The Orchard Project
Developing resilient communities with the skills to plant, care for and harvest fruit trees; helping us all to rediscover the pleasure of eating home-grown fruit.
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.
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Hard Graft
March 22, 2017 - March is the month for propagating fruit trees by bench grafting. We collected apple "scions" (one year old shoots) when we were pruning in January and February, and grafted them on to rootstock using the whip and tongue method. In London, Lewis, Ella and Stephanie ran 7 workshops across the city teaching around 50 people this ancient Read More
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Summer Orchard Tour with Cider Tasting
May 31, 2017 - Summer Orchard Tour with Cider Tasting Wenlock Barn Estate Orchard London, N1 7PJ. Join The Orchard Project to celebrate London Tree Week with a summer gathering in a truly urban orchard; Wenlock Barn Estate, Old Street. Once an unused patch of land Read More
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Water blog – Keeping Urban Trees Healthy During Dry Times
June 26, 2017 - Summer is well and truly upon us. Beating down on us here in London in fact. Parks, commons and verges the city over are parched; yellowed grass barely concealing the cracked, dusty earth beneath, with the ground in some places Read More
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Flowering and pollination
- Most apples, pears and plums are, in the main, not self-fertile. This means that in order to produce fruit, these trees need to be planted close to one or more suitable varieties in flower at the same time.