We have organised two more Community Orchard work days in June and July. If you haven't been down yet it would be great to see you. Also, if you have family or friends who are interested in growing fruit who might like to get involved in the project please let them know about the work days - as we want the project to be open to people who live locally.
Dates for diaries:
Saturday June 19th 2-6 pm
Saturday July 3rd 2-6 pm
NB If its pouring down then we won't be there. If in doubt, give me a call on 07960 713 018
Directions: plot is in the far right hand corne of the allotment site. Access is via Warwick Court gate, off Kings Road (next to the primary school). If the gates are shut please ring me and I'll come and let you in - 07960 713 018.
Progress is being made; during the last work day (well on the Sunday as the Saturday was rained off) we worked at taming some of the long grass and a particularly dedicated volunteer spent hours digging out all kinds of rubbish from the bottom end of the orchard (9 wheel barrows to be precise, from an area about 3 ft by 13 ft), taking advantage of a skip provided by OTAGS for the whole allotment site that weekend.
We have also planted some crops in the top half of the orchard where the ground has been dug numerous times, removing the mass of bindweed and couch grass. Also, a couple of dedicated volunteers have been offered some space for one growing season to use ground that would otherwise have lain fallow prior to planting trees there next winter.
Hope to see some of you on the orchard soon!
Orchard News
Debbie was invited to speak at the Garden Organic Annual General Meeting on Saturday 22nd May. She told people about the community orchard and the meeting was very interested in our hopes and aspirations. There was a lot of interest shown in our efforts to grow trees from scratch, a process known as grafting.
This is what is done if you want to be sure to create a tree with the same characteristics as another. So for example, you have a tree on your allotment plot that is disease free and very productive, but you don't know what it is, as the tree was already there and not labelled. To make a new tree you graft (join) a cutting from the tree you have with the rootstock of a disease free plant to make a new tree. Using rootstock like this means you'll be sure to get trees that are a suitable size for your location.
In March 2010, we held a grafting workshop at our allotment site and made around 60 trees. Some were taken by participants to plant elsewhere, but the majority were planted out on the orchard. By early May most had taken - which means we have lots of trees to plant along the fence line as horizontal cordons in November-March.
29th May Work Day
The Saturday was a bit of a wash out - but a few of us made a day of it on Sunday instead. There was a skip on the allotment site and we dug out 9 wheelbarrows worth of rubbish, rubble, glass, and metal from the bottom end of the orchard. Its a bit like an archeological dig - you don't know what is going to be discovered next!
We hope that the worst of the rubbish has now been removed and future work days will be about tackling weeds instead. Watch this blog for details of up and coming work days.
This is what is done if you want to be sure to create a tree with the same characteristics as another. So for example, you have a tree on your allotment plot that is disease free and very productive, but you don't know what it is, as the tree was already there and not labelled. To make a new tree you graft (join) a cutting from the tree you have with the rootstock of a disease free plant to make a new tree. Using rootstock like this means you'll be sure to get trees that are a suitable size for your location.
In March 2010, we held a grafting workshop at our allotment site and made around 60 trees. Some were taken by participants to plant elsewhere, but the majority were planted out on the orchard. By early May most had taken - which means we have lots of trees to plant along the fence line as horizontal cordons in November-March.
29th May Work Day
The Saturday was a bit of a wash out - but a few of us made a day of it on Sunday instead. There was a skip on the allotment site and we dug out 9 wheelbarrows worth of rubbish, rubble, glass, and metal from the bottom end of the orchard. Its a bit like an archeological dig - you don't know what is going to be discovered next!
We hope that the worst of the rubbish has now been removed and future work days will be about tackling weeds instead. Watch this blog for details of up and coming work days.
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