The new Pergola goes up

 Today we put up a new pergola on the orchard.  The wooden one that had been on the orchard since 2011 had to be taken down because it had rotted. Its replacement is metal, rather than wood, with a view to longevity. Its smaller that the original but will do the job.  We four volunteers had an enjoyable morning figuring out what the instructions meant, banging posts into the ground and bolting it all together.  

The two vines that we had to chop back will be trained back up and over the pergola and we'll re-establish the blackberry plants on another day.  

Thanks to Unicorn Grocery for contributing £300 towards the cost of the pergola and to Ralph for boosting our numbers, your help was invaluable!  

Reflections on the 2025 season

 As the evenings draw in, our weekly sessions on the orchard are coming to an end.  It has been a wonderful year, with a preponderance of warm days.  The trees fared well despite the lack of rainfall - largely due to being well established.

We lost another tree, a small eating apple called Fillingham Pippin.  It was grafted on a dwarf rootstock, and this generally means that these trees are short lived.  The two cherry trees planted in 2023 are doing well, and the fig tree, which was given a heavy prune in 2023 grew and produced abundantly in 2025. We will prune it over the winter and see if we can grow some cuttings for sale at the OTAGS plant sale in May 2026.

We dismantled the wooden pergola during the summer. It had been standing since 2011 but had rotted. We have replaced in with generous support from Unicorn Grocery along with funds from OTAGS.  Its replacement will be put up in the coming months, now that the ground has had some rainfall! 

We also have fence posts along the path to replace, a bench, a raised bed and the shed. All this is to be expected because it is fourteen years since the infrastructure was put in.

We will be on the orchard over the winter, pruning the apple and pear trees, when the weather permits.  If you're interesting in learning about how to approach pruning established apple and pear trees, please get in touch and we'll let you know dates and times.  You can email is at orchardfortynine @ gmail.com.