When we first viewed the property that would eventually become our home, it really was love at first sight. What was slightly amusing about that first viewing though, and has become something of a running joke between us, was that when we discussed the property in the pub later, mulling over the pros and cons as you do, I could only really remember the garden with any clarity, and the small overgrown orchard at the top in particular. "So what did you think of the kitchen then?"... "Kitchen!... err, what kitchen was that? What about that nice little orchard though..."
This will have come as no great surprise to Karen, I've never been much of a home bird, and of course the prospect of serious cidermaking and a bit of space for an orchard were at the forefront (as well as most of the foreback and sides) of my mind at the time. This place came with a stone walled ciderhouse (aka the garage) and a ready-made orchard, who needed a kitchen!
Back then, almost all of our neighbours had similar plantings, mostly cooking apples, Bramley's Seedling as far as I could tell. Remnants of what would have been a much lager orchard associated with the nearby 'Big House' and the workers cottages that served it. Ours was more of a mixed-bag, a true cottage garden orchard with pear, dessert and cooking varieties, covering all bases which was often the case when householders actually relied on their home grown crop for cooking and preserving. Sadly most of these trees, and the orchard in general, had seen far better days. Even a cursory examination of the trees revealed too much rot and bad pruning, a legacy of old age and more recent horticultural neglect. In fact most of the fruit had a disappointing tendency to rot on the tree before reaching anything like full ripeness. I did consider leaving things as they were, to decay naturally for the benefit of wildlife, but this was a long-term project and the orchard had to be of some benefit to us too. We decided to re-plant the orchard with new stock grafted with varieties that would be useful to us. So a weekend of heavy chainsaw action ensued...
As you can see in this photo, some of the trees were in the 'Autumn' (if not deep Winter) of their long lives. Completely hollowed-out with rot, unproductive, and sadly in no condition to restore through judicious pruning or top-working with new graft wood. The one exception was our own specimen of
Bramley's Seedling. This tree was also showing signs of neglect, a slightly unconventional 'wishbone' shape to the main framework, and way too much upright and irritatingly out of reach growth. Nevertheless it was healthy, vigorous, and prone to carrying a decent enough crop of sound (and of course very useful) fruit. By the time Spring came around the following year, it also revealed itself as an absolute beauty of delicate pink blossom, a feature we've looked forward to with great anticipation every year since. This tree would most definitely be a keeper!
Over the years the orchard has developed, with new plantings of Dabinett, Harry Masters' Jersey, Yarlington Mill and others, but the big old Bramley Apple has always been the heart of the orchard. A sturdy old friend, beautiful in the Spring, reliably productive almost every Autumn, and the tree has benefitted hugely from a bit of long-overdue 'tlc'. Much of the best fruit was (inevitably) just out of reach for careful hand-picking, so the tree has had several quite serious pruning sessions to reduce congestion and height, and remove much of the unproductive upright growth. Meanwhile, almost all of the neighbouring fruit trees have now sadly gone. The old but attractive standard orchard that once spread across several gardens has all but disappeared. This, if anything, makes our own venerable Bramley Apple tree even more of a precious survivor to us.
More recently our Bramley Apple, and the orchard in general, has come under a good deal of stress. The infamous
Rockingham Forest Cider Hens were given the free-run of the garden, and needless to say they took full advantage of it. Scratching up what was once a well-tended grassy swathe in the orchard, and depositing in turn an exotic selection of pernicious weeds in its place. More importantly, a former paddock at the top border of the orchard has gradually evolved to become a small area of shady woodland, with mature trees that overhang our own semi-dwarfing specimens to such a degree that some are no longer thriving as they should do. The old Bramley had a very good prune some four years ago and was looking better than it's ever done, you could almost throw a cap through it! But unfortunately it now competes for light, water, and nutrients with these much larger trees, and has sometimes struggled to maintain the healthy leaf covering of old. The apples, whilst still plentiful, occasionally suffer from scab and bitter pit too due to the radically changed habitat.
The plain truth is, the orchard is not what it was, nor indeed what we hoped it would be. Around a third of the area is now what I would regard as 'woodland margin' rather than open orchard. Having said that, as far as the garden and our outlook on it is concerned, a tree is a tree, and we're happy enough with how things stand. Or at least we were until very recently...
On the eve of my birthday this year, Storm Francis made landfall and whipped violently across the country. Quite a howler for sure, but certainly no worse than previous lashings that the house and garden have endured without significant damage. However, the next day Karen noticed that something had changed in the orchard, so we went to explore. The sight that greeted us came as something of a shock, and was for me at least, really quite upsetting!
Unfortunately for us, the Bramley was having one of it's best years for some time, very well leafed, and carrying a heavy crop of moderately sized apples. For my own part, I'd planned to prune out some of the congestion at the heart of the tree the previous year, but for various reasons it never happened. I don't doubt that if I'd done this work at the time, the tree might still be standing now, which of course makes this something of a cautionary tale! So, what to do now?...
When an old apple tree falls in an orchard there are perhaps three realistic ways forward. In a commercial orchard the tree would most likely be removed entirely, the space used to re-plant with new stock. It's also possible to re-erect a tree that's fallen but still sufficiently rooted, but the bigger the tree, the more difficult it is to raise it, and perhaps more importantly, it can be a real trial keeping it upright and safe against future storms. We felt neither of these options were appropriate, even though the main tap root of the tree is intact.
A fallen tree in a Heritage Orchard or large garden is a different matter, and even if the main root has broken, it's sometimes the case that a recumbent tree will re-root from wood touching the earth and put up new, healthy growth. These living fallers can be long-lived and very attractive if handled correctly. Indeed the original 'mother' tree in Southwell, the tree that all Bramley's originate from, our own included, was struck by lightening and fell over 100 years ago and yet still survives (albeit it too is now in its final years, the root system finally succumbing to Honey Fungus). This was broadly our plan, we just needed to work out the best way forward.
Since the tree was still rooted, and in no danger of falling any further, we mulled things over for a few weeks before enlisting the help of a local tree specialist and his chainsaw. This also gave us the chance to pick some of the better apples for storage, and clear up some of those which littered the orchard floor. The reason we hadn't heard the tree falling was presumably because it had settled onto its thick canopy of branches quite slowly. This meant that there was very little damage to the tree or root system (though sadly one of our hapless cider apple cultivars took the full weight of the tree and will now need removing), making it an ideal candidate for trimming, re-shaping, and preparing for life as a recumbent apple tree.
So here we see the first stage of the regeneration of the tree. The two main parts of the trunk have been left in their entirety, whilst most of the upper growth has been removed. This is not the trees final form, I'll likely remove a bit more wood in time, but given the shock the tree has experienced thus far, it's better to leave some of the leafy growth as a sap-draw and see what develops next year.
Even in such a short time, and at the very end of what might be regarded the trees growth period, several new shoots have already 'broken' on one of the main trunks. Which is all to the good as we don't know how this tree will eventually look, and the more options we have for later pruning and shaping, the better. Given that one of the trunks doesn't actually touch ground, the tree may have a tendency to roll a little as new growth increases the weight, so we've put a temporary prop under one of the trunks, a stronger, more permanent solution can wait until next year.
So hopefully we've securec the future of our beloved Bramley for a few more years, and if I make a good job of the restorative pruning over the next couple of years, it may eventually become an attractive, dare I say more 'interesting' part of our small orchard.
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