Apple trees planted several years ago in Calderwood as a Community Orchard have been getting lots of care this year, and I am pleased to say that the work has been worth it. We got a crop of good apples.
Initially, the orchard consisted of four apple trees and two plum trees, but in recent years, they appeared to be drowning in a sea of coarse grasses and were not looking too healthy.
To remedy this, Kirsten, who was initially involved in planting the orchard, decided to give the apple trees a good prune to reinvigorate them.
Then at the turn of the year, a group of us got together to tackle the coarse grass.
Each tree had the grass surrounding it dug up.
Then, each tree had brown cardboard placed under it.
On top of this was piled lots of leaf mold.
In late winter, there was a donation of four more trees.
After planting, each new tree had more cardboard placed around its base, with leaf litter piled on top.
As winter turned into spring, shoots appeared. Everything was looking good until we experienced acts of vandalism. Not by two-footed humans but by a four-footed variety. A deer was finding the young shoots of the new trees irresistible and using the more established trees as a scratching post.
Fortunately, the deer moved on, possibly as better weather appeared and more people were walking in the area.
When it came time to cut the grass to create walkways through the field, the grass cuttings were placed around each tree, acting as mulch for each tree.
What was interesting was the number of spiders, beetles, and ants that appeared to inhabit the grass around the base.
Hopefully, the orchard will now be more beneficial to people and wildlife.