For the last 3 years we have been working intensively in the Leeds area and helped 12 communities plant new community orchards. Practically every month we’ve also discovered a community orchards we hadn’t heard over and so there are now 70 orchards in the Leeds district. Our project manager Alan Thornton has visited all of them and worked hard to get the appropriate training the groups involved. Almost everyone in the Leeds area is within half an hours walk of an orchard, apart from a few gaps. We can say that Leeds is England’s* first Orchard City.
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Spring is finally here and the orchards of Leeds are starting to come to life
We’ve already had a couple of training sessions (formative and restorative pruning) and with grafting coming up (bench and top). Helping Britain Blossom are helping five orchards graft 400 trees…
National Tree Week
Earlier this month, I was on a trip to Ealing, West London to give some orchard management advice to an orchard group. On my travels I came across a great…
(I Know) What Orchard Mentors Did This Summer….
That complex rooty smell in the evening and that creeping park mist in the morning give us a hint that it might be time to admit the inevitable – autumn…
Ernest Cook Trust school orchard project
Since the birth of the Orchard Project in 2009, we’ve sought to work with schools each year; primary, secondary and special schools. We believe that all children should have access…
When should you pick Apples?
We’re noticing this year that people are picking apples much earlier than usual. Is that because the fruit is ready much earlier, or are people getting anxious and picking too…
Certificate in Community Orcharding update
What nicer thing is there to keep on learning about than trees, especially those that give you something to eat? And how lovely to also share that learning with others.…
Water blog – Keeping Urban Trees Healthy During Dry Times
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…
Community Mapping
How to grow your group, strengthen local connections, and see your area with new eyes I’m interested in how we look at issues of low turnout to orchard events creatively.…
Who Would have Thought an Orchard Could do This?
You’d think it was the fruit that got us out of bed in the morning. After all, we are on something of a mission to re-fruit the UK. But actually,…
