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This photo shows young growth on apple trees budded in August 2012.

These Doyenne du commice pears are growing on a 20 year old hawthorn. The scions were cleft grafted in April 2010. So far so good! This Medlar ‘Nottingham’ was budded...

A lot has happened at the nursery since I last updated this blog. Here are some photos of a shed I built using Douglas Fir and European Larch. I take...

These pictures show different techniques for ‘top working’ an existing apple tree. On the left shows a successful rind graft of Lord Lambourne. The right hand picture shows one failed...

These photos were taken on the 23rd July. Left shows a Pitmaston Duchess pear cleft grafted onto a hawthorn. The graft has taken well but hasn’t put on much extension...

The new nursery site was topped last week. I decided to top it rather than take hay off it in order to keep the fertility on site. Today I ran...

This is a Transparent Gage I budded onto a hedgerow damson in August 2009. Despite some rabbit damage it is growing away nicely. Below left shows the Pear, ‘Pitmaston Duchess’...

Having recently found out that Pears, Quince and Medlar can be grafted onto Hawthorn I’ve been experimenting with cleft grafting these onto existing hawthorn trees. This is Doyenne du Comice...

This picture shows where I left non degradable grafting tape on the Adam’s Pearmain tree for the whole of the last growing season. The tape has restricted the growth of...

This is the tree before pruning…….. ……and this is the tree after It’s very harsh but in this particular case was necessary. I wouldn’t normally advocate pruning a tree like...

This image shows an apple tree deep in snow. The snow is so deep that the rabbits can now gain access to the bark above the spiral guard and as...

The hedgelaying season is now in full swing. There seems to be a huge pot of money available to landowners this season and for the next two or three season...

The pruning season is now with us once again! I began a renovation programme at this orchard in North Wales last year and returned recently to begin the second year’s...

I am running two fruit tree grafting courses in March 2010, just north of Oswestry, Shropshire. They will both be on the weekend of the 6th and 7th and will...

I was recently called to a farm in Coalbrookdale, Shropshire, to renovate a very neglected Plum and Damson orchard. The site looked much more like a woodland than an orchard,...

I have spent the last two days working at Frank Matthews nursery in Tenbury Wells. I went with the intention of learning how to propagate trees by budding. I very...

This wall and flght of steps at Eryrys was finished yesterdy…..

This very healthy looking scion is a vigorous cooking apple Lord Combermere. The rootstock is the pear rootstock ‘Pyrodwarf’!?! I didn’t think anything would happen here a)for the obvious reason...

I recieved my scolarship cerificate a coupe of days ago from the Princess Royal. It was a good day. Not only meeting Princess Anne but all the other scolars who...

I’ve just returned from Devon after being on a forest gardening course at the Agroforestry Research Trust with Martin Crawford. It was probably one of the most inspirational courses I’ve...

Here’s the wall at Eryrys nearly finished……. The wall is nearly finished. Lookin’ good I reckon! We won’t be there for a week. I’m gonna be down in Devon on...

Below are two examples of surveys I have carried out recently. The first survey was done in Cheshire at a site of an existing orchard. The second survey was undertaken...

There is not much call for orchard work at this time of year. I spend some time maintaining my nursery stock , which doesn’t take much time as I have...