Orchard blog

The Orchard Sign

At last we have put the post in place. It says Kingswear Community Orchard and gives the website:

kingswearorchard.org.uk

Wildflowers

The packet said wildflowers but even though some aren’t they make a lovely display of colour for October.

Planting wild primroses

Autumn is the the time for preparing for Spring flowers and we started with wild primroses. We had a good turn out for the working party. Alan, Peter, Sue, Jennifer, Eileen and Lucy.

During the summer Dave has been busy mowing the grass and other volunteers have been keeping the orchard weeded.  Visitors have been seen sitting on the benches and picnicking on the grass - a pleasing sight indeed!

Here is a photo of the (socially distanced) August working party group.  After a good morning's work weeding around the trees and hedge, the position of the new orchard signpost was decided, ready to be installed later in the month.

Because the trees were young they were only allowed to produce one or two fruits.  Here are some photos taken by Christian of a plum and two apples

The wildflowers planted by Sue around the mature cherry tree in the middle of the orchard also started to bloom, as shown below.

Debbie also cleared the brambles from the road side of the fence by the gate and sowed some wildflowers to brighten up the fence, as shown below.

The wildflowers in the orchard really bloomed in the late spring and early summer.  Below are some photos supplied by Ann.

We used the remaining grant money from Devon County Council to commission two benches to be sited at opposite ends of the orchard – one mainly in shade and the other in the sun.

This picture shows the orchard after its first cut of grass with the sunny bench in the distance.

The wildflowers sown on the bank flourished and produced a wonderful display in late spring and early summer.

Here is photo of the larger bench sited at the top of the stepped ramp.with the flowers in full bloom.

In March 2020 we purchased a trellis to be erected in front of the shed.

We planted 26 more hedge plants – they went to the right of the gate along the fence and in front of the shed to make a screen.

We chose wild roses to grow up the fence by the gate:

Rosa Rugosa

White Ramanas

Rosa Glauca

We planted a hawthorn and honeysuckle - lonicera Graham Thomas to climb up the trellis

Here is a photo of a large rosehip - promise of rosehip syrup to come!

In January 20 after an enjoyable Christmas break we still had plenty to do- here is the list:

1. Embed the stony path leading to the shed
2. Put up a screen in front of shed and prepare earth for planting a mini hedge
3. Move flag stones to the back of shed
4. Move compost bin to the back of shed
5. Chip bank away to gain access round back of shed.
6. Prepare weedy bare earth patches for sowing new grass
7. Prepare patch to the right of the gate by the ramp for a quince tree
8. Weed round hedge plants and trees.
9. Prepare site for new bench

In February 2020 having prepared the land to the right of the gate, we planted a Quince, Krymsk and a Medlar, Westerveld which gave a total of 18 fruit trees.

On December 12th 2019 the pupils from Kingswear Primary School returned to help plant six more trees. we again had an excellent time with the children, many of whom came for a second time.

These were special trees that had been growing in pots for the last 16 months. Alan and Lucy had grafted some apples in August 2018 using a procedure called chip budding. These trees were now finally ready for planting. Several of the grafts came from trees in the Dartmouth Community Orchard – Johnny Voun, Plympton Pippin, Striped Beef and Plum Vitae.  Peter Shaw, chairman of Dartmouth Community Orchard had kindly agreed to let us take some sample twigs from the trees in the Orchard. We hope to establish a genetic link with the Orchard. Here is a photo of Alan and Peter Shaw selecting suitable twigs for the chip budding. The other two trees were local varieties - Totnes Apple and Ashmead's Kernel which is a classic apple dating from 1700 in the southwest.

We installed a shed later on in December and by January 2020 it was painted sage green. All the grass and wildflower seeds had grown on the bank, so we had a good swathe of green to see in the orchard. We also planted two new trees that had arrived from the nursery - Mirabelle de Nancy, a plum, and Sweetheart cherry.

In September we gathered again and a working party finished off clearing the bank and prepared the rest of the ground at the top of the ramp for sowing.  At the end of the month Peter and Bill sowed grass on all the remaining parts of the orchard and sowed wild flower seeds on the bank.

Later in the autumn we cleared the area to the right of the gate, paying a builder to remove the large tree trunks.

We also prepared an area at the end of the orchard for a shed with slabs kindly donated by the Parkes family.