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.
This year we have had a bumper apple crop. With so many apples to pick from our productive trees we needed lots of members to help! We spent a busy day harvesting the apples. Some were packed for members to collect to eat and some were turned into delicious apple juice. We now have a new apple press which came in very handy.
Now that Spring is approaching there is still lots of work and maintenance to be done. Chris Davis led our session. First he pointed out that some of our apple trees have a disease called canker. This is very damaging to our apple trees and can easily spread. Chris pointed out examples and explained how to deal with it. This involves cutting away the affected parts of the tree. If any members visiting the orchard see canker on the trees, please let Chris know.
Chris also lead a quick demonstration on pruning before the orchard members began pruning our apple trees.
And finally… our soft fruit bed received a well needed prune.
Despite another year of Covid-19 restrictions, all the volunteers in the Community Orchard have been able to continue on the maintainance and development of the fruit beds and trees.
Hay making is once more upon us! Members meet on a lovely sunny September morning to wield the scyths. The forest garden also received some care and attention ready for the winter.
Despite all the upheaval of the recent months we have still managed to carry out all of the jobs in the orchard whilst following Government guidelines. The orchard has been a peaceful breathing space for our members.
Grass has been cut, the fruit tree and soft fruit beds have had a much needed weed and the Forest Garden Project has continued.
Our work mornings have continued throughout the summer and a big thank you to everyone who has turned up to cut grass, weed, edge fruit beds and prune the trees. Some of our younger orchard members have been a great help weeding the forest garden.
We are always delighted to welcome new members. There are so many ways to join in and become part of the community orchard. If you would like more information please visit our contact page or download a membership form which can be found on the Orchard page.
Our latest work morning was held on a chilly but sunny April morning. It was too damp to start the grass cutting, however, there was plenty of weeding to do in the fruit beds and new forest garden.
Please don’t think that it’s all gardening though. Coffee breaks are a good time to get together and someone usually brings along something home baked to share. This time it was cream scones and Jostaberry Jam, made with Orchard jostaberries from last summer.
If you enjoy gardening and home baking why not join us on our next work morning to find out more. Please see the ‘What’s on’ section of our website for the work morning dates.
The milder weather has allowed us to make good progress on the maintainance of the Orchard. There was glorious sunshine on the 23rd February and we were able to continue with the winter pruning, weeding the forest garden and laying wood chip paths.
Many thanks to all 24 members who turned out to help and a big welcome to our new members. We also have to thank our three young members aged 2, 6 and 7 who helped to clear all of the branches created by the pruning!
We made a great start clearing the weeds from the forest garden area yesterday and unearthed a barrow load of potatoes, our first crop! They looked very edible. We also picked the last of the apples, a bit small but still tasty.
Now that the weeds are being cleared a we have a better view of the different levels has emerged. We should be able to put the paths in now and continue to weed and clear stones. We have a plan for the forest garden planting and will be able to start implement this soon.
We were delighted to welcome a family as new members. They made a great job of picking the remaining apples and pruning the blackberries.
Lanchester Community Orchard 