The Orchard Project
Bringing orchards into the heart of urban communities
The Orchard Project is bringing community orchards to cities and towns across the country.
We are re-fruiting the country, working in partnership with communities to plant, manage, restore and harvest from their own orchards. We rebuild orcharding skills, celebrate orchard heritage and contribute to a better, locally-led food system.
News see all news articles
Bishop of Edinburgh blesses newly planted orchard
November 18, 2019 - We recently welcomed a very special visitor at one of our planting days in Scotland: the Bishop of Edinburgh. As part of an exciting initiative by the Church of Scotland to plant church orchards and community orchards, we’ve been working with St. Ninian’s Scottish Episcopal Church, an Eco-Congregation in Edinburgh’s Comely Bank, to plant an… Read More
Events see all our events
Orchard Planting Day (Glasgow)
- Orchard Planting Day at Newton Mearns Baptist Church Main planting 10.30 to 12.30 Orchard dedication service 12 - 12.15 Lunch 12.30 This planting is part of a partnership between The Orchard Project and Eco-congregations Scotland, and is one of four… Read More
Blogsee all blog posts
What does a resilient orchard look like?
October 28, 2019 - Many of our orchards are surprisingly vulnerable to the effects of climate change. Not only is physical damage caused by, for example, late frosts or strong winds, but the stress caused by unpredictable weather makes our trees much more vulnerable… Read More
Guides & Advice see all our Guides
Why are Orchards Priority Habitats?
- Orchards are priority habitats under the UK's Biodiversity Action Plan. So what is so special about them? Fruit trees are particularly good habitats for wildlife because they are "early senescent". This means they get old relatively quickly and develop veteran features such as hollow trunks, rot holes, dead wood and sap runs. These features are… Read More