Rokeby Recreation Ground Community Orchard
Working Party Activity 2023
2023 Working Party Dates
MARCH - On March 26th from 10.00am we will be installing stakes by each tree ready for fitting wire mesh and the more the merrier to help get this vital job done
APRIL - Easter egg hunt on Monday April 10th from 2pm
APRIL - Planting Limnanthes on the same day as the egg hunt - all welcome to come along and help
Regular watering of all the trees on the first Tuesday evening each month from April to September - and many hands make light work, so please come along at 7.00pm whenever you can (we will provide plenty of buckets)
April 4th
May 2nd
June 6th
July 4th
August 1st
September 5th
AUTUMN - Planting new trees - please let us know if you have a neighbour who wants to get involved this year
February 2023
We were delighted to host the Chair of Kidmore End Parish Council at the orchard on February 6th. Caroline was keen to learn more about how we created the orchard and to have a little guided tour of it too. She was very positive and complementary about the community wide effort to create our orchard and interested in our plans for 2023.
March 2023 Update
Our original cardboard tree guards have not fared well and need replacing. As a first step, a group of us installed stakes on March 26th - 2 stakes for each tree. There was a ood sized group and so it did not take too long - after all the recent rain the ground was very soft. We will be fixing wire mesh to the stakes soon and removing the degraded carboard at that time. The new mesh should protect our tress from rabbits and deer for a number of years
Spring Update 2023
We wanted to keep everyone informed about and involved in our community orchard and so we thought a short Spring update would be useful and of interest.
Many of you will be walking through the orchard regularly and will have seen that all the trees seem to have survived the winter - so far, but we need to hope that continues with more snow & cold weather forecast. The snowdrops and daffodils seem to pushing through around the plaque and the bench. And there are flowers starting to show in the wild flower bed too.
We need to raise some money for a number of reasons and so we want to ask you for ideas and support. For example, you will have seen that the original cardboard tree guards are not wearing well. They are recyclable and seem to be deteriorating faster than we expected. We thought they would last at least 3 years but many are already in poor shape. So we are thinking that we need to put stakes and wire mesh around them like we did with the 2023 trees. There may be some other needs for funds during the year too - so we are thinking of a target of £500.
We could perhaps raise money on the same day at the planned Big Coronation Lunch. Initial ideas include stalls selling cakes, and plants. Maybe face painting or a stall selling bric-a-brac. Do you have any other ideas and are you willing to organise and run a stall on the day?
Alternatively, maybe you work for an organisation that could provide some funds through their CSR or Sustainability activity. If you could please let us know. And any other fund raising ideas are very welcome too of course.
Please let us know how you can help by next Monday March 13th, thanks.
Going forward here are our current 2023 plans
- Easter egg hunt on Monday April 10th from 2pm - this is being organised by Felicity
- Planting Limnanthes on the same day as the egg hunt - all welcome to come along and help
- Regular watering of all the trees on the first Tuesday evening each month from April to September - and many hands make light work, so please come along at 7pm whenever you can (we will provide plenty of buckets)
- April 4th, May 2nd, June 6th, July 4th, August 1st, September 5th
- On April 4th we will also be installing stakes by each tree ready for fitting wire mesh and also laying more mulch around each tree - and again the more the merrier to help get these vital jobs done
- Planting new trees in the Autumn - please let us know if you have a neighbour who wants to get involved this year
April 2023 Update
On April 4th we had our first monthly work session at the orchard and our focus was weeding around each tree. Once the weeds are removed from each tree we can add mulch and also replace the sad looking cardboard guards which have degraded a lot over the winter.
April 2023 - Easter Egg hunt and seed planting
Despite the rain just beforehand, 5 children from 2 families came along on Easter Monday. Felicity and family did a fantastic job of setting up the Easter egg hunt, also bringing along eggs and homemade biscuits; then the children planted Limnanthes seeds around 10 of the trees along the path…
April 2023 - Update 2
The Orchard now looks splendid with all the trees now