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Trumpington Community Orchard

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Trumpington Community Orchard

Tag Archives: spring

Digging for apples

23 Thursday May 2024

Posted by trumpingtonorchard in biodiversity, News, seasons, volunteering

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apples, maintenance, orchards, spring, volunteer

Orchard maintenance can sometimes be idyllic – just imagine it. You have beautiful surroundings, the sun is shining, the work is gentle. Imagine doing something like picking off the small spare fruit in early June, or raking up the leaves in the soft autumn light. But… then again…back to reality, where sometimes the weather is a bit British. Our group of volunteers from Hays battled sudden rainstorms to do some proper hard work. They recycled our old picnic benches to make some more raised beds, and they cleared and scythed some of the grass around the beds and the base of the swift tower. They dug up some odd bits and pieces too. Honestly, we have spent over ten years clearing out rubbish from the ground (mainly bits of bicycle, no surprise in Cambridge I suppose) but still, there’s a shoe and a flower pot and goodness knows what else. After all this hard work, the orchard is looking really good now, so pay us a visit and enjoy all the wild flowers. Just don’t leave one of your shoes behind.

overgrown part of the orchard
Before the work began
clearing the orchard
Cleared and mulched. Happy tree, happy volunteer
Making a raised bed using woodwork tools
Measure twice, cut once. Good skills
sawing wood for a raised bed
Recycling the old picnic bench.
volunteers
A good job done.
volunteers in the rain
The sun did not shine all the time.
rubbish in a bucket
Buried treasure, of a kind.

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Blossom Day 6 May 2024 2 – 4pm

24 Sunday Mar 2024

Posted by trumpingtonorchard in events, News, seasons

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apples, appletrees, blossomday, folklore, nature, orchards, spring, trees

As I write this I can see the plum trees are coming into blossom in my garden, and the petals are already falling from the little Fuji cherry, ‘Ko Jo No Mai’. We expect so much from this short-lived spectacle, we go in search of it and celebrate its beauty every year. Blossom has been associated with all things feminine, partly because of associations with spring and with the romance of flowers. John Ruskin, Victorian artist and critic, described the women in Pre-Raphaelite paintings as ‘girl-blossoms’. In our orchard, however, the blossom can be enjoyed by everyone.
The Woodland Trust has put together a calendar of the blossom times of various trees that you’ll spot in British countryside, orchards and hedgerows. The crab apples usually flower before the domestic apples, and by early May we should have quite a few trees in their best blossom dresses.

Save the date for our Blossom Day
We will be in the orchard from 2pm to 4pm. Our folk musician friends, who usually play at our Wassail, will be here in (hopefully) warmer weather to entertain our visitors, and the trees. Last year’s blossom-themed finger-painting activity was so popular we are running it again. We are hoping to provide blossom cakes and treats as well. More details to follow, so keep an eye on this website and our social media feeds.

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Keep updated with our recent posts

  • Save The Date: Wassail 2026
  • Beautiful butterflies
  • Our orchard Wassail 2025
  • Digging for apples
  • Celebrating blossom with music and art

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