Paths for extreme wheelchair sports

Tom and Stewart, with his digger, have been marking out more of the orchard paths and filling them with hardcore today. The job was begun in March but had to be stopped when heavy rain turned the ground to a quagmire.

Today they’ve finished the work in very dry conditions. Unfortunately, at the moment you’d have to be a very confident wheelchair/pushchair user to tackle these tracks; the fine layer of whin dust that will cover the rough stones is missing and the tractor has left random ‘speed bumps’ and man pits. Tom has even replaced a signpost in the middle of one of the paths in slalom style. Hopefully we’ll get the top layer on and rolled flat in the next few weeks.

Tom’s also had to re sow and roll some of the grass seed. Where the heavy machinery had churned up the wet ground in March the autumn sown grass had died. We have bought some ‘floristically enhanced’ grass seed to fill in the gaps.

All 82 trees are alive! There are green spikes sticking above tree tubes throughout the orchard – and even a sprinkling of blossom. Hunt House, an old variety of apple used by Capitan Cook’s men to prevent scurvy on long journeys, must be the slowest fruit tree in the orchard (in Northumberland?) to grow. We have two trees of this variety and I have been convinced they were dead... but I’m happy to say I found a tiny (and I mean tiny) bud on the last leafless Hunt House today. Tom and I have been watering the trees each week (with occasional help gratefully received from friends and family) and were pleased to see how well the new mulch mats kept the ground moist around the trees in these very dry conditions.

Last night's sprinkling of rain should help the new grass seed germinate and give the whole orchard a much needed drink. Everything's growing!