In the cool of the understorey

The hot dry weather continues here, with a few measly showers once a week which does almost nothing for the plants. The many visitors to our 31-year-old forest garden often comment on the refreshing coolness once we’re in the understorey looking around and upwards at what’s going on around us.

This forest garden really does act like an ecosystem now, and is completely untroubled by the dry weather. In the fields 150m away, the ground is cracked but not so here, for although we started with the same soil as in those fields, the system has changed it since and it now full of organic matter, incredibly diverse fauna, and rich symbiotic mycorrhizal fungi. If you grow these systems then you are not stuck with the soil you start with, the system transforms it into something very special.

On another site, our oldest nut orchard (28 years) is really quite grand now. The sweet chestnut trees hold a stately canopy over the coolness below – it feels like a chestnut forest.

The chestnuts have just finished flowering and are already growing tiny burs for the autumn. They get pollinated by wind, bees, flies and other insects – anything goes really – and the dry conditions should ensure a bumper crop this year.

The shade from the walnuts is more dappled, they are the same age as the chestnuts but are quite a bit smaller as they are slower growing. Probably my favourite heavy-cropping nut, they sometimes suffer from bark stripping by the pesky grey squirrels, but this year so far the grey menaces are few and far between, maybe it’s been too dry for them. Last winter, 4 miles north of here, pine martens (the very best biological control for the squirrels) were legally released and are apparently already coming this direction. I can’t wait.

In a sunnier spot on this site the persimmons have been flowering well too. It’s a fruit we’re not used to growing in England but is becoming more and more productive with climate change.

When it gets too hot we retreat to the shade and maybe process some fruit (the first apples, cherry plums and plums are all in, earlier than ever) or maybe crack some nuts. Or for me there’s the allure of the computer for the inevitable admin or sometimes more interesting tasks such as this. This afternoon is hot and humid and I’m sharing my office desk with Dart – how I wish I could chill out like that!