THE 2012 PROJECT

I spent most of the afternoon chasing round my home town, looking for an apple farmer. His mother told me he was out in the orchards; but after visiting most of the apple trees within a 5km radius, he was not to be found.

My reason for looking for him is the 2012 Project. This year's has been to build a lawn and a kitchen garden; next year's is to make sense of our own orchard. After decades of neglect, we have huge apple and pear trees. There is lots of fruit on them, but so high up that it can't be picked, it simply falls to the ground and rots. I would like to severely prune the trees, so that they are the height of the commercial trees, about 2 metres. Hopefully, they can then start again from there. But I don't know how I should do it, so that they don't just die, or at what time of the year. Hence my need to talk to the expert.

I didn't find him today, but I will eventually. This is a serious project.

Walter Blotscher