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Allison Lee
Smallholding Correspondent
1:00 AM 11th January 2025
lifestyle

Planting An Orchard

When we bought our new home a few months ago, the estate agent’s particulars stated that the property had an orchard. Well, this ‘orchard’ consisted of one apple tree and one pear tree, so I decided that something had to be done about the lack of fruit trees.

I can’t profess to be the best baker in the world, but I am capable of making a fruit pie, and I have always wanted to try making jam. At the very least, if all else fails, I have a menagerie of animals that will happily eat the fruit.

As it turned out, we couldn’t have picked a better time to move for the purpose of planting fruit trees. Bare root trees are best planted in the winter months when they are dormant, and they can be planted anytime between November and early spring, provided the ground is not frozen, waterlogged or exceptionally dry; the latter probably won’t ever be the case during winter in the UK!

So, we set about finding our nearest garden centre and fell upon a fabulous place called Strikes in Northallerton. Not only did the centre stock a huge range of fruit trees of numerous different varieties, the staff were helpful and extremely knowledgeable. After enjoying breakfast in their cafe, we headed outside to pick our trees. Sometime later, we loaded our trailer with eleven trees consisting of cherry, plum, pear, damson, apple, and sweet chestnut, along with stakes and ties.

Once we were back home, my husband delved into his collection of tools to find his petrol auger. He found it easily; however, getting it to start was a different matter. It hadn’t seen the light of day for some time and flatly refused to cooperate. I was far from happy. We had eleven trees needing to be planted, and the weather forecast for the following days was widespread ice and snow – the trees really did need to be planted before then. I handed him a spade and duly offered to make him a cup of coffee! My husband is known to be long-suffering, but as we have been married for 37 years, I figured one more task wouldn’t rock the boat too much, and he really does enjoy being outside.

The next couple of days were cold and sunny, absolutely perfect for planting trees, and this is exactly what we did—or should I say, what my husband did while I supervised!

We now have a small orchard around the pond, and I cannot wait to see it blossom and fruit in the coming years.

You can find Allison on Instagram countryliving_writer or visit her website here