Rain and Cold

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It's darn cold and wet outside at present.  In spite of this, quite a lot has been achieved over the last week or two.

We followed up the planting of the apples with another 27 bare-rooted fruit and nut trees - and one flowering cherry.  Right from the start at Moora I knew where I wanted to put the main orchard.  In 2006 I planted out a good part of it with a sheltering surround of ornamental pears, about 12 fruit trees and even a couple of nut trees.

Then the cattle got in.  The first time I caught them before too much damage had been done.  The second time I was away - and I came home to a right royal mess.  It was almost too much ... and I just left it.

Now, with the help of my nephews Sam and Finnbar, we've well and truly back on track.  We have 24 fruit trees planted in the main orchard - pears, plums, peaches, nectarines, cherries, apricots .. and a quince.

With the shelter trees - I managed to recover 10 from the 24 (expensive) trees planted in 2006 - and we filled the gaps with new (equally expensive) ones.  They are Pyrus Calleryana 'Chanticleer' and they should shelter the orchard, put on a modest show of blossom in the Spring and then some spectacular Autumn colour.

Below the orchard we have planted 6 walnuts.  All trees I plant are in honour of my grandfather Len Holdaway, but walnuts more than anything.  On the farms where I grew up there were walnut trees planted by Len and his brother Charles.  My grandfather lived long enough to see his walnut trees produce huge quantities of nuts - which his grandson had to pick up.  Uncle Charl didn't live to see his great grand-nephews earn pocket money by harvesting nuts from his trees throughout their teens, but I'm sure he got his share in earlier times.

Finally - I'm trying a couple of figs back up by the house.  We had a beautiful fig tree when we lived in Gardenvale in the 1980s.  My wife loves figs - so I'm trying them for her.

Our garlic is up and moving now.  I'm very pleased that Neil and I did the bed forming before planting.  This block of the vegetable garden is just downhill of a very wet spot.  While it's possible there is a spring I think it's more likely that there is some sort of natural underground drainage from the higher area up by the house.  In any case, the rain has left water lying in the trenches between the beds - but the beds themselves are wet but not soaked.  And they dry reasonably quickly.

On the weekend the boys and I got our potatoes in.  We have planted 12 metre rows of 7 different varieties: Pontiac, Kipfler, King Edward, Otway Red, Nicola, Desiree ..... and .... well 6 out of 7 isn't bad.  They are in a block of the garden that is not as wet - thank heavens.  At the moment we've just planted them about 4 inches deep.  We'll mound up later as the shoots appear and need frost protection.

Tonight I spoke briefly to my Uncle Barry.  He was telling me about the bullock team he has in training.  He has a couple of what I imagine must be steers - one a Simmental and the other some sort of Friesian cross.  I wasn't aware of my great grandfather and his sons having used bullocks as opposed to draught horses, but there are many, many things I don't know.  Later this month we'll be back in Blenheim for a few days - and I can't wait to see the team.

Kristina has also found a newspaper article referring to a previous owner of Moora Farm - one Willie Benson, who lived in our house for over 40 years.  The article was on standard bred horses - and Willie was a registered trainer / driver.  It also mentioned him as having Clydesdales and standing various stallions.  We certainly find plenty of horseshoes and other ironmongery whenever we move any soil around the farm yard.  I also think I've found an old stables location - which I deduce from what looks like a stable floor of rock from the paddocks.  It's an area of similar sized rocks laid out roughly flat.  It can't be natural - so why would it be there?  I think it has to be a stable or perhaps some other type of farm shed.