Blossom time just beginning

Some slight changes to presentation have been enabled by my younger, IT competent, employee!

The new header picture depicts not cherry blossom which has featured for the last fourteen years, but the early pink buds showing on our Vranja quince. You will probably spot other differences!

Although not visible in the photograph below, I can assure you that both bumble bees and hive bees are working the pear and plum blossom once the temperatures have crept up towards mid day. Bees, like other insects need water and will travel to find it. There are puddles and ditches running everywhere, just now, so hopefully their energy will be focused in the fruit tree flowers. A danger is that insects may take ‘water’ from a polluted puddle or ditch. The pollutant can so easily be conveyed to a hive or bumble bee colony to their detriment , and gone are essential pollinating insects.

With the plentiful rainfall of late, our earthworms are busily executing the valuable task of aerating the soil, incorporating organic matter and assisting with both drainage and soil moisture retention – for the good of the trees.

The apple bud development is progressing, on time, later than the pears and plums. Here, below, our Ribston Pippin are at early pink bud

We are entering this crucial time of the season with optimism. Considerable reliance is made on bees, earthworms, earwigs and two legged employees – they all need to be nurtured to have any hope of a final result!