The New Orchard
.
The new orchard is on the site of an old tennis court. When we arrived, the hedge consisted of an overgrown row of privet trees, which we took out, replaced with yew and forgot about for ten years while it grew happily through the boiler waste which had been used as the court surface. The area served for many years as a yard to store surplus stone, soil and building materials. In autumn 2008, it was cleared and planted up with free standing apricots, plums, gages and cherries; all varieties which we would normally expect to grow against a wall for decent cropping. It's a sheltered spot, they are all on dwarfing/semi-dwarfing root-stocks, so it is our attempt at a 'climate change' orchard.
We sowed a 'wild flower meadow' mix from a reputable supplier, with what were supposed to be very slow growing grasses, but found that not only was the grass extraordinarily vigorous, but that there were also some gigantic, foul smelling thistles which were very difficult to remove. These were identified at Wisley as a non-native European hybrid thistle and eventually removed. The grass was (almost) tamed by the sowing of yellow rattle and we planted bulbs for some early colour (although we had a problem here too, when the native 'Pheasant's Eye' daffodil we had ordered turned out to be the much blowsier 'Flower Record'.
In the summer a path is mown through the orchard from honeysuckle covered arches at either end, with a little island of longer grass left in the centre where our wicker sheep, courtesy of Caroline Gregson (http://www.carolinegregson.com) now graze
We sowed a 'wild flower meadow' mix from a reputable supplier, with what were supposed to be very slow growing grasses, but found that not only was the grass extraordinarily vigorous, but that there were also some gigantic, foul smelling thistles which were very difficult to remove. These were identified at Wisley as a non-native European hybrid thistle and eventually removed. The grass was (almost) tamed by the sowing of yellow rattle and we planted bulbs for some early colour (although we had a problem here too, when the native 'Pheasant's Eye' daffodil we had ordered turned out to be the much blowsier 'Flower Record'.
In the summer a path is mown through the orchard from honeysuckle covered arches at either end, with a little island of longer grass left in the centre where our wicker sheep, courtesy of Caroline Gregson (http://www.carolinegregson.com) now graze
