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!

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:

Claire putting back the tree guard after mulching

Damien weeding along the fence line of cordon trees

We had some lovely bunting!

Trees planted March 4th 2012!

Despite the weather we planted more trees at the community orchard today.  It stopped raining long enough for us to press on with the work.

Big thanks to everyone who helped: Lorna, Claire, Pete, Richard and Debbie.

We planted:

Apple Acklam Russet
Apple Balsam
Apple Golden Spire
Apple Hunt's House
Apple Merlin's apple
Apple New Bess Pool
Apple Newton Wonder
Apple Rosemary Russet
Apple Sisson's Worksop Newton

Pear Beth
Pear Onward

Cherry Stella
Cherry Morello

Quince Portugal

These were all purchased with the grant from Local Food which is part of the Big Lottery Fund's Changing Spaces programme to help communities enjoy and improve their local environments.

Some of the apple and pear trees were planted beside arches and will be trained to grow up and over the arches. The idea for this came from the Garden Organic orchard at Ryton Gardens.  It will take many years for them to reach this size, but the picture shows what we have in mind.

Apple Arch at Garden Organic's orchard

An added bonus today was a surprise visit from Peter Nichol from the Northern Fruit Group. Peter came to drop off some scions for our grafting workshop next weekend, but we asked him to help us prune the trees,  many thanks!