Just when you think nature is on its side - it turns against you. Three days after watering the two orchards and inspecting all the trees, one of my trees completely died - the Cox's Permona. Goodness knows what happenned, but it had no leaves on it and the stem was almost black. Some people say a vole has eaten the roots and killed it - getting down through either cracks in the ground or through mole tunnels. Who knows! I also have some Woolly Aphids about (in the photo), this has forced me to apply a spray to the young trees to protect them from further attacks. Andy (the apple tree guru) tells me to expect to lose one in ten trees. Its sad, but its nature!
by Mike Hopkins
7Jul2024
The wonder of it!
Its great to see a few of the flowers emerge as a result of our sowings last autumn. Self Heal is doing paticularly well at the downstream end of the meadow. I managed to capture what I think is a March Brown butterfly enjoying the nectar from the self-heal flower and hopefully moving pollen from this plant to the next so that we get naturally produced seed, ready to fall onto the soil during the hay cut at the end of August.
