what shall we do with additional land?

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what shall we do with additional land?
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tahir

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 45708
Location: Essex

Posted: Tue Jul 14, 09 6:24 pm Post subject:

yummersetter wrote:

The grant is ï¿½10 per tree, so about 50%.
I've been advised by 'Planning' to speak to the Environment Agency about the ditch, but I haven't drawn their attention to my intentions yet.

The tree/planting cost is minimal in comparison to maintenance over x years

yummersetter

Joined: 26 Jan 2008
Posts: 3241
Location: Somerset

Posted: Wed Jul 15, 09 11:39 am Post subject:
But my tree planting fund is in the solicitor's wallet. No harm in applying for the grant, lets see - 6 traditional cider apple trees, 6 traditional pears then . . . . 2 paw-paws, 4 olive trees, a mango or two, some peaches, nectarines and apricots, 5 vines, 5 kiwis I wonder if I can mention global warming expectations there?

tahir

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 45708
Location: Essex

Posted: Wed Jul 15, 09 11:43 am Post subject:

yummersetter wrote:

I wonder if I can mention global warming expectations there?

I think we should be able to, and I can't see why everything has to be on full size rootstocks.

yummersetter

Joined: 26 Jan 2008
Posts: 3241
Location: Somerset

Posted: Wed Jul 15, 09 12:00 pm Post subject:

because they want tourist coaches to drive round the Somerset lanes in springtime admiring the pretty apple blossom in the traditional apple orchards. Somerdisneyland.

perhaps a little too harsh, it's preservation and replacement - but these trees would be behind my traditional, ancient trees bit and hardly visible from the road, and I could emphasise pushing the boundaries of what's possible to grow in our ever more benign climate. Anyway, even a little contribution would be welcome.

Last time I applied and got accepted, twenty years ago, I paid for everything myself in the end because I couldn't bear the idea of someone coming along and giving their approval to what I'd done - even though it was exactly what they were hoping for.

tahir

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 45708
Location: Essex

Posted: Wed Jul 15, 09 12:03 pm Post subject:

yummersetter wrote:

because they want tourist coaches to drive round the Somerset lanes in springtime admiring the pretty apple blossom in the traditional apple orchards. Somerdisneyland.

It's the same here, as far as I'm concerned orchards are part of our productive landscape, not just a visual amenity

Truffle

Joined: 07 Feb 2006
Posts: 526

Posted: Fri Jul 17, 09 3:34 pm Post subject:
All very interesting and just had to add truffle cultivation as an option: www.plantationsystems.com we just had a find in the grounds of a school in the SW. Can you really grow paw paw (great suggestion)? We have some indoors but will they fare ok outside?

tahir

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 45708
Location: Essex

Posted: Fri Jul 17, 09 8:47 pm Post subject:

Truffle wrote:

Can you really grow paw paw (great suggestion)? We have some indoors but will they fare ok outside?

Yeah, asimina triloba, not papaya...

yummersetter

Joined: 26 Jan 2008
Posts: 3241
Location: Somerset

Posted: Fri Jul 17, 09 10:16 pm Post subject:

where's Orange Pippin? He'll make a case for planting apples, surely!

mmm truffles, brilliant and exciting idea. Hazels are plentiful in the existing hedges. Might pop the eyebrows of the grant committee a bit

I bet that was one of the posh schools - down at the local schools it'd be a toadstool whatever it was.

I haven't told OH we've veered from the straight and narrow yet - I'll just say ' Tahir advised . . . '

yummersetter

Joined: 26 Jan 2008
Posts: 3241
Location: Somerset

Posted: Fri Jul 17, 09 10:22 pm Post subject:

tahir wrote:

Truffle wrote:

Can you really grow paw paw (great suggestion)? We have some indoors but will they fare ok outside?

Yeah, asimina triloba, not papaya...

The fruit is used as a laxative[222]. The leaves are diuretic[222]. They are applied externally to boils, ulcers and abscesses[4, 222]. The seed contains the alkaline asiminine, which is emetic and narcotic[222, 227]. They have been powdered and applied to hair to kill lice[222]. The bark is a bitter tonic[4] PFAF

Yummy

Ecocentric

Joined: 14 May 2009
Posts: 93
Location: Western foothills of the Cambrians

Posted: Sat Jul 18, 09 7:13 am Post subject:

Back to the access problem, temorarily, I wonder if you could get away with a hybrid between a ford and a culvert - Cut ramps down on both sides. Clean and level ditch bottom, lay 8-12" pipes (enough to cope with low-medium flow) bedded on well compacted aggregate. Set large stones to form a "kerb" a little way in from each end and infill with coarse granular material. Ramps either side need to be just shallow enough for your tractor to negotiate allowing for any implements attached. It is, perhaps, unlikely that you will be requiring access during winter or, at least, after heavy rain so a proper roadway may not be necessary.

Low-medium flow will go through the pipes. Heavier flow will over-top the "ford" and flow away as normal. Flash flooding even on small scale can wash down debris to block pipes and you will need to check how far the "lake" will back up and if this would cause problems for neighbours up-stream.

yummersetter

Joined: 26 Jan 2008
Posts: 3241
Location: Somerset

Posted: Sat Jul 18, 09 10:30 am Post subject:
thanks - that's a more sophisticated version of the plan we came up with last night, with the same reasoning, very helpful. We're just touring the site with jcb man right now. No problems 'upstream' which is just our orchard and the field behind, because our orchard slopes down to the south flooding would just shortcut the bend and end up in the same place

yummersetter

Joined: 26 Jan 2008
Posts: 3241
Location: Somerset

Posted: Tue Jul 21, 09 10:18 am Post subject:

Truffle wrote:

All very interesting and just had to add truffle cultivation as an option: www.plantationsystems.com we just had a find in the grounds of a school in the SW.

When's the best time to plant trufflized hazel and how large are the seedlings? I presume they'd need vole/shrew/barknibbling rodent protection for a while.

yummersetter

Joined: 26 Jan 2008
Posts: 3241
Location: Somerset

Posted: Mon Feb 15, 10 3:50 pm Post subject:

after thinking I'd have to postpone planting more than a handful of apricot, peach and plum trees till next winter, I heard about an auction of the 9500 remaining apple and pear trees in the ground at Scotts Nurseries nearby and bid successfully for two lots of apples. They were sold in alphabetical sets of 35-60 trees by age and rootstock, so over the weekend, with some wonderful help, we dug up the Norfolk Royals - to - Red Ellison's Orange trees, in fans, half-standards and bush sizes, about 68 trees and replanted them in the new orchard. All concerned crawled out of the fields at both ends of the project filthy and exhausted, but they look stunning.

Next weekend it'll be Red Fortune to Ribston Pippin, ending with a beautiful fan tree, about 110 in all, about 40 varieties. There were 6 fans, 35 half standards planted on the left side and the rest were bush trees which we've put in on each side of an avenue straight uphill from where the bridge will be It was an odd way to fill the orchard, but I hope that we'll come across some lovely varieties we'd never have tasted if it had been down to my selection from A-Z!

tahir

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 45708
Location: Essex

Posted: Mon Feb 15, 10 3:52 pm Post subject:
Fabulous, all we managed was pruning on about 40 apples. Well done.

yummersetter

Joined: 26 Jan 2008
Posts: 3241
Location: Somerset

Posted: Mon Feb 15, 10 4:22 pm Post subject:
and I pruned them too, root and branch

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