Orchard

Continuing the theme of trees, I finished making 32 guards for the fruit trees due to be delivered on Saturday (without banging any of my thumbs with the hammer). Unfortunately, we haven't yet marked out the orchard, let alone dug the holes, so the trees will have to be heeled in for a few days. We're going to be planting comfrey under the trees, as a natural fertiliser. This has very deep roots, and will draw up nutrients from deep down in the soil. You can harvest and compost it into a foul-smelling but nutrient-rich liquid fertiliser ('comfrey tea'), but we're planning just to cut and leave it in situ to rot down around the trees. There are two beneficial side-effects: comfrey makes excellent bee food, and the deep roots should help to break up the soil, which is extremely compacted; all you can see of the orchard at the moment is an expanse of quaggy subsoil.