The hay meadows in the orchard are usually cut by hand using the traditional technique of scything. This year, one of our orchard members kindly stepped in to cut part of the grass full of nettles and thistles. Being a member of the Vintage Tractor Club, he brought along his 1956 Ferguson tractor along with a Mayfield grass cutter from the 1950s. Together, they made an easy job of cutting the nettles and thistles.
The orchard is now entering its abundant season and there has been plenty of soft fruit to pick. Blackcurrant, red and white currants, gooseberries, jostaberries, raspberries, blackberries and some early ripening plums.
The change in the weather has brought more rain. This has been good news for the fruit trees but some have suffered during the drought.
There were also others in the orchard interested in eating the fruit. Picking the plums could be very hazardous at times!
It looks like there is going to be a good crop of apples again this year. Dates for the juicing and picking weekend are on our ‘What’s on’ page.
The community orchard is now being used by different groups based in the village. On July 30th, the Monday Art Group spent the afternoon up at the orchard. Two of the members, Malcolm Coils and Christine Gibson have kindly sent us photos of their paintings and drawings inspired by their visit.
The drawings are by Malcolm Coils. You can see more of Malcolm’s work on his blog at malcolmcoils.blogspot.co.uk
The water colours are by Christine Gibson.
We were so pleased that the orchard and allotments were included as places to visit during the Garden Open Day. Although the weather was mixed, we still had up to 50 visitors walking around and finding out more about the orchard and allotments. We had so many positive comments from our visitors and some decided to join as members.
The hot weather and lack of rain has not yet had a great impact on the orchard, although some of the fruit trees are looking a bit sorry for themselves. One advantage of the weather is that the grass growth has slowed down and we are not cutting so frequently.
The soft fruit beds are flourishing and we have an abundance of strawberries, currents and gooseberries. the fruit are beginning to grow and there are plenty of nuts on the trees in the Nut Grove. Work has continued on the seating area and we has a marvellous time taking part in the Garden Open Day.
During the last two years, we have been planting more wild flowers to increase their diversity in the orchard. We are now seeing the results of this effort by the growing number of different species being spotted in the hay meadows around the trees and the ditches on the edge of the orchard. It was pleasing to see that the wild flower plugs planted earlier in the year by the Brownies have also begun to grow. Click on the pictures below for the wild flower names.
Over the last 12 months, a lot of effort has gone into plotting the location of each tree using GPS. The map is now complete and a copy can be seen on the shed door. Each tree is now plotted on the map, its number corresponds to the number on the tree label. This should enable us to track the well being of each tree and the yield from year to year.
Our workday on July 7th was very productive. Grass was cut, weeds pulled and all of the cordons and espaliers were pruned. Our coffee break included cream scones with strawberries freshly picked from the orchard strawberry beds.
The orchard has blossomed under the warm, sunny days. The down side of this glorious summer is the lack of rain and several of the trees are beginning to suffer. However, the majority of trees have produced lots of fruit. The soft fruit beds are looking very productive too, and there has been lots of rhubarb to pick.
Work days continue and although the grass isn’t growing so quickly, the weeds seem determined to grow!
The wild flower meadows are thriving and there is a variety of flowers to find. Hunting through the grass, you can find vetch, lesser stitchwort and yellow rattle.
On Saturday 23rd June we held our annual midsummer celebration. We meet in the orchard about 5.00 pm to share food, chatter and some amazing music. Three members and friends of the allotment and orchard played and sang a selection of folk music. It was a perfect evening to listen to such lovely music in the peaceful, summer evening setting of the orchard.
There was an very tasty selection of food and cakes and a barbeque to cook on. We had games to play and even did some dancing to the music.
It was a very good way to celebrate the lovely summer weather!
Lanchester Community Orchard 