Sunday May 23rd was a beautiful, hot, sunny day, perfect weather for a relaxed walk around John Josephi’s orchard.
Around two dozen people turned up to hear John start by explaining that he had inherited the land from his father, and was continuing to manage it under DEFRA’s Countryside Stewardship scheme. Under this scheme DEFRA offers payment per hectare, plus a tariff of payments for various aspects of that management, such as hedging, walling, planting etc.
John’s first objective had been to reduce the fertility of the soil, in order to bring back the wild flowers, and started by removing the dung produced by animals that had previously grazed the land.
Turning to look at an adjacent patch of woodland, he pointed out where he had thinned out trees to maximize growth of native species (holly not being one of them!). He reminded us that it was the trunk of a stumpy-growing oak that he had felled from this woodland that was now a central pillar in the village shop.
Leading us to where a 90-year-old felled oak lay in sections on the ground, John then proceeded, despite the tropical temperature, to split and trim a length of lower trunk, to illustrate how he made gate posts, stakes etc. In a novel arrangement of lengths of the thinner timber corralled in a tall stack between stakes, he showed us, using a chainsaw, how to slice down the stack in one stroke, producing the maximum heap of logs for the minimum of effort.
We next moved to his individual fruit trees, wrapped, staked and netted for maximum protection against voles, rabbits, deer etc.
Finally we walked through the woodland to see at closer range the effects of thinning, and on to his neighbours’ property where the grass management here had consisted of cutting it and leaving it in situ. The difference between this and John’s land was clearly noticeable.
A professional grass management expert in the group said that research had shown that removing the cut grass was the preferable option, not least because leaving it in situ encourages slugs.
As we moved back up the orchard, John was able to show us where orchids were now appearing, after giving the patch of land a timely dose of Roundup, together with yellow rattle and lousewort.
To round off the visit, we retired to the welcome shade of an old pear tree for ginger beer and John’s, now legendary, doughnuts.
Our thanks are due to John for such an interesting, informative and hospitable afternoon. We may have even recruited some new members in the process!