Fred's fruitage

The late lamented and indefatigable Whittlesford horticulturalist, Fred Winter, gardened an impressive sizeage of allotments when he was with us, and built up quite a collection of sheds along the way.

Alas, with his passing, the parish council now needs to decide how to handle that inheritance - some of it fruitful and to be preserved, such as the well-established apple and plum trees. Some, however, needs careful handling, because some of those sheds are in a parlous state.

The parish council is making plans, over the autumn, to rescape the area, beginning by taking down the sheds, freeing up some allotment space, and moving the newly planted "community orchard" trees - now looking healthy - to blend in with Fred's fruitage so that we can have a larger, and more orchard like orchard. 

I've been talking to the district council's ecology officer, and he will advise on moving and preserving the trees, and creating some wildlife opportunities as part of the proposed orchard. I'm hoping the local scouts can lend a hand with the less hazardous work.

Two sides of the fence

On one side of the hedge in Newton Road that runs along side the allotments is the village orchard, which has survived the winter thanks to lots of TLC from a small group, and seems set for the Spring.
On the other side is what appears to be a spot of fly-tipping, and we'll need to get it looked into and cleared.

good and bad...

The embryonic village orchard at the entrance to the allotments is still there and what was planted before Xmas is flourishing - hope they survive the coming cold snap. The area will get a tidy up this month.

On the downside someone has left a trail of graffiti through whittlesford village so need to get it cleaned up and see if the local police recognise the "tag".

"a thousand apple trees of some unforbidden variety"

This all started with a training day organised by South Cambs District in conjunction with the Apples and Orchards Project for the East of England last winter.
Despite some set-backs, because at one point we had identified a cracking site that unfortunately fell through, this morning Ann Beeby, Marie Swann and I planted the first nine trees (pears, plums, apples) on behalf of the Parish Council, and which we hope will grow, both physically and metaphorically, into a village orchard. They are just at the entrance to the allotments on Newton Road.
The plot isnt big, tho we reckon we can get another four trees in no problem, without encroaching on neighbouring space. We still need to clear up some redundant compost heaps and some brambles - though there are some well-established currants bushes which should stay.
We hope that we can put in a bench that would be used by both allotment holders and also people coming to have a look.
Tho' it doesnt look much now, we have planted the trees in a curve so that there is some space at the front to make it look welcoming.

whittlesford bits

Busy day yesterday - went to look at the site for a pilot orchard, near the allotments in Newton Road. It isnt the full monty, but it will be a start. Trees are on their way.
Then off to South Cambs to go through planning performance with the officers - though there is still room for improvement, the speed with which applications are being dealt with is the best so far this year.
Then a quick shop at Shelford and back for the opening of the new affordable homes at West End.

village orchard - and nettles!

The possibility of a village orchard in Whittlesford is growing. We had a site meeting with Rob Mungavin, the ecology officer at south cambs, who is really enthusiastic and knowledegable about lizards, butterflies, moths and all sorts.

So spent a very hot afternoon trying not to get stung by nettles or fall down rabbit holes (got any magic mushrooms, Alice) as Rob, parish cllr Ann Beeby and I explored the site. I can't say where it is as the site isn't yet safe, but if it is can be there it will be incredible, and there are old fruit trees and elms, so it would look good right from the start, rather than having to wait ten years for the trees to grow.
What it will mean is some volunteer labour in the autumn to help clear the nettles and fill in the rabbit holes! We'll know more next month - there are some legal issues to sort.

Community Orchard - a possibility?

Went along to a district-council sponsored training day with the East of England Apples and Orchards Project. There were people from about ten local groups there from villages across south cambs all interested in setting up a community orchard.
Cambridgeshire is one of the least wooded counties in the UK, with only 2.1% woodland cover. Its orchards are both valuable wildlife
habitats and important landscape features, even though they are dwindling.

The day-long event covered ideas about planning, design, site selection, and technical stuff on cross-pollination and rootstock selection. The pic on the right is of us all shivering round an apple tree at Melbourn's community orchard taking in the finer points of pruning, and the pic next to it is the aspiration!
We will discuss at the parish council next week, but this will take some organising to grow it from a seedling into a Thoday's Quarrenden or a Huntingdon Codlin!