Hurrah, its getting warmer and the days are getting longer... so time to book in some work sessions on the orchard.
Claire is running some Sunday sessions as follows:
21 st of April from 12 - 2
12th of May 12 - 2
19th of May 10-12
2nd of June, 10-12
9th of June 10-12.
Do come along and get involved. Please contact Claire on 07989 962 916 if you don't have a key to the site so she can come and let you in. Its also wise to check whether the session is going ahead if its raining.
Monday evening sessions will also commence from 22nd April (but there won't be a session on 6th May). These will run from 6.30 - 8 p.m lead by Debbie. You can reach her on 07719 625 725.
Hope to see you soon.
Sunny day on The Big Dig
On Saturday 16th March Orchard 49 took part in The Big Dig. All over the country community gardens opened to volunteers to get busy growing food. In Manchester, the sun shone (on and off) and we had a great time.
Food and drink was on hand to keep everone's energy levels up and we spent the time pruning all the trees and weeding around the base of the fruit trees and then giving them all a lovely thick mulch of horse manure. Thanks to everyone who helped.
Here are some photos:
Food and drink was on hand to keep everone's energy levels up and we spent the time pruning all the trees and weeding around the base of the fruit trees and then giving them all a lovely thick mulch of horse manure. Thanks to everyone who helped.
Here are some photos:
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| Claire putting back the tree guard after mulching |
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| Damien weeding along the fence line of cordon trees |
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| We had some lovely bunting! |
Big Dig Open Volunteering Day 16th March
We'll be holding an Open Volunteering Day on Saturday 16th March as part of The Big Dig.
From 12-2.30 pm we'll be busy working on the orchard, so do come along to lend a hand. Jobs we will be doing include:
Wear sturdy shoes! If you have gardening gloves, bring them - though we do have some.
Give Debbie a call on 07719 625 725 when you arrive so I can greet you and show you were the orchard is on the allotment site.
Location information: Seymour Grove allotments, off Warwick Court M16 0JG
How to get to the orchard:
Buses:15 (Stagecoach/Arriva) runs past Warwick Court (ask for Kings Road Primary).
84 runs along Seymour Grove, alight at Kings Road and its a 5 minute walk to the allotment site.
Metrolink: You can travel to Firswood station and its a 5 minute walk to the allotment site.
From 12-2.30 pm we'll be busy working on the orchard, so do come along to lend a hand. Jobs we will be doing include:
- Pruning the trees
- barrowing manure and mulching around the trees
- preparing for planting soft fruit
- planting trees we grafted last year
Wear sturdy shoes! If you have gardening gloves, bring them - though we do have some.
Give Debbie a call on 07719 625 725 when you arrive so I can greet you and show you were the orchard is on the allotment site.
Location information: Seymour Grove allotments, off Warwick Court M16 0JG
How to get to the orchard:
Buses:15 (Stagecoach/Arriva) runs past Warwick Court (ask for Kings Road Primary).
84 runs along Seymour Grove, alight at Kings Road and its a 5 minute walk to the allotment site.
Metrolink: You can travel to Firswood station and its a 5 minute walk to the allotment site.
Compost aplenty
Yesterday we barrowed a tonne of Fairfield compost on to the orchard to improve the soil around the trees and for some raised beds we'll be making next year for soft fruit. Great workout!
Sunny Apple Day - 2012
Today was Apple Day at the allotment site and Orchard 49. Juice was pressed, apples and potatoes baked in our cob oven and we had samples of apples grown on the orchard for people to taste. We basked in autumnal sunshine and warm - delightful.
Work for the day, when not talking to visitors, was some hoeing - using a beautiful osillating hoe (Hydra Swing Hoe) from Implementations - who gifted the tool to the Orchard last year. We also painted the trees with fruit tree grease to prevent codling moth next year and picked some apples - lovely they were too.
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| Some of our apple samples on the lovely oak bench in the sunshine |
Work for the day, when not talking to visitors, was some hoeing - using a beautiful osillating hoe (Hydra Swing Hoe) from Implementations - who gifted the tool to the Orchard last year. We also painted the trees with fruit tree grease to prevent codling moth next year and picked some apples - lovely they were too.
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| Claire making light work of hoeing with the wonderful Hydra Swing Hoe |
Apple Day 2012 - Sunday 7th October 2012
OTAGS is holding an Apple Day on Sunday 7th October - do come along. We will be on the orchard so if you'd like to see the progress we've made and how you can get involved please come and see us, 12-3 pm. Orchard 49 is on plot 49 - follow the signs.
Here is the poster for the event.
Here is the poster for the event.
Open Day - 19th August 2012
OTAGS held an Open Day on Sunday 19th August. There were Scarecrows to see as well as pizzas from the new Cob Oven... and of course Orchard 49 to visit. Sadly we didn't have a brilliant day for it. But we were there and here are some photos I took of some of the trees that we grafted ourselves in 2010. You can see that they are with fruit. Two are being grown as cordon trees - trained to grow in a small space. In our case along the path fence line. Equally they could be grown along a sunny wall in your back yard.
We are very much learning about how to train the trees. So you can see with the minshull crab cordon we actually have two stems, as it grew that way, so we're letting ti grow along two stems rather than one. Peter Nichol from the Northern Fruit Group is helping us learn how best to train the trees.
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| Apple - Burr Knot - Cordon Tree |
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| Apple - Laxton Superb - growing as a bush tree |
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| Apple Minshull Crab - cordon (its not a crab apple). |
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