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 […]
Orchards
Juicing with schools
It’s the time of the year when our fruit trees look bountiful and we are looking forward to harvesting the fruit from our orchards, as a reward for our hard work over the last year. Apples, especially, always seem to be abundant. After the fruit bowls have been filled and the pies and crumbles baked, […]
Orchards on the inside
At first glance it looks like any other community orchard setting – people are focused on a pruning task and are chatting under the summer sun – but it’s actually very different. This is Thorn Cross’ 160 fruit tree orchard, set in the extensive grounds of the open prison in Cheshire. I recently joined our […]
Community orchards – tragedy or victory of the commons?
Community orchards are a growing movement, with hundreds of new fruit trees being planted each year. In another decade, as the trees reach maturity, we will start to see a significant harvest and they will become a really important resource. We believe community orchards can be a small, but vital, piece of the puzzle in […]
Creating nourishing ecosystems for all
As we’ve covered in our blog on racial justice and orchards and in other blogs, one thing that’s really important to The Orchard Project is that our work is inclusive and better reflects the incredibly complex range of communities we serve. We don’t want to just be talking the talk, so we’ve been proactive at […]
Bird spotting in a Spring orchard
Orchards, particularly traditional ones, are invaluable refuges for many bird species, whether in the heart of a city or a rural village. They provide a tasty range of arthropods (such as beetles and spiders) and insects for familiar birds such as Robins, Wrens and Dunnocks. Often relatively sheltered, orchards have the added attraction of hedges […]
The magic of mistletoe
Mistletoe is a familiar Christmas feature, steeped in ancient folklore. An evergreen plant with forked branches and pairs of symmetrical leaves, mistletoe plants are either male or female. Both are needed for the characteristic white berries to form from winter to spring, but they only appear on the female plants. It is an unusual plant […]
Racial justice and community orchards
How does racial inequality manifest within public greenspaces? The accessibility of natural spaces is not just a matter of social status; race matters too. Our CEO reflects on how race matters within greenspaces and remind us that diversity always wins in the natural world. As we write, the world faces a time of extraordinary crises; […]
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 […]