Work session on 7th July

We were three this evening and got busy with:

• uncovering a mound of manure which had rather a large number of weeds growing in it
• more pruning of trees to encourage fruit buds to form (many more trees to do)
• pruning one of the grape vines (variety Brant for those interested in such things)
• finishing fitting tree protection to the trees on the fruit arch, so the trunks don't get strimmed
• weeding around the base of one of the large trees we inherited
• picking up quince tree leaves - to try and stop blight from re-occuring (Quince Portugal)
• taking some photos of some of the trees.  Mainly (Quince excepted) they are looking great and growing really well. 

Apple: Plot 52

Apple: Ladies Finger of Lancaster

Not all top fruit - Blackberry Chester

Apple: Withington Welter

Apple: Yorkshire Cockpit

Quince Portugal with blighted leaves

Quince Portugal without blighted leaves

 Thanks to Lorna, Pete and Debbie for their time.

Busy Busy work session

We had another busy work session on Monday 30th June. Two new volunteers got stuck into barrowing manure and compost into the raised bed that Pete had made the week before.  Great work by Gemma and Mark. Meanwhile, Debbie and Abi busied themselves pruning and training pear and trees growing around the fruit arch and the cherry trees that are against the bakery wall.

Lorna tackled protecting the trees that were planted to grow over the fruit arch with tree guard material so that they don't get damaged when the grass is strimmed. Oh and Abi also put up some bird feeders. Last but by no means least Claire popped in to say hello on route to the OTAGS committee meeting where she represents Orchard49.

No pics this time, but it was a lovely evening once more. Thanks to everyone!

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.