Its been a while since anything was written here. There has been a flurry of activity on the orchard plot, thanks to Community Payback. There was a team of people helping to clear the plot over a period of 2 months. This has made a huge difference and leaves us with more than half of the area dug over once. There is plenty more digging to be done, but the really hard work has been done on part of the plot. This means we will be able to plant trees in the tree planting season should we get good news on our funding bid. We expect to hear next week, so fingers and toes crossed.
Thanks to the Community Payback team for their work.
More volunteers!
At a recent OTAGS committee meeting we discussed the lack of progress / scale of the task to clear the orchard plot so that we can plant some trees in the winter. The problem is that most people need to spend all available time getting to grips with their own plot - so finding time for the orchard along with all your other commitments is hard. SO, we thought it might be worth contacting people on our waiting list (which is 52 and growing) to see if anyone would be interested in getting involved. Our rationale for this was that it's a community project and would also give people an insight into what is involved in bringing an over grown allotment into cultivation once more. The orchard plot is certainly over grown - at times digging you seem to unearth more bindweed than soil!
We had a very encouraging response to our email - 14 people got in touch and said they'd be interested in coming to help and we held our first regular session on Saturday 13th June. Five volunteers came and worked really hard for 2-3 hours, so hard in fact it was a job getting them to stop! Everyone enjoyed being out in the sunshine (good weather always helps!).
We'll be hosting sessions every Thursday evening and on Saturday (11-2) through the summer.
You can see photos of the orchard by following this link: Orchard photos
We had a very encouraging response to our email - 14 people got in touch and said they'd be interested in coming to help and we held our first regular session on Saturday 13th June. Five volunteers came and worked really hard for 2-3 hours, so hard in fact it was a job getting them to stop! Everyone enjoyed being out in the sunshine (good weather always helps!).
We'll be hosting sessions every Thursday evening and on Saturday (11-2) through the summer.
You can see photos of the orchard by following this link: Orchard photos
Global Exchange Community Action Day
Its been a while since I wrote anything about our progress on the orchard. We've had a clearance weekend (early May Bank holiday) and on Saturday 16th May we had a group of 14 people from Global Exchange who came to help. We spent from 11-2 pm working on the site (before the rain came down in sheets) and made a dent on the weeds. There was iron work buried in the ground and shards of glass surrounding the roots of weeds so it was slow work. The photo at the bottom of this post shows how much was cleared by the end of the session - which just goes to show how much work we have ahead of us, as we won't have 14 willing volunteers digging again (until the next Global Exchange group in Manchester perhaps!).
The photo in this post is of the team of volunteers who came to help. Thanks very much for all your help and enthusiasm.
The photo in this post is of the team of volunteers who came to help. Thanks very much for all your help and enthusiasm.
Credits are:
Left to right, back row (standing): Claire Ord, Dave Rose (host home), Sehrish Naseem, Michael Cresham, Shahzada Aamir, Hannah Nunn, Riaz Hussain, Shaista Bano.
Left to right, middle row (two girls stooping):Laura Gisby, Rabia Naz Alvi.
Left to right, front row (squatting):Mark Waters, Natalie Baker, Ali Hassan, Maria Jabeen, Sarwat Sughra.
The best laid plans...
The idea of creating an orchard from scratch is interesting, but the more I learn the less practical an option it seems to be. Last Monday I cycled down to Timperley to meet up with Mary Eastwood, who has been growing fruit trees for decades. Mary keeps rootstock plans on her allotment and propagates trees using this home grown rootstock. She kindly volunteered to show me how to graft. We spent a morning in her living room (as there were 50 mile an hour winds outside) with me practising the art of grafting on various twigs from the Beech Drive community orchard.
So why doesn't it seem practical to create an orchard from scratch? Well, the main issue is relying on amateur grafted trees as the basis for an orchard... it takes two years to reach the point where a grafted tree is ready to be planted out (as a maiden) and then opinions differ about how long you should leave a tree to develop before allowing it to fruit (some say up to seven years!). What a waste of time and effort if part way through this process the tree dies, or the graft fails? You have to start again.
The other key issue is space. Once grafted, to stand the best chance each tree needs to be planted in the open (i.e. not in a pot) with between 2-3 feet between trees so that they can grow on. On a small allotment this is a good deal of space to give up! The orchard site itself is not yet ready to be used - a thorough digging over would be needed to get an area ready to plant the grafted trees, and the grafting needs to happen now.
So ... my thinking now is that we need to buy some trees to plant between Nov-January 2009/2010 and also graft some of our own as well. These can be added to the orchard if they are healthy, or we can offer them for sale to raise funds for the allotment society - if we have enough to do this. It may not be possible to squeeze in any grafting this year, but we will certainly do some next year. Better get busy writing a funding bid ...
