Gallery: Winter Morning, Linear Orchard, Kitchen Garden, NT Quarry Bank

I’ve been working at National Trust Quarry Bank for just over a year now, and I distinctly remember that when I started last January I promised to introduce the various orchard and fruit-growing spaces that I’m involved in looking after.

Well, I haven’t managed to do that in any great depth or detail just yet, but I am hoping to post a few more quick galleries of images from those various spaces over the course of the coming year.

Let’s start with the linear orchard in the kitchen garden. A row of mature trees, all apples, and one or two of them much more mature than the others, they march alongside a footpath that extending along the full length of our rather superb vinery glasshouse, and slightly beyond, as you can see in the header image for this post¹Actually a slight cheat, as I snapped that pic in the afternoon of the same day as the rest of the photos below..

I do love the way the morning light catches these trees in winter. On a cold but frost-free day like this one, the low sun on the eastern horizon catches the branches and stems quite beautifully, throwing the northern side of the trees into stark contrast.²I just wish my phone took better photos, these ones don’t really do the scene justice.

It is, of course, a perfect time of year to assess the structure of the trees and plan for dormant-season pruning, which we’ll be carrying out over the next few weeks.

Have you been to Quarry Bank before? If not, and certainly if so, you should really come and see us³ Do check the QB page of the NT website for details of opening times, travel etc. (again) and check out our orchards. If you visit in the next couple of months and happen to see a tall, slightly scruffy-looking chap snipping away at the apples with a pair of secateurs or a pole-lopper then there’s a good chance that’ll be me.

Footnotes

• 1
  Actually a slight cheat, as I snapped that pic in the afternoon of the same day as the rest of the photos below. ↩︎
• 2
  I just wish my phone took better photos, these ones don’t really do the scene justice. ↩︎
• 3
  Do check the QB page of the NT website for details of opening times, travel etc. ↩︎