Mid summer work session 2014

We had a glorious work session yesterday evening. Warm and sunny, its not rained for at least 2 weeks so the ground is baked hard. We busied ourselves with watering the trees (using the land drainage pipe put in when the trees were planted to get straight to the roots), giving the trees a foliar feed, building a raised bed, pruning and tying in of vines.

Here are some pics taken yesterday.

Lorna tying in the grape vine

We have a percola with a bench underneath which has two grape vines and two thornless blackberry plants climbing up it.  Lorna isn't a giant, she is standing on the bench! 

Pete building a very long raised bed.

We share a fairly ugly fence line with a bakery, and in the winter we planted some raspberry canes along part of it. This is the next phase - we will plant more fruit, training it along the fence to hide the metalwork.The raised bed is made from recycled scaffold planks.  

The next two photos are of the fruit arch - which is coming along nicely (needs some prunign and tying in too) and the long fenceline which has cordon apple, pear and plum along its length. 

Fruit arch - apple and pear

Fenceline with cordon trees.

 We are always keen to have more people helping on the orchard, and I can't think of a nicer way to spend a mid summer evening!  We're there from 6.30-8 pm on Mondays.

Spring and Summer 2014 work sessions

With the evenings getting longer we can resume our regular Monday evening work sessions. These will resume on Monday 12th May.  The sessions will run from 6.30 to 8 pm.

We've also got a couple of weekend sessions organised so please put these in your diary and come along.

17th May 10am - 2pm

31st May 10 - 2 pm.

Hope to see you there.

March 2014 Planting Days

We held two planting days in March, and were blessed with dry days. By the end of the two days we had planted:

Apple

Crab Apple Dartmouth - this is to help with overall pollination of the apple trees on the orchard
*Bountiful
*Blenheim Orange

Pear
*Concorde
*Conference
*Comice

* grafted by us at a workshop in 2012
 
Stone Fruit
Damson Shropshire Prune 
Gage Denniston's Superb
Gage Golden Transparent
Plum Marjorie's Seedling

These are all maiden trees so it will take a while before we can harvest the fruit.

Soft Fruit
Raspberry Glen Ample (x 10) (summer fruiting)
Raspberry Polka (x 10) (autumn fruiting)


We also need to build a raised bed to put two blueberry bushes in - as these were in pots getting them in the ground wasn't so crucial. The varieties are: Coville and Bluecrop.


This means the orchard is almost full. We have a little bit of space along a fence line with the bakery, but its nearly full.

Sewa Volunteer Day - 6th October 2013

In August I was contacted by Hemma Mistry to ask if we could host a group of 15-20 volunteers on the Orchard.  Sewa Day is a national event where people give a day of their time volunteering on a community project. Hemma had seen the display we put up in Unicorn Grocery and got in touch through that.

And so it came to pass that we were delighted to host this group of volunteers.  There is always plenty to do on the orchard, but the main concern was what would we do if the weather was poor?  We needn't have worried as the sun shone brightly for us all day.

We did lots of clearing of weeds on the orchard, planted some narcissus and primroses and built half of a raised bed, which will be planted with more trained trees and soft fruit between November and February. We also constructed bug boxes to sell to raise money for the orchard, these were filled and painted by the children who came on the day.

Here are some photos from the day.

Group photo :)

Building the raised bed

Bug boxes filled and painted by the children

Taking a break in the sunshine.

 To all the wonderful volunteers, thank you for choosing Orchard49 for your day of volunteering, please come again, you were fabulous.

Apple Day 13 October 2013

OTAGS organised a fantastic Apple Day on Sunday 13th October. Orchard49 volunteers were there showcasing 12 heritage apple varieties for people to taste. We had lots of tasters and everyone commented on how delicious the apples tasted - fresh from the tree.

Miranda baked two aple tarts using cooking apples from the orchard as well; we had newton wonder tart and a grandpa buxton tart.  The bug boxes made during the Sewa volunteering day all sold, giving welcome funds for the orchard.  This coming winter we will be planting some more trees along the bakery fence line so will use the money towards that. Here are some photos of the day.

Claire and Lorna with an apple taster

The cob oven, made possible with the Local Food grant which also got  Orchard49 established

Thanks to everyone for such a great day.

Sunday September work sessions 15th and 29th 10-12am

Claire is running two Sunday sessions between 10-12 on the 15th and 29th September

Please do come along and pitch in. If possible we hope to be starting to build some raised beds (wood delivery permitting) as well as the usual tasks.  There also may be apples to sample - we picked some Tydeman's Early Worcester and some apples from one of the trees that were planted before we took on the plot on Monday and they were delicious (plus some pears and figs).

We also have a large group of volunteers (15-20) coming on 6th October. They are taking part in something called Sewa day and have chosen the orchard as a place to volunteer.  If you'd like to help out on that day, please come along. I'll be sending out an email about timings for that later.

For 15th and 29th sessions as always weather permitting and ring or text at the gate if you don't have a key and the gates are closed.  Claire's number is: 07914 793 625 (new number)

Finally - there might be an apple day happening on 13th October at the allotment site (to be confirmed).

Harvest photos

The nights are drawing in.  On Monday (2nd September) we picked some fruit on the orchard and pruned the fan trained cherry trees as dusk came upon us.  Its always a little sad to realise that our Monday evening sessions will soon have to stop for the season, as it is almost dark by 8 pm.


Here are some photos of apples, figs and pears harvested and other delights.

Our harvest on 2nd September: apples, pears and FIGS!

One of the ripe apples and autumnal vine leaves

Tydeman's Late Orange - won't be ready for a while

Plot52 - soon ripe for picking

Isn't the colour magnificent?