“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 […]
climate change
Diary of a CICO student
Our Certificate in Community Orcharding (CICO) is the UK’s first and only accredited course in community orchards. One of our committed students, Tamasin, has kindly shared her CICO journey with us below. We currently have a course open for registration in South-west London, if you’re considering signing up to the course (info here), her reflections […]
Orchards against climate change: Nature-based Solutions
Nature-based Solutions (NbS) can play an important role in tackling the climate crisis. It is currently something of a buzzword among environmentalists in fact. In this blog, we unpack how and why they can help mitigate the impacts of our changing weather patterns, and call for urban community-run orchards to be embraced as an exemplary […]
10 YEARS AT TOP: a grand anniversary for our London orchard legend, Lewis McNeill
Last month Lewis McNeill celebrated ten years of working at The Orchard Project. Over this time, Lewis has built up a considerable reputation among the London community gardening sector and is well-respected for his impressive knowledge of fruit tree care and permaculture approaches. It’s amazing that Lewis’ passion for community orchards remains as strong as […]
Where do apples come from?
Harvest season is over and now we can eat, bake, preserve and generally enjoy the fruits of our collective labour. But when you take a bite of an apple do you ever stop to ask – where did apples originate from? And how did they end up here in Britain? Where did apples originate from? […]
What does a resilient orchard look like?
Many of our orchards are surprisingly vulnerable to the effects of climate change. Not only is physical damage caused by late frosts or strong winds, for example, but the stress caused by unpredictable weather makes our trees much more vulnerable to pests and diseases. This all has the effect of reducing yields. So what strategies […]
London Orchard Polycultures: strength in diversity
Why we might want to plant more than apples, plums and pears in our community orchards The Orchard Project’s logo shows an apple, plum and pear because these are some of the most reliable and commonly found top fruits in community orchards. However, there are several reasons why we should be being more adventurous, where […]