Orchard is waking up

Greetings from the Orchard. This is an update on the orch­ard going  to all those who have been along to help since the first shovel of earth was dug in 2009. We had our first work­day of 2012 on the last Saturday in February 2012. It was warm, the cro­cuses were out and the bees were ven­tur­ing out from the hive.

We were able to start put­ting up the wires for the fruit trees against the large stone wall. Nearly fin­ished the wooden fur­niture. We build anoth­er sec­tion of the dry stone wall and checked all the labels on the fruit trees. Sadly we also cut down the old apple tree which died last sea­son. We also drank tea and cof­fee and ate bis­cuits and looked at what we all achieved last year.

Here are some of the things that happened at the orch­ard in 2011.

• We planted 50 trees and bushes
• We star­ted build­ing a low dry stone­wall along the path
• We put in a table and two benches
• The bee keep­ers got to work. The hive was put in place and the bees made honey
• We had a won­der­ful Apple Day atten­ded by 50 people and made a huge amount of apple juice
• We con­tin­ued the work of keep­ing the trees free from weeds and strimmed the area
• Sadly the shed was broken into and some of the apples disappeared
• It rained too much but luck­ily not on workdays.
• We had our Wassailing cel­eb­ra­tion on a crisp Saturday morn­ing in January

We were able to to as much as we did because of money from the Climate Challenge Fund to pay for trees etc. We also had paid work­ers but sadly they fin­ished in early spring. We have used up the grant money for trees & tools but a great deal has been achieved.  Most import­ant has been the volun­teers and vis­it­ors. It is the com­munity who make hap­pen with the help from moth­er nature. So thanks to all who helped in 2011.  We are look­ing for­ward to the year ahead and please come and join in whatever way you can.

Our first job on our next Workday  Saturday 31^st March will be to put up the sup­ports for the apple tun­nel and plant the trees. Further workdays:

• Saturday 28^th April
• Saturday 26^th May
• Saturday 30^th June
• Saturday 28^th July
• Saturday 25^th August
• Saturday 29^th Sept
• Saturday 27^th October
• Saturday 24^th November

If you want to know more ring: Mary Jane Elton 669 5129  or  Diana Cairns 669 4981