Country diary: It's extraordinary how much our orchards are founded on connection | Mark Cocker

Buxton, Derbyshire: From those who planted them, to those who pruned them, to the pollinators and the mosses, it's a long, collective endeavourAs I prune one of our pears - a black Worcester, incidentally, a British variety from the 13th century - I ponder the linguistic connections that arise from our garden "acre" in a place called "Hogshaw". The first word derives from Old English ?cer, meaning an "acorn". It was linked to wildwood, where the people would fatten their swine on wild pears, apples and oak mast. An acre of pig woodland (or hog shaw) was probably the land required to feed one beast for the winter. I wonder, therefore, how many pigs were put to pannage in our original Hogshaw for it to have acquired its name permanently?Another thought arising as I clip away the three Ds - dead, diseased or damaged wood - is how much orchards are founded on connection and sharing. I'm not just thinking of the veilwort (a liverwort) on many branches, nor the bristle moss that gives colour and body to every lovely limb, but also the fact that we relied on previous owners to plant trees and their successors to prune them. We also depend totally for our fabulous pear harvest on pollinators, which I've mainly found here to be solitary bees. To date, we've recorded 19 bee species. Continue reading...