Snow.

Good luck getting the parsnips out of here...

We've been busy (as ever...) doing bits and bobs in the garden. We've now made a leaf mould area. Here's Joshua working hard on its creation:
This is one half of it, the basic idea being six posts (four so far in this picture) with mesh around the back and sides, and down the middle. (Mesh should allow the leafmould to breathe more easily...)
The next job was to set up a way of hiding the leaf mould area a little, so on the right hand side (nearer the house) we planted some dogwood:
I should perhaps point out that it wasn't snowing when we did this job. That would have been a little too keen.
And on the left (nearer the public footpath) I thought we'd have a go at planting some more roses:
This is after the success of one such rose attempt last year. I figured I'd combine the time to prune with a planting job. Hopefully some of these will take root and produce nice rose bushes in future. Speaking of which I should probably finish the pruning of the other roses, including the one we planted last year! Hopefully the snow won't cause the new plants any problems. They were all dipped in rooting juice (organic, rather than the powder). In fact, the dogwood sticks were left in overnight. Probably horribly bad for them, but we'll see...
Sadly, one mow of half the orchard was enough to fill one side of the leaf mould area. That wasn't exactly the plan, but we live and learn...

Not such a rake idea.

So, I had this plan. I thought to myself, I know, I'll set myself a little challenge. I'll rake the orchard.A Bad plan. A Foolish plan. A plan almost certain to Fail...
But I'm giving it a go anyway. To be honest, I might cheat towards the end, but here's the rough idea for now.
It's a job that goes in 3 stages (so far...)
Stage one is apple clearance. You'll notice lots of apples in the picture above (towards the back there...)

Same tree, different angle, apples cleared. Stage one complete (for that tree, anyway)

Stage two, outer circle raking.
Thus. This clears a lot of the leaves from the main bit of the orchard, gathers them towards the tree, and is nice to look at, as it suggests you've achieved something.

Stage three, inner circle raking.
Making sure, of course, that you don't pile it too much against the tree itself, so you don't end up rotting the trunk by mistake.
And from there, it will all mulch down and feed it for next year. That's the plan anyway. Given that all the rejected apples end up in the pile of leaves, does that make the tree cannibalistic?
Oh well, the apples taste nice. Anyone want one?

How's that for a squash?

All taken at Wimpole Estate (National Trust property near Cambridge)

Green manure and other things...

Well, I had a quick look at the beds in the orchard today and, blow me down, things were sprouting!
I think it must be the red clover (or, of course, some invasive weed that I wasn't planning on...) but it was very exciting to see.
Intended to take a photo, but then didn't get through the garden gate into the orchard - too much time with Joshua in the fallen leaves, then friends popped 'round. Ah well, maybe shots another day.
And did some raking today. Sort of feels pointless in some ways, given the magnitude of the task, but nevertheless is accompanied by a great sense of accomplishment.