Cherry tree felling
Cherry trees. We have a surfeit. I think I once counted 44 on the farm. But as of this week, only 43.
This rather sorry specimen which is located outside the top of the guest house, right near the road has been dying slowly for the past three years.
It’s annoying as it is one of the proper cherries – black and juicy – and they are all in a sorry state. This one was a beauty as it was so easy to pick. You could just leap up into the thick branches and scoff away.
Naturally there was the plummet potential if you leaned out too far and tu
mbled out down the bank through the quinces, but you have to earn your fruit.
A few major branches fell off (yanked out by passing careless electricty vans and once by Jean Daniel when he did rather careen along the road paying little heed) and we all sort of guessed the reason for this paticular cherry’s slow demise.
But it wasn’t until the chain saw came out and our house guest Fenning took the branches down that we all saw why.
The tree is riddled with ants. Flying ants no less. We don’t do things by halves on this farm. Great fat flying ants. They have almost hollowed out the centre of the main trunk.
So down it came and we all stepped back to wait for the angry swarms. But they just crawled away and we felt a bit guilty, but got on with the task of reducing this once mighty tree to all the appropriate parts. Branches for chipping, small branches for burning and the big logs just left in a tidy heap to see if the ants return.
I have vowed to plant to cherries in its place. I’ll do the Noir de Meched variety again I think. I have three already in the new orchard. So on that note, time to go on to Frederic Cochet’s plant nursery website and see if they are still in stock this late in the season.