Old Trafford Open Gardens 2017

2nd July sees the second Old Trafford Open Gardens event.  The community orchard is one of the community green spaces to visit on the day.  The allotment site will be opening its gates, the pavillion will be open for refreshments, the pizza oven operating, so no excuse not to pop down and visit. 

The orchard is located in the far right hand corner of the site; head for the community plot at the end of the tarmac path and then follow the path down to the orchard. 

There is a bench in the middle of the orchard, a lovely spot to take it all in.  See if there are any raspberries to taste (along the fence with the bakery buildings), check out the fruit arch. Could you do something similar in your garden? Its a great way to get lots of different varieties of fruit in a small space.

Equally, the fenceline that runs the length of the orchard was created to show what can be done when you train fruit trees. Regular pruning into a specific shape (in our case vertical cordons) enables you to grow more varieties and this way you shouldn't ever have a glut of apples!  How many different varieties do you see along the fenceline? Clue - each tree is a different variety!  They are all labelled.

The apples and pears aren't ready to eat until October, do come and taste them then. 

If you're interested in helping out, we run regular weekly work sessions on Thursday evenings from 6.30-8 p.m.