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:

• 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.

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.

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.

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.

Apple - Burr Knot - Cordon Tree

Apple - Laxton Superb - growing as a bush tree

Apple Minshull Crab - cordon (its not a crab apple).

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.

July Progress

We've had some success in July with the planned sessions. Four have been held so far and the orchard is looking much better for all the work.

If you're passing come and admire the bench, under the pergola, and sit awhile. Thanks to Julie for putting the bench in.

We've also now got two large compost bins and thanks largely to Richard the dreaded weed pile is no more.  We're wet composting the pernicious weeds (couch grass, bindweed, dock, creeping thistle etc.) and composting the annual weeds.

The trees are doing well, and more volunteers are always welcome to come and help out.

More July sessions are planned:

Weekend date 12.30-2.30 Sunday 29th July (Claire leading)

Weekday evening 6.30-8 pm Monday 30th July (Debbie leading)

Telephone numbers for session leaders:

Claire 07989 962 916
Debbie 07719 625 725

As ever, thanks to all you hardworking volunteers.

Orchard work sessions in July

Despite our best efforts, the very frequent wet weather has meant that the orchard is somewhat weedy and we need to sort it out!  Claire and I have looked at our diaries and will run some work sessions at weekends and during the evening to address this. Hope some of you will be able to spare an hour or so now and then to join us.

As always these sessions are dependant on the weather. 

Aside from getting the weeds sorted (which shouldn't take long, with a group of us) we have some compost bins to assemble - this will mean an end to the weed pile - hurrah. 

We can also do some summer pruning and should take fruit that have formed off the trees, as they need to put all their energy into developing a strong root system.

Weekend Dates 12.30-2.30 Sundays (Claire leading)
1st July
15th July
29th July

Weekday evenings 6.30-8 pm Mondays (Debbie leading)
2nd July
9th July
16th July (provisional date - needs a volunteer to lead this session)
23rd July
30th July

Telephone numbers for session leaders:

Claire 07989 962 916
Debbie 07719 625 725