An invalid ward..

Day 313 #365DaysWild

It took us seven months to clear the area we found to be an orchard.

Within the jungle of bramble, nettle, sycamore and blackthorn we discovered an invalid ward of strangled apple trees planted after WWII.

We’ve taken the old gardeners rule and removed one branch from each apple tree a year to bring them back to health.

They’ll never achieve the classic goblet shape of perfect orchard specimens. But, in a good year they yield apples to eat until May.

Apple trees are wonderful for invertebrates and birds. As is their dead wood which we stack, hoping one day for stag beetles.

And beneath the apples we have a mini-meadow.

Now resplendent with cowslips we’ve planted and sown.