It feels like Spring is really and truly approaching fast, so it’s good to be able to tell you all that 20 new apple trees were planted on a lovely morning in January with about 25 people young and old. The names of the trees planted are: Paignton Marigold, Ashton Brown Jersey, Black Dabenett, Pigs Nose (pictured in the foreground), Stoke Red, Kingston Bitter, Golden Ball, Ellis Bitter, Whimple Wonder, Colloquette, Pippin, Blenheim Orange, Catshead, Bulls Bittersweet & Sweet Coppin. These trees will all be added to the map of existing new trees.
On 26th February the 2-4 year old trees were pruned and checked for signs of disease. Tim Walker providing the expertise whilst others watched, learned and helped.
We have had an expert come and do some brush cutting in the orchard – which means that some of the bramble clumps have been cut away. This will give us better access to the trees and also mean that we are better able to control certain areas of the ground. We have left some areas of brambles to grow, which will allow birds and small mammals protection and feeding. This will in turn encourage biodiversity of butterflies, moths and a wide range of insects. We will be inviting wildlife experts to come and advise us further on how to best protect and encourage wildlife onto our precious plot of land. We will advise when any of the experts come and visit, so that any of you will be able to come and meet them and join in with the discussions as well.
On Saturday 2nd April, we will be cutting away some more brambles which are surrounding some of the old apple trees, in preparation for the coming season. We need to be able to access these old trees so that we can prune them and pick the apples as well. If you would like to come and join in with your secateurs, loppers, and streamers you would be most welcome to come at 10am for the rest of the morning. Cake and thermoses of coffee and tea always go down a treat!
And looking back at the Wassail – we were all really happy with how it all went and anyone who was there will tell you that it was a great success. To be repeated next January without fail! What people did say to add to the congratulations was that we could spend more time processing in the orchard itself. And we are absolutely in agreement about that! Now that we have a path cut all around the orchard and assuming that it will be all grassed over by next January, we are planning to process around the orchard in the twilight so that we can sing to and bless all the trees – not forgetting to make much noise and hullaballoo to ward of any evil spirits that may be lurking!
Possible Future Events… just to whet your appetite, we may be holding some sort of apple pressing day in October and also a Celebration of the Summer Solstice. Plus a Hedge Laying workshop next winter. So if you would like to learn how to lay a hedge, watch this space!
Many thanks to the Lot 7 Trustees for this report. If you’d like to keep up to date with what’s happening at the Community Orchard, contact the Lot 7 trustees to get the newsletter.