Welcome to Notes From the Orchard

Latest Posts and Updates

• Thinning Out Apple and Pear FruitletsJune 17, 2020
  Fruit thinning is an essential operation to carry out to improve your chances of better quality fruit this year and more fruit buds next year.
• Top-Fruit Blossom, Spring 2020May 1, 2020
  2020 has been a rather excellent year for fruit blossom. Here’s a gallery of some examples I’ve seen in various places.
• The Biffin DilemmaFebruary 16, 2020
  In which I try to work out whether I can justify the energy consumption needed to cook up a classic apple dessert…
• Another Holly Mount Pruning Session, February 2020February 4, 2020
  A grey but dry and hugely enjoyable Sunday afternoon was well spent on helping to finish off this year’s winter pruning work.
• Mature Apple Tree: Restoration PruningJanuary 28, 2020
  Here’s how I went about the first phase of restorative pruning on a mature apple three that has been sadly neglected for a few years.
• Stepover Apple Trees: Winter PruningJanuary 21, 2020
  Here’s how I pruned three stepover trees on our allotment plot, leaving them until January rather than pruning in late summer as usually advised.
• Pruning Session: Holly Mount Orchard, January 2020January 7, 2020
  On a grey and drizzly afternoon I spent a happy few hours helping to winter prune a few of the trees in Holly Mount community orchard.
• Book Notes: Apple, by Marcia ReissNovember 17, 2019
  A review of Marcia Reiss’ social history of the apple, as told from a US-based perspective.
• Restoration Pruning of an Overgrown Plum TreeAugust 25, 2019
  Improving the branch structure of an overgrown and crowded plum tree on our allotment plot.