Orchard planting on my Estate.

Well for what it's worth the good weather is here and i must say it's really nice but we need the rain. The rain never came in the winter like it has other years. This year the ground is dry and very hard to dig unless you have something like a 5ft wrecking bar. A wrecking bar is Hexagonal in shape and one end is like a a chisel. These things are very heavy and just what's needed to break up the ground where i want to plant some trees.

I was given some Plum trees and i went to Lidl who had Blueberry and Blackberry trees/ bushes for sale at only 2.5€ each. I am told that because of the sun you need to water often so the roots get of to a good start. The problem i see is how do you know when you have watered enough or when you have over watered.

I was given 5 young plum trees by a neighbor of which i kept 2 and after some hard work i managed to get them planted. I have some compost and i put some of the compost at the bottom of the hole and then put the tree in. Then i put some more of the compost on top of the roots and then filled the  hole with soil. It's ok when you know what you are doing but i don't so it's learn as i go along.

The Blueberry and Blackberry tree/ Bush i got from Lidl i put these in buckets. I don't want the Blackberry  overgrowing like you see at the side of the roads all over the UK. I would like to keep control of the Blackberry so it's in a bucket as is the Blueberry. This time i mixed soil ad about a 50/50 mix with compost so i hope these take of and do well.

The lime tree seems to be doing well so i have now re potted  the Orange tree because when i dug it up i had obviously been over watering it so it's now in a mix of 50/50 soil and compost.

On the Olive tree's and what i think are Plum trees i have been cutting of all what looks like dead branches.

My Mum has been a keen gardener for as long as i can remember and has even won awards in competitions run by the Lord Mayor of Liverpool. If Mum was here in Portugal instead of in Liverpool she would soon have things all done right but i have to learn.