New orchard getting phantom planted today!
Heading out here today to phantom plant a community orchard on a large field in the estate. I have a new method of planting I'm going to experiment with. It will be more like a wild fruit forest rather than a maintained orchard. I've around 50 mixed heritage apple trees to plant and I'm going to plant them all quite close in a circular island shape in the field. I will then get a mower and cut the grass around the edge of the island of trees to encourage the council mowers to just keep cutting around it. It will be all left for the grass to grow wild in and around the trees. You see woodland trust do these types of plantations with other native trees, but I have never seen one with native fruit trees. I love it when apple trees are left to go wild with fruit, just falling and being left. It creates such a biodiversity hotspot. I have seen more life around wild fruit trees than most other types of tree. All my apple trees are grafted onto mm106 rootstock which means they wi...