Category Archives: seasons

Grafting skills

26 Wednesday Apr 2023

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Grafting is an ancient technique for propagating apple varieties. If you plant an apple pip of one variety, say a Histon Favourite, that pip will not grow up into a Histon Favourite apple tree. It will be a unique tree, maybe better, maybe worse. So if you want to get another Histon Favourite tree, you have to take some wood from the tree and somehow attach it to a rootstock. The rootstock helps to control the height and vigour of the tree. This process of ‘sticking’ the variety wood (the scion) to the rootstock is called grafting.
Last week staff from Cambridge city council and a couple of orchard volunteers came along to learn about grafting fruit trees and practice their grafting techniques. It’s great to keep these skills alive. We also noticed the bees were very active, making natural honeycomb in the observation hive.

Blossom Day Sunday 30 April 2023

20 Monday Mar 2023

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We will be holding a Blossom Day celebration in the orchard on Sunday 30 April 2023, between 2pm and 4pm. As well as an opportunity to enjoy the blossom, there will be guided tours around the orchard, introducing visitors to the swift tower, the beehive and the stool bed where we are propagating rootstocks. Bring a picnic and enjoy the orchard with us.

Orchard Blossom Day was an event launched a couple of years ago by the UK Orchard Network, but of course fruit tree blossom has been celebrated for centuries, and by some very famous artists including those shown below – Millais, Van Gogh and David Hockney. Why not take some photos or bring your sketchbook (digital or paper) and make the most of this fleeting beauty? We would love to share your images of the orchard here.

Apple Blossoms or Spring. 1858-59. Sir John Everett Millais Bt PRA (1829-96). Oil on canvas. Courtesy of the Lady Lever Art Gallery, Port Sunlight, Wirral
David Hockney, from the exhibtion The Arrival of Spring, Normandy 2020, Royal Academy 2021.
Vincent Van Gogh, The White Orchard, Arles, 1888 Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam (Vincent van Gogh Foundation)

Swifts and Squirrels

28 Saturday Jan 2023

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We’ve had a swift tower in the orchard for over ten years now, and we’ve had resident swifts for the last few years, enticed by recorded swift calls coming from the tower. However, we have noticed that some pesky squirrels have been gnawing at the entrance holes in the swift box. The squirrels might want to move in, or even predate any eggs and chicks they find. So, with further help from the Swift Conservation charity, we have squirrel-proofed the swift tower.

A group of orchard and swift conservation volunteers wrestled with scaffold towers ,scaffold boards and rope and managed to remove the damaged front and sides of the swift box. They emptied ten years worth of nesting material and replaced the front and sides with a slightly different profile – this includes some metal reinforcements to deter squirrels from chewing the nest box entrance holes. At the same time they have moved the lower bat box on the tower to above the other bat box, in the hope that this will also make access to the nesting area harder for the squirrels. Fingers crossed that our resident swifts like their improved home when they return.

Wassail 2022 – small but beautiful

29 Saturday Jan 2022

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We took the hard decision not to hold a wassail (a traditional ceremony to honour the apple trees) this year. I know other orchards held large and enthusiastic wassails, but our space is small and we have to think about the potential risks.

But never fear, our Maintenance Session volunteers saw to it that the trees received their usual blessing of a libation of apple juice poured at their roots, and pieces of toast hung in the branches. When we started this orchard over a decade ago, our first wassail was three of the founders (including me) singing some kind of song and banging a saucepan, and a few neighbours came out to see what the racket was. Since then the wassail grew into a really sizeable and popular event, and we have had everything from lantern processions to a wheelbarrow orchestra to folk dressed as Green Men and Women, and as penguins. In the last few years wassailing has been re-discovered, re-invented and revived across the country (I think we were way ahead of the trend.) Wassailing is certainly a tradition of this orchard, and it will carry on, in some way or another, every year.

Bird’s eye blossom

28 Tuesday Apr 2020

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We were lucky enough recently to make use of a drone, to get a really unusual view of our orchard and all its blossom. Here’s a little taste of what a drone can do. If you’ve ever wondered what the swifts see on their way from the swift tower, here it is.

