At the turning of the year, I will step down as Chair of The Orchard Project. I’ve enjoyed nine years on the Board, the length of time it takes many orchard trees to mature and produce a reliable crop. This perfectly reflects the growth and maturing I have witnessed in my nine years with The […]
biodiversity
Buzzing orchards: Apples, wildflowers, and the secret life of bugs
Picture an orchard: what do you see? Most likely, you’ll see fruit-laden trees. But what is growing below and between the trees? And what is living in and around the them? Recent research conducted at the University of Reading delved into the impact of growing wildflowers beneath apple trees on the insect population and how […]
A wee Scottish orchard odyssey
My job involves co-ordinating aftercare for our newly planted orchards. I recently went to Scotland to attend our Orchard Gathering in Glasgow and used it as an opportunity to visit as many of the orchards as possible – a plum job! This is a round-up of my trip. Linkes Food Forest, Glasgow First up was […]
Meet the solitary bees
One of the joys of spending time outdoors in the warmer weather is spotting the insects also making the most of the sunshine, buzzing between the flowers, stocking up on nectar and pollen. If you look closely, you may find that many of these flying insects are solitary bees. What is a solitary bee? Well, […]
A little patch of nature
A spontaneous decision to try something completely different was a life-changing moment for Satu Fox. The 38-year-old attended our orchard open day with Lewisham Homes just a few minutes’ walk from her London flat. The next thing she knew, she was signing up for five hours of orchard management training with professionals and park keepers […]
My mission: To inspire more people ‘to do their bit’
“Philanthropy is often seen as giving to benefit people who don’t have what you have, or to people overseas. The shift that happened for me was I realised … that every single cause that we were ever going to support was going to be made much worse by climate change.” Sophie Marple, founder of the […]
Take a walk on the wild side
We’ve gathered some ideas from our popular Certificate in Community Orcharding Course to help get you started on making your garden or orchard more ‘wild’ and encourage more beneficial pollinators to take up residence there: What’s already there? Explore what natural habitats already exist before you decide what to do next. Wildlife such as nesting […]
Manifesting the medicinal orchard
Orchards have always served communities as an integrated resource of produce. Mycorrhizal fungi networks increase a tree’s capacity to defend against harmful diseases and companion planting increases the likelihood of this unification. As we know from Forest Gardening, we are able to design layers of the forest – from shrubbery to tree tops – […]
To bee or not to bee..
by Stephanie Irvine, one of our London Project Managers. We need to talk about honey bees! Many urban community orchards want to keep bee hives, and you can understand why. Honey bees are fascinating creatures, they pollinate your fruit trees and produce delicious honey. What’s not to like? The honey bee (Apis mellifera) is only […]
Jargon busting!
From eco- to bio-, with a bit of agro- in between, our Finance and Operations Manager, Kathryn, helps us decipher the basics of food growing terminology. Kathryn joined The Orchard Project last year. She explains why growing plants is so important for her wellbeing and why she’s delving into Forest Gardening. I first became interested […]