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A year has now passed since I took up the orchard and as the wintery days keep us bundled up near the fire, there is an opportunity to consider my experiences and lessons learned. While there is still so much to learn, here are a couple of mid-winter observations. Pruning is a summer sport. In June of 2024, the fruit trees were all choked with full long vertical waterspouts, all reaching for the sky and threatening to go through the netting. I had always understood that prun

Despite winter overstaying its welcome, the glorious blossoms of spring have now largely given way to the emerging crops of summer. The orchard’s inhabitants are busily shedding their petals to reveal a multitude of baby fruits. While some of these infants are little more than a tiny round bulge on the end of a long stalk, some adopt their final form in miniature from the outset. The Durondeau pear, developed by Belgian Charles Louis Durondeau in the early 19th Century, sets

Its late July, mid-winter in Glenlyon. Its been raining for days, cloud down to ground level, just seven degrees in the orchard. Even in conditions like this, the show must go on. The blueberries are in need of their annual winter prune. The goal is to remove about twenty percent of each bush, lopping out the old, spent canes to make room for the new growth emerging from the crown of the plant. Its cold and wet but my rain gear is holding up and the winter woollies are keepin

Spring is here and my thoughts are turning to the upcoming blueberry season, due to start around mid-December. A key part of preparing for the summer harvest is to ensure the blueberry bushes are well mulched to control weeds, retain moisture and keep the shallow roots of the bushes cool during those long hot days ahead. I like to mulch my blueberry plants with a deep layer of eucalyptus wood chips that I make myself from local fallen timber. In think its essential to know ex

Green tips and bud swell has now given way to the happiest time of the year in the orchard. Each in their turn, the trees reveal the delicate beauty of their finest petals. The blueberries awake from their stoic slumber and announce the impending arrival of the new crop with an explosion of blooms. The bees are beside themselves, exploring every flower, drinking the nectar and collecting the precious pollen. And spring sees the return of our precious King Parrotts! There come

Bactrocera tryoni, the Queensland fruit fly, is a species of fly in the family Tephritidae in the insect order Diptera. B. tryoni is native to subtropical coastal Queensland and northern New South Wales. The Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority has changed the regulations covering the use of the chemical dimethoate because it's worried about the health impact its use might be having on children. Dimethoate is an insecticide used to protect blueberries, ras