Ben Raskin: It has been a while since my last blog. The main reason for this is that the landlord from whom i was renting my 2 acres went bust. This meant I had to dig up my trees and look for a new home for them.
04 April 2012 |
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Ben Raskin: The one thing you don't want after planting fruit trees is 2 months without rain. I had been putting off sorting out an irrigation system in the hope of the heavens delivering my water for me.I have finally accepted the inevitable (perhaps a little too late) and rigged up a makeshift system.
21 April 2011 |
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Ben Raskin: Here are a couple of photos of me tying in the trees after planting
21 April 2011 |
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Ben Raskin: The great planting happened at the weekend. Due to some wonderful friends (and Dad) coming to help we managed to plant almost all of the main planting. Over 200 trees went in and had rabbit guards put on.
23 February 2011 |
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Ben Raskin: with just a couple of weeks before the trees arrive I have been measuring the site. Having a stick at the end of each non existant row of trees really makes the whole project seem more real - not to mention slightly daunting. Is this really manageable on 1 day a week??
18 February 2011 |
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Ben Raskin: So - a day of scrounging old posts from around the site to create a fence around my plot. All going well till i stepped on a large nail, which would have been fine if i had been wearing my safety boots. however i had left them in the car and was sporting instead some very unsuitable thin soled shoes. Carried on for a couple of hours then a painful drive back and a trip to the doctors the next day for a tetanus jab.
04 February 2011 |
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Ben Raskin: I spent a morning going up to see Nick Dunn at Frank Matthews tree nursery. I have not chosen to buy organic trees, partly because of price and the fact that the site is not certified (a discussion for another blog), but also because Nick grows a lot of Hugh Ermens varieties and has some interest in the "Own root" experiments I am starting.
14 January 2011 |
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Ben Raskin: I had taken some holiday just before Christmas and had hoped to spend a day or two on the site. However the snow and ice meant there was little point, so instead I had a lovely week with the family and looked at fruit catalogues
22 December 2010 |
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Ben Raskin: Wheatfields is a 45 acres site that had previously been a nursery producing pot plants, after the Dutch had killed that industry off, the site had been abandoned for a number of years before the current plan to develop a diverse site with lots of small growers and community groups.
18 December 2010 |
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Ben Raskin: Managing a piece of land part time is not easy, just ask my poor neglected allotment. and although I have to some extent adhered to the mantra of "grow for the market" I have also had to limit my choice of crop and site because of the time i will be able to devote to the enterprise. On the plus side of course since i will still be earning on the other days of the week, if the whole enterprise sinks without a trace i won't be responsible for my family's destitution.
15 December 2010 |
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Ben Raskin: I have been a vegetable grower for 16 years in various parts of the country but have always worked for other people. Hotels, charities, colleges and wealthy landowners all bring both joys and challenges. However as soon as I had a basic grasp of growing and business something constantly nagged away at the back of my head that I wanted to be doing this for myself.
01 December 2010 |
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