Here are some pictures of the 2015 harvest. Although we don’t have a lot to do with the farm it’s always nice to see the harvest coming in.
The apple trees in the pictures are planted as part of an agroforestry scheme intended to improve the productivity of the land.
The apples trees (currently only two years old) will provide apples as a crop. They will also contribute leaves and trimmings to increase the organic matter in the soil and provide shelter for the crop planted between rows. We are currently taking part in a study about the microclimate between the rows, measuring temperature and windspeed monthly and tree size annually. There isn’t much to measure yet but over the 20 years planned for the study we are hoping to build up a substantial body of knowledge. Finally, the rows will provide biodiversity, which will help in pollination and pest control.
I would recommend you also grow comfrey at / near the base of each apple, you won’t need to chop and drop the comfrey, the bottom most leaves will be laying on the ground and will decompose with the help of worms etc. who will make it plant available ie: for the apple roots to suck in, there is wild comfrey (self seeding and most ideal), but if the self seeded comfrey ”volunteers” would cause a problem then there’s bock 14 variety which is not self seeding but makes a much larger plant which can be chopped and dropped a couple times a year. Bees love comfrey and perhaps a few inter plantings of borage would benefit them too?
We have plenty of borage in the butterfly garden – can easily transplant some. The Bocking 14 isn’t doing so well might look at getting some wild comfrey. Thanks for the advice.
wow, is the B.14 not producing results or are they failing in growing? (I got 5 and only one survived), note on the wild comfrey, it self seeds pretty well so checking spread weeds every 3 months may be a necessity if you use it 🙂
We didn’t help it as much as we could – cold clay and neglect.
Eww, mono-culture farming!! Blah …
Hopefully they will one day look into ways of making a much better use of the land with poly-culture / permaculture methods rather than the soil mining which mono-culture causes.
It looks like we are going ahead with another permaculture project – details still being discussed but looking hopeful.
Nice! sorry I posted this comment before reading through properly, but do you use part of the farm and work with the farmer or is it your / your group’s farm ?
We rent the Ecocentre two days a week and the groups does what it cam – one of the girls is really good with sheep and a couple enjoy gardening, whilst others like the poultry or turning the various compost bins. We collect the data for the agroforestry project (it’s a bit early now but once the trees grow a bit we’re expecting to find them making a difference to the microclimate). My wife and I also work on the education side- working with schools and various other groups to provide days out on the farm and a bit of learning (if we are lucky!). In the next month we will be hosting schools, Girl Guides, cancer survivors and college students doing animal care. We are also going out to do baking with a Care Home (a group of 90 year old ladies with some great life stories, including growing liquorice in Pontefract).
Oilseed rape?
Canola? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rapeseed
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