early applications for the vacant positions (see previous post) suggest that the management team will have tricky deliberations ahead

current front runners include peaches, loquats, pineapple guava and upping the planned number of spices to include greater numbers of peppers



if paying attention to the vogue equivalents of the gardening world is your thing then youll be unsurprised to know that the rather fetching fruit du jour the pomegranate has been under consideration...having been one of the early front runners, i decided to plump for a dozen of their smaller (yet perfectly formed) cousins, the dwarf pomegranate, but once again their case is being pressed

the telegraph ran a piece about them yesterday - helpfully not online - advocating their suitability to our changing landscapes....im not so sure...i differ in my view (and lets be straight about it, all any of us really have is our own interpretation of the evidence rather than a definitive steer to guide us) - i think we ll have warmer wetter winters, as opposed to the warmer drier winters proposed by the writer - but in truth we re all best guessing

i hope theyre right where they are, and im right where i am

and you never know, they may just get a late call for an interview

vacancy for tree or interesting shrub

essential qualifications -
delicious to eat for humans (ideally less so for passing avians)
must produce the goods quickly

desireables -
unique to the uk

otter farm inclusivity policy -
climate suitability not necessarily a bar to employment

please note - may be required to job share with other suitable candidate



apply within

already, even in this heat, thoughts turn to the cold of winter, and even out the other end to the spring

the new catalogues start to come, the last seasons signings are either here to stay, departed of their own accord, or are candidates to be redeployed elsewhere




last years chestnuts are this years walnuts...growing fine, just that now the farm starts to take shape they are playing out of position

the 45 chestnuts in the prime position were moved to the sidelines in hedges and as small groups to make way for 115 pecans, persimmions and mulberries, interplanted with 1500 artichokes, underplated with phaecelia...a purple flowering bee-opolis

the year old walnuts, similarly widely-spaced in the SW1 of the farm, make poor sense of the small farm economics and look likely to trace the line above the ditch dividing two fields next year, where their shade will give the sheep a midsummer breather and their footprint minimised

but what for the field freed up?