Trees, Trees and Trees – Three Way Winners

At Orchard Organic Farm we love trees! And we have planted loads over the years.  We have over 1000 apple trees plus field trees and masses of hedging trees.  We have been busy this week making the best of the amazing weather and planting trees again

We have planted another 100 apple trees this week, all red eating apples but we have included a couple of local traditional varieties including Devon Crimson and Paignton Red.  These will be nurtured into shape and should start producing apples in about five years time.

We have also planted 140 Hazel Nut trees to form a modern copse.  These trees have been provided by Guy Watson at Riverford on behalf of their customers.  They are lovely trees and, again, with some nurturing and pruning, should start bearing nuts in just a few years time.

So why do we love trees?  And why are we happy to plant trees on our farm? Because they are triple winners for us.

First, the obvious, that hopefully the trees will produce lovely organic apples and nuts for us to sell (and eat!).

Second, they provide ‘cover’ for our chickens to roam beneath.  Hens love the shelter provided by trees and inturn they fertilise the ground and eat some of the bugs that climb onto the trees.  So they are great companions and mean that effectively the land that the hens and trees share is providing two incomes, in theory.  Our trees are organic so we do not use any weed killer, artificial fertilisers or insecticides, so our trees also provide a great habitat for a complete eco system of bugs and bees, bats and birds, mice and moles, owls, squirrels and children.

Third, Riverford have provided us with the nut trees because on the increasingly popular understanding of how great trees are for our planet and critical for fighting global warming.  So trees are now becoming a measurable carbon offset provision, so rather like solar panels, people or businesses keen to reduce or even neutralise their carbon footprint are increasingly looking to plant trees.  Normally this would raise some conflicting views for me, covering large areas of lovely south facing farmland with solar panels (or trees) seems somewhat blinkered and narrow vision, one has to assume on our increasingly small island and with the pressures for use of land and from population, at some point producing food from farmland will become more of a priority.  So this is where Agroforestry (and our model) has to be the route forward.

Agroforestry is a new trendy term for integrating trees into a farming system in a clever organised way.  Inclusion of trees can bring many benefits to a farm, wind breaks, micro-climates, shelter, soil structure, soil erosion, ground water management etc., and yes, carbon offsetting. I am no expert, nor probably are half of the new breed of professionals jumping on the band wagon are either, but I would suggest that young, vigorous, healthy trees, pruned to encourage new growth must digest more carbon-dioxide than a slow growing oak (or alike) tree. And we know that the trees we have planted this week will be with us, soaking up carbon for decades to follow, as well as feeding us and providing a home for our hens and nature. Winners!