Orchard?

Back home after a relaxed weekend down south in scorching sunshine.
The main purpose was an Orchard planning course organised from the Orangepippin website. It was a course of good information and structure and some handy practical exercises too.
Although I'm going to try a small / discrete 'naturalistic' orchard with heritage varieties and experimental hybrids, the ability of apple trees to survive some standing water in the dormant winter months during river floods will be a test. (The 'bargain' fruit trees from Wilkinsons will be the first to go in to see how they cope).

Driving long distances, I can't help but cast an eye over the landscape as I go. At Ashford, one village had a community woodland of old trees and some recent plantings and information boards. Between Oxford and Banbury, the M40 had carved through a few fields leaving odd field parcels not unlike the one I'm now custodian of. Near Stafford there were interesting similarities and contrasts in the low-lying land - a smaller water-course, but looking as if the land is wetter for longer periods through the year.
The soil here at Farndon is far from waterlogged and mature trees and hedgerows would suggest the seasonal winter floods aren't too much of a detriment.