The old orchard at the Welsh Hovel sits between our back garden and the river and contains four very old apple trees. There were five but the floods did for one of them a year or so ago. The new orchard containing about thirty trees of which just over a third are apples or crab apples is four years old and the newest clutch of apple trees at the top of the vegetable patch can be seen HERE. But there is a fourth group of trees planted last year by myself and my pal C.
C finished off the clearing of long grass around the trees at the end of last week and had to tie back one tree that lay prostrate because of the weight of fruit. One day these trees should form a sort of colonnade along the path by the river Dee cut by the fisherman. That is the plan. The type of apple tree here is largely Discovery. There are a couple of other varieties to assist with cross pollination but most of the crop is a very early season one, with fruit being ready to harvest by late August/early September. The apples in the old Orchard will be collected in the first week of October.
As you can see below, even in our first year these trees, almost thirty of them, will be productive. And the longer they stand the stronger they will be when the winter floods arrive.
