When it comes to creating a new orchard or forest garden, the Orchard Design Kit is very much my tool of choice. It’s not that I’m tech-phobic – I love learning how to use new software – it’s just that being able to hold and move around little wooden models of trees is so helpful for seeing how that site will look and feel.
I can think in more tangible terms about how the wind might flow across the site, where paths should be, and where people will need somewhere to rest, or work, or store their tools. I can walk around the table, crouch down, and glimpse a future view through the site.
I’m sure that tools like The Land App, Inkscape or Canva give you something like that experience, and I don’t doubt they are perfect for rendering a finished design that needs to be shared, but it’s so satisfying to have the immediacy of creation.
Designing community spaces
Over the past few years we’ve found these kits are ideal for helping community groups and students design their own spaces too. That’s why we’ve decided to make it possible for people to order their own kits. We’re using the brilliant Laserhut, which is run by Kevin McIntosh from Telford. He tweaked our design to make sure the trees fitted better into the bases.
The basic orchard design kit looks more or less the same as it did when we first launched it in 2021. Your box arrives full of bags containing little wooden shapes that slot together – enough shapes to make almost 350 plants! There are nine different sizes (referred to as A-I) which range from herbaceous perennials to massive trees, when working at a scale of 1:50.
At 1:50, the smaller shapes A, B and C represent herbaceous perennials or shrubs. Shape ‘I’ is too big to represent a fruit tree, but can be used for a really large tree like a sweet chestnut. For a forest garden design, this would be in the ‘upper canopy’ layer.
Working at 1:100, the shapes represent plants twice as big. For example, A will represent a tree that is 2m tall (instead of 1m), and F will represent a tree that is 6m tall (instead of 3m).
When I’m designing, I split the process into two parts: 1) create a structural design that makes sense for the space, and then 2) choose the most appropriate plants for each layer. Here’s a video of the previous kit being used for a larger design a few years ago.
If you are underplanting around trees with shrubs or herbaceous perennials, as in a forest garden design, you should leave 2m between the edge of one canopy and the next. This will allow enough light to reach the understorey plants. By lucky coincidence, the tree bases are the equivalent of 2m wide, so you can use them as a quick way to check your tree spacings!
A few caveats to note
Few trees are as symmetrical as these models, and they have variable growing habits. For example, a mulberry tree can be much wider than it is tall, and pear trees are the other way around.
In addition, the size indicated by the rootstock depends on the site conditions. An apple tree on M25 rootstock could reach 5m in height in ideal growing conditions, but if the soil is full of rubble, the site is windy and you don’t get around to watering it much, it won’t reach that size.
Finally, the cultivar will make a difference. For example, ‘Worcester Pearmain’ apple trees are much more vigorous than ‘Bardsey Island’, so you should take this into account. Here’s some comparative vigour information for apple cultivars.
We’re excited to be able to make these kits more widely available and can’t wait to hear what you think. They are £105 each (this is cost price, plus a small percentage on top which will be reinvested into our community work).