Spring is not cancelled

18 Saturday Apr 2020

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In these strange lockdown times, it is the small things that matter most. The view from a window, or the things we see when we are allowed to be outside. Perhaps this daily walk will become a habit, when things return to whatever version of ‘normal’ we might like. I can’t walk in the orchard – I am with family in Norfolk, but whether I am there or not the trees will get on with being trees. The blossom will open, even if nobody sees it. (Very Zen, I know). But I hope that you can get to see the orchard, and sniff the blossom, and look at the flowers and the insects. Spring is not cancelled, it’s all out there. So here are my favourite photos from springs gone by, just to remind you.
The practical bit – the orchard is open access, but please observe the social distancing guidelines if anyone else is in the space. Do not picnic or meet in groups. Please, as always, tidy up and take your rubbish home.

blossom
blossom

Orchard Maintenance Dates

09 Saturday Feb 2019

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We hold a maintenance session every second Sunday of the month (11am – 1pm), and every fourth Thursday (10am – 12pm)

If you love our orchard, and want to help keep it special, please come along to one of our regular maintenance sessions.  We provide all the tools you need, and lots of help and advice, so if you’ve never done any gardening before, don’t worry. It’s a great way to spend some time in the outside and meet new people

.These sessions are when we look after the trees and check what needs to be done. For each season we will check the health of the trees, attend to any pests and diseases, and make the orchard look as beautiful as possible. It’s vital work to keep the orchard going and we rely on our volunteers to look after these trees, so we really appreciate the help. You don’t have to stay for the whole session, just come along when you can. Superivised children are welcome but please note we have no toilet/hand washing etc facilities on site or nearby. Please wear clothes suitable for outdoor work.

DATES FOR 2019:  Every second Sunday of the month (11am – 1pm), and every fourth Thursday (10am – 12pm)

Sunday 10 Feb
Thursday 28 Feb

Sunday 10 March
Thursday 28 March

Sunday 14 April
Thursday 25 April

Sunday 12 May
Thursday 23 May

Sunday 9 June
Thursday 27 June

Sunday 14 July
Thursday 25 July

Sunday 11 August
Thursday 22 August

Sunday 8 Sept
Thursday 26 Sept

Sunday 13 Oct
Thursday 24 Oct

Sunday 10 Nov
Thursday 28 Oct

Sunday 8 Dec
(Thursday 26 Dec – probably not going to happen!)

“Wassail wassail all over the town…”

18 Tuesday Dec 2018

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Sunday 13th January 2019 2pm

“Wassail wassail all over the town…”
So begins the traditional Wassail carol – celebrating Christmas, winter and the bountiful harvest to come. Our own orchard wassail is a bit of a tradition in its own right, having been going for a mighty ten years. This year we have story telling for everyone, a great way of setting the scene and leading us into the fun and mystery of singing to apple trees as darkness falls.

Come and see us. It’s free (although donations are much appreciated) and it’s suitable for all the family. Because we’ll be outside in an orchard, wear warm clothes, bring a torch. Dressing up is encouraged – it’s usually Holly Kings and Ivy Queens but we have had a 6ft tall penguin come along in the past, so anything goes!

Spring cleaning

13 Friday Apr 2018

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OK I admit Spring is rather late this year. But the Orchard survived the ‘Beast from the East’ snow, and here and there blossom is cautiously unfurling. This website needs a bit of a spring clean, not least because of new data protection regulations that are coming into force in May 2018. This means that every organisation, no matter how small, has to ask its supporters to actively ‘opt in’ to receive emails and other contacts. So look out from an email for us soon, and please do take the time to stay in touch because we can’t keep the Orchard going without your help and interest.

Our Monthly Maintenance Mornings (Second Sunday and last Thursday of the month) have been off to a good start and so far we are scything the grass and getting rid of any bramble seedlings that have poked up through the ground. All are welcome to come to these – have a look at our Events page for all the dates and see the sign on the Orchard gate.

Wassail 2018 – Sunday 14th January

21 Thursday Dec 2017

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As I write this it’s the Winter Solstice, and thick fog outside. No wonder that winter festivals of light, dancing and music are so popular, and so much a part of rural life in the past. So shake off the gloom and look forward to Wassail 2018! Each year we like to do something a bit different, so for our Tenth Wassail (I know, I can’t believe that but it’s true, this will be the tenth one)…anyway, we are very pleased to be hosting a demonstration of green woodworking skills.
Come along to the Orchard from 12:30 – 2:00pm for the woodworking, with music and Wassail traditions afterwards from 2:30pm.
Special thanks to Nigel Pennick’s Rabble Rousing Wassail Band for providing the music to scare bad spirits out of the apple trees. If you’d like to bring anything to make a noise with, that would be great. Dress up if you want, and in any case wrap up warm. Hot mulled apple juice and various apple bakes will be served to keep out the cold

The event is free but donations are appreciated. Please park with consideration for the residents.