The Margery Flatts Allotment Association organised a Summer BBQ and invited Orchard Members along. A big thanks to Gill and Steve for organising this event. Despite the rather mixed weather we still managed to consume lots of delicious pizzas and marshmallows!
We usually complete a wild flower survey every year. Many thanks to everyone who joined in with the survey and here are their results…
We found 47 species of wildflowers up from 31 last year with a few extra grasses. Our best finds were Bittersweet, commonly known as Deadly Nightshade, and Self Heal.
Here are the different species of grasses we found: Yorkshire Fog, Perennial Rye grass, Meadow Foxtail, Cocks Foot, False Oat grass, Crested Dogs Tail, Sweet Vernal grass, Timothy, Creeping Bent grass.
Our beautiful fruit trees have once again put on a wonderful blossom display. Hopefully there will be lots of apples to pick and juice in the Autumn!
To celebrate the coronation of King Charles III, the orchard took part in the Big Help Out Day on the bank holiday Monday. Despite the rainy weather we had lots of visitors and everyone was able to help out building a new bench to commemorate the coronation. The Junior Wild life group also attended and our young visitors were able to make bug hotels.
At 8.30 pm all around the world on the 25th March, people switched off their lights for an hour to highlight the issues of climate change. Despite the very wet day, the rain stopped just in time for us to celebrate Earth Hour in the orchard. Well done to everyone who braved the weather to attend and to all our members who celebrated Earth Hour at home. Same time next year!
If you’re going for a walk around the orchard in the next few weeks watch out for the snowdrops and other early Spring flowers.
Our annual display of colourful catkins can be seen in our nut grove. It’s a joy to see the orchard waking up after the long winter and well worth a wander around the orchard to see them!
We have to prune our apple trees twice a year to maintain the health of the trees and encourage crops and growth. This time we were under the expert eye of one of our members, who lead a masterclass in pruning techniques for our other members. Despite the hard efforts there is still plenty of pruning left to do if you want to help at our next work session.
Everyone wrapped up warm and arrived with chairs, blankets and warm drinks to celebrate the Winter Solstice. Windbreaks, a fire pit and some mulled cider helped ward off the chilly night!
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A five star bug hotel is now open for use by all our creepy crawly inhabitants in the orchard. The Junior Wildlife Group spent the day creating an amazing bug hotel. A big thank you to everyone who took part.
Lanchester Community Orchard 