So why doesn't it seem practical to create an orchard from scratch? Well, the main issue is relying on amateur grafted trees as the basis for an orchard... it takes two years to reach the point where a grafted tree is ready to be planted out (as a maiden) and then opinions differ about how long you should leave a tree to develop before allowing it to fruit (some say up to seven years!). What a waste of time and effort if part way through this process the tree dies, or the graft fails? You have to start again.
The other key issue is space. Once grafted, to stand the best chance each tree needs to be planted in the open (i.e. not in a pot) with between 2-3 feet between trees so that they can grow on. On a small allotment this is a good deal of space to give up! The orchard site itself is not yet ready to be used - a thorough digging over would be needed to get an area ready to plant the grafted trees, and the grafting needs to happen now.
So ... my thinking now is that we need to buy some trees to plant between Nov-January 2009/2010 and also graft some of our own as well. These can be added to the orchard if they are healthy, or we can offer them for sale to raise funds for the allotment society - if we have enough to do this. It may not be possible to squeeze in any grafting this year, but we will certainly do some next year. Better get busy writing a funding bid ...
Developing an orchard from scratch
What do we mean when we say we want to develop an orchard from scratch? Well, instead of buying trees from a nursery this way involves obtaining rootstock and grafting the variety of tree you want to grow onto the rootstock. Rootstock is used to control the size of a tree. You can buy apple trees suitable for growing in a container that will only develop a small rootball (e.g. M27) or you can grow a tree that will stand 15 feet high (M25).
Establishing an orchard this way is a slower process, but if you have limited funds its a cheaper way of doing it. Another bonus is that it develops new skills - how to graft. Another aspect of this is actually growing rootstock itself. Until recently, I was completely ignorant of this aspect of tree fruit horticulture. There are places around the country that grow rootstock and sell it to people who want to graft to make new trees.
Why then not have a try at doing this ourselves? Our allotment society holds plant sales to raise funds for our site, so if we can learn how to grow rootstock, and graft to make new trees we can then sell these to raise money for the site. The other advantage of adopting this approach is that we can create new trees from existing healthy vigourous trees on our allotment site. Hopefully this will lead to fruit trees that are well suited to the local conditions.
There is a small window in the year when grafting can take place, when the sap starts to rise - this is the time to graft. Its weather dependent but happens late March to early April, generally speaking.
If you want to learn more about rootstock, the different types and what they are suitable for visit the Trees For Life Website for more information.
Establishing an orchard this way is a slower process, but if you have limited funds its a cheaper way of doing it. Another bonus is that it develops new skills - how to graft. Another aspect of this is actually growing rootstock itself. Until recently, I was completely ignorant of this aspect of tree fruit horticulture. There are places around the country that grow rootstock and sell it to people who want to graft to make new trees.
Why then not have a try at doing this ourselves? Our allotment society holds plant sales to raise funds for our site, so if we can learn how to grow rootstock, and graft to make new trees we can then sell these to raise money for the site. The other advantage of adopting this approach is that we can create new trees from existing healthy vigourous trees on our allotment site. Hopefully this will lead to fruit trees that are well suited to the local conditions.
There is a small window in the year when grafting can take place, when the sap starts to rise - this is the time to graft. Its weather dependent but happens late March to early April, generally speaking.
If you want to learn more about rootstock, the different types and what they are suitable for visit the Trees For Life Website for more information.
Beginnings
In 2008 Old Trafford Amateur Gardeners' Society (OTAGS) committee decided to adopt a hard to let plot on its site in Old Trafford. This plot, number 49, had not been properly cultivated since 1995 so it seemed a good idea to develop the plot into a community orchard.
We have lots of ideas about how to do this, including growing trees from scratch, by grafting onto rootstock using scions from other established community orchards in the area. We feel this will be an interesting approach, rather than buying them from nurseries and thought that it would be interesting to record this process and share it using a blog.
We hope to submit a bid for Local Food Funding to enable us to buy equipment for the orchard and the site (e.g. an apple press to make the most of all the apples already being grown on the allotments) and to run some workshops (e.g. a grafting workshop next year).
We have lots of ideas about how to do this, including growing trees from scratch, by grafting onto rootstock using scions from other established community orchards in the area. We feel this will be an interesting approach, rather than buying them from nurseries and thought that it would be interesting to record this process and share it using a blog.
We hope to submit a bid for Local Food Funding to enable us to buy equipment for the orchard and the site (e.g. an apple press to make the most of all the apples already being grown on the allotments) and to run some workshops (e.g. a grafting workshop next year).
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