Hello from France

[Daisy's Orchard]

Hi All

We're very new to growing fruit and veg as we only bought our orchard about a month ago.

We've acquired about an acre and a half of orchard amongst the vineyards. It's bordered with Italian Poplar trees and has cherries, apples, apricots, plums, figs, pears and peaches all of several varieties (although the peaches seem to have leaf curl). There are just over 100 trees in total with a few spaces to replant where some trees haven't made it. We've also started a small veggie patch in one area.

We're really excited about it as well as being a little daunted by the responsibility of it all. We're already surprised by how fast the trees have started to produce.

I'm sure we're going to be asking a lot of questions, some of which I'm sure will be very basic so go easy on us!

Best wishes

Cat

[smallblueplanet]

Wow! Hi Cat, your orchard sounds great. Whereabouts in the Languedoc are you?

[Daisy's Orchard]

Hi Manda,

Thanks for your welcome. We're on the Aude/Herault border between Carcassonne and Narbonne. The buying process for the orchard is still going through but the seller has given us full access so we're itching to get started on things but don't want to do too much just in case it all falls through.

Cat

[smallblueplanet]

Oh its warm down there! Are you surrounded by vineyards then? Garden land seemed to be at a premium around there. We were staying near Gaillac a couple of years ago, and as it was a grey day decided to go on a drive. We did a circuit past Castres/Mazamet via St. Pons-de-Thomieres and back via Olonzac past Carcassonne & Castelnaudry to Lilse sur Tarn.

I was really surprised by the difference in 'climate' - one side, before St Pons was all temperate and then coming thru the hills the vegetation changed to mediterranean, olive trees & chicadas!

[Jardiniere]

bordelaise mixture for the leaf curl!