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Lets get making our streets and estates into urban orchard for everyone to have free fresh food!

Happy Solstice!

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 Wee betty overseeing all our work again yesterday, checking to make sure all the apple trees are planted in a straight line! The new heritage apple orchard is really coming together, got all the trees mulched and caged yesterday and about another 20 trees planted. Its the Solstice today and some of us are meeting up to plant a tree at sunrise to mark this special occasion. After today the days will start to get longer. I believe we should all make some sort of nature offering to mark the Solstice. Like a thank you to the creation for all we take from it. I've been a programmed parasite for most of my life, born into probably the biggest wheeling and dealing cut throat circles in Belfast. Everything we were selling came at the destruction of mother nature in some form or another, then to be turned into paper and digits and saved up like a big fat hamster with lots of it spent on self gratification, greed and gluttony! Not one thought was spared at the mayhem and destruction that ha...
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Great day in Narnia!

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 Went for our weekly dander up the Mournes yesterday, was a windy one up there! Gusts at the top must have been 100mph, literally you had to get on all fours in parts of it, Unreal. Definitely puts a bit of life in you heading up to places like that in cold windy days. Never do you come back from a mountain dander and say, well that was a waste of time! We are so lucky here in Belfast to have the Mourne mountains AKA Narnia just an hour down the road. This was the place CS Lewis got his inspiration from for Narnia as he walked here often.  I've gotten much of my inspiration from up there also. Been walking it most weeks now for years.  Think its important we all take time out and go to places like this for the day. It resets the mind or something.  We can get so caught up meaningless BS at times and when we go to places like mountains we realize we're just a speck of dust on this planet and nothing is really worth worrying or stressing about. Got back from there and ...
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Another productive day!

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 Another productive day at our new heritage orchard yesterday, over 40 more holes dug out ready for planting this weekend and got in 3 tonne bags of mulch. Thank you so much to the 2 volunteers who worked away yesterday digging the holes. Your moving up the ranks rightly!  Its all been coming together nicely and at this rate we'll have the 300 apple trees planted in no time! This is the first time I've really recruited volunteers, most of the time I've just been winging it with my phantom planting, making sure they are planted the right way up and thats about it! Nearly all these 300 trees were grafted by myself and it was weeks of work. But I knew when it came to planting these there was no way I could possibly do all this by just winging it. So I put out a Paramili-Tree recruitment drive post and have now got a good inner council WhatsApp group going where we can all discuss what we are doing. Its a big relief off my head having a good team behind me. I've done that m...
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Another 22 apple trees planted!

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 Another 22 apple trees we planted at the orchard yesterday, bringing the total so far to 103 apple trees. Here is the list of varieties that will be in this community orchard for all to enjoy. Irish pitcher Greesy pippin Lord derby No surrender Cavan wine James Grieves Kemp Sheeps snout Isaac Newtown Ecklinville Green chisel donegal Brown crofton Irish peach Gibbons Russet Lough key crab Allen's everlasting Bloody butcher Buddha Tree Kill Cavan sugarcane Blood of the Boyne The Isaac Newton and the James grieves are the only ones that aren't native. But I love how well James Grieves grow over here and with them being a Scottish variety they are as good as native for many people in Northern Ireland. The Isaac Newton variety I couldn't miss this one when I had the chance to get cuttings from the original Isaac Newton apple tree where he discovered gravity. The Buddha tree in there was a cutting off an apple tree from Jampa Ling Buddhist monastery in County Cavan, not sure of ...
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Planting experiments.

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 80 fruit trees have been planted in the new orchard this week. I really didnt anticipate it taking so long. We have 3 rows of 20 trees that have been planted using a mix of good quality compost and some feed, taking away and discarding the grass tuff and planting them the way I would plant on council land which is the way I would like to have did them all but doing them this way really has put the time and cost up for me. So for the rest of the trees we are just going to use the soil thats there, no feed and turn the grass tuff upside down and put it back in the hole. This way will save so much more time and money as we have another 220 apple trees to plant. This will also be the perfect experiment to see how much of a difference there is in the growth and health of the trees between the different methods of planting. I'll do a video later of the method of planting I'm doing. I'm also going to go to the forest and get some rotted mulch that will be full of forest mycelium ...
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How many can you plant?

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 80 apple trees I've planted this week!  Bet I've planted more apple trees than anyone else out there in the space of a week??? Wouldn't it be great though if we got competitive about doing things that benefit nature and the community like planting fruit trees!  How many fruit trees can you plant in a week?  I've another 220 apple trees to go this week again. That's my challenge!  I challenge you to phantom plant a tree!  #phantomplanter
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Great crowds yesterday!

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 Had some big crowds yesterday turn up for planting some memorial apple trees at our new orchard. So good to see! The family also added some ashes in with the tree planting in memory of Betty Quinn. There was another dog there also that was called Betty and then Wee Betty, The three Betty's together! If there is anyone free today who is good with their hands and would like to come and help out at our new orchard drop me a message please. I'm going to be there most of the day from 10am and have a load of work there I could do with some help with. Want to get all these 300 apple trees in the ground this week. Need help cutting chicken mesh and wrapping it around the trees with cable ties. If you think you can do this please send me a message. Would be very keen also to recruit some long term volunteers who could help out with the maintenance of this new heritage orchard. If you live close to the Lisnabreeny, Moneyreagh/Ballygowan area and would like to be part of this get in touc...
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