The orchard in May

Credit: Carolyn Herriot

We are a month behind normal (whatever that means these days!) but at last the orchard is fully blossoming and bees are buzzing busily, pollinating flowers.

In the orchard are ten dwarf and semi-dwarf fruit trees which provide plenty of fruit for preserving, bottling and baking.

I have planted ‘Stella’ sweet cherries and ‘Morello’ sour cherries; ‘Jonagold’, ‘Gala Imperial’, ‘Bramley Seedling’, ‘Cox’s orange pippin’, and ‘Gravenstein’ apples; an Asian Pear ‘Kosup’, a 5-grafted pear tree (‘Red Bartlett’, ‘Rescue’, ‘D’Anjou’, ‘Highland’ and ‘Conference’), and a 2-grafted plum tree with ‘Victoria’ and ‘Opal’ European plums.

I am grateful for my orchard mason blue bees in cool spring seasons, as they will happily go to work in cooler temperatures.

There’s a lot of activity in the bee box right now, as female bees fill tunnels by depositing eggs and encasing the cavities with mud.

Back to the Victory Garden Program.