Category Archives: volunteering

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.

Maintenance Mornings

29 Thursday Jan 2015

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How are your New Year Resolutions holding up? If you made any that involved getting fitter, getting out into the fresh air more often, helping the community, learning new skills, enjoying nature… You can fulfil them all at the orchard, just by coming along to one of our Monthly Maintenance Mornings. These are run from 11am – 1pm, on the 2nd Sunday and the 4th Thursday of the month from 10am  12 noon. (Yes, that’s a bit complicated  – dates are listed below)
We provide all the tools you’ll need, and instruction, tuition and help. You just need to wear appropriate outdoor clothing. You don’t have to stay for the whole session, and children are welcome to come along too, as long as you can supervise them and keep them away from sharp tools. There’s a variety of tasks to get stuck into throughout the year, not just with the trees but with all the habitats the orchard supports. In the summer you can even learn about bees.

So come along to a session or two and make supporting the orchard the one resolution that will last all through the year.

Maintenance Morning Dates 2015 (Sundays 11am – 1pm, Thursdays 10 – 12)
Sunday 8 February
Thursday 26 February
Sunday 8 March
Thursday 26 March
Sunday 12 April
Thursday 23 April
Sunday 10 May
Thursday 28 May
Sunday 14 June
Thursday 25 June
Sunday 12 July
Thursday 23 July
Sunday 9 August
Thursday 27 August
Sunday 13 September
Thursday 24 September
Sunday 11 October
Thursday 22 October
Sunday 8 November
Thursday 26 November
Sunday 13 December
Thursday 24 December (this one probably won’t happen!)

As ever, subscribe to our emails and check the Facebook page for reminders of these dates and further information as to what we will be doing.

Gardeners all kitted out

Gardeners all kitted out. This is from Quex Park in Kent, in 1883. Basic tools haven’t changed much.

Visible results

05 Tuesday Aug 2014

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I am not one of those people with a tidy garden. Sometimes I wish I was, but then I wouldn’t get the immense satisfaction of that moment when I have finally weeded the flower bed, mowed the lawn and put it all in the compost heap, and I look back to see – a huge difference. Visible results, as they say on the adverts.

And you can’t get more of a visible result than this. We’ve said it before, we’ll say it again – a big thanks to Bidwells staff for their hard work. This team was:Gerald Collins, Kam Jaman, Kevin Fentiman, Alistair Dunsdon, Rob Smart, Howard de Souza, Gareth Willmer, Ben Hayek, Bridget Johnson and Lynne White. Heroes all!

Bidwells 1.8.14Give Gerald a chainsaw and what a difference a few hours can makeBidwells - Mission accomplished but exhausted and very HOT

Bidwells staff get busy

02 Saturday Aug 2014

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A team of eager workers from local business, Bidwells, recently got busy in the orchard. Their hard work has really transformed the orchard which is now looking fabulous. Three teams have signed up for the project and there are signs that they are getting competitive! Next on the ‘to do’ list is to get the herb bed planted up, and clear around the blackberries along the allotment fence. It’s great to see this kind of community involvement, and we are very grateful indeed for their efforts; it really does keep the orchard going. Many thanks to all those in this first team – your colleagues will have to work even harder to keep up with your good work.

Digging and grafting

04 Sunday May 2014

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It’s been hard work and a lot of fun down on the orchard recently. Together with our friends on the allotments, we got involved in the Cambridge Big Dig weekend. We put in a raised bed for some herbs and got busy weeding and tidying. And we’ve also run a course on the ancient art of grafting fruit trees. This is the technique of joining the fruit bearing scion to the rootstock, which gives the height and vigour of the tree. If you would like to learn more about grafting and have a go yourself, then please get in touch and we can run this course again.

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Winter pruning

11 Monday Feb 2013

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Well, we did not have the rootstock for grafting, but we were able to prune the trees. Because the trees in our orchard are one of each variety, they each have their own character and habit, and some are certainly developing what can only be described as personalities. This makes pruning them a bit more of an art than a science, but what we are aiming for is a nice open shape, with no central leader shooting up to the sky, and no spindly, crooked or crossing branches. Yes, it was cold, yes it was grey, but the orchard has charm, even on days like these.  As L H Bailey put it in 1922:

‘The winter apple-tree in the free is a reassuring object. It has none of the sleekness of many horticultural forms, nor the fragility of peaches, sour cherries and plums. It stands boldly against the sky, with its elbows at all angles and its scaly bark holding the snow. Against evergreens it shows its ruggedness specially well. It presents forms to attract the artist. Even when gnarly and broken, it does not convey an impression of decrepitude and decay but rather of a hardy old character bearing his burdens. In every winter landscape I look instinctively for the apple tree.’

L. H. Bailey. The Apple-Tree / The Open Country Books—No. 1 (New York 1922)

Pruning lesson