was very fascinating. I ended up with some old traditional Tibetan varieties of barley. The Ethiopian varieties do better here. I think that Tibetan barleys would like a cooler climate.

[Matt T]

We have some very old, traditional varieties of six-row barley growing here on the Uists, Robert. They are derived from the old 'bere' barley and have been maintained for generations. They are adapted to our climate as well as low input cultivation practices. However, as a species barley is clearly a long day crop, growing fastest during the long, warm days of summer. In places it is know as the 90 day corn (time from sowing to harvest) and there is an apocryphal story of two sowings and harvests in a single (exceptionally favourable?) season on Tiree. The small (aka black) oats sown alongside the barley do little throughout the summer and only start to grow during the longer, cooler nights of late summer and early autumn.

[Tim Ingram]

Working on the last two rows of apple trees and the compost area/wood pile during these colder wintry days. The long term aim is to underplant the apples with a whole variety of woodland plants, ferns and bulbs - especially a growing collection of snowdrop cultivars (though some of the longer term plantings of these have gone back in the last year or so). The orchard then becomes like a 'mixed farm', providing fruit but also seed and propagating material from the underplanting too.

Starting is the hardest point, and this row of trees had become very weedy so this has been a concerted effort to prepare for underplanting over the next year or two as funds allow. At the same time the trees have been getting a long needed pruning and the piles of material to be shredded and wood to be cut growing! At least we have a good carbon neutral source of fuel for the wood burner.

[Maggi Young]

Tim, how easy is it to plant under orchard trees? I have no experience of that and so don't know  how  close to the surface the roots aof the trees might be.

[Robert]

Tim,

It looks like you are making excellent progress on your project and have a nice stack of fire wood. 

[Tim Ingram]

Very easy Maggi - apples don't have the greedy surface roots of trees like cherries and birches (or even rhododendrons in a different sort of planting). These trees are also grown on M9 and M27 dwarfing rootstocks which naturally keeps them small. On the other hand this is why the weeds also establish so well The ideal for a woodland garden is probably something like the nutwalk at Sissinghurst with trees regularly coppiced and that long accumulation of leafmould.

[Tim Ingram]

It looks like you are making excellent progress on your project and have a nice stack of fire wood. 

...and at the moment our chainsaw is out of action Robert and all of this is hand cut! Good to keep you warm in winter. It's amazing the productivity of a garden.

[Maggi Young]

Thanks for the info, Tim .

 Very neat wood stack - always make me think of my Grandparent's when I see a nice stack like that - and memories of cosy fires. 

[Hoy]

Tim,

Nice work!

[Robert]

...and at the moment our chainsaw is out of action Robert and all of this is hand cut! Good to keep you warm in winter. It's amazing the productivity of a garden.

Tim,

I admire any one "wooding-it" with hand tools. I especially admire the skill it takes to keep blades and axes sharp and working efficiently. Stacking cord wood is a lost art too.

A job well done! 

[fermi de Sousa]

....The long term aim is to underplant the apples with a whole variety of woodland plants, ferns and bulbs....
Starting is the hardest point, and this row of trees had become very weedy so this has been a concerted effort to prepare for underplanting over the next year or two as funds allow.

Nice to see the progress you are making, Tim.
We have a short row of apples which we are planning to treat in a similar manner, but daffs instead of snowdrops, with liliums at the dripline, where we can keep them watered,
cheers
fermi

[Tim Ingram]

Fermi - I like the idea of the smaller daffs. too, if only I can wean myself off snowdrops!! I have some Lilium martagon and L. monadelphum in a few openings between the trees but lily beetle is a scourge to keep up with! I think some of the easier fritillarys would be good too - F. meleagris is gradually seeding and combines well with everything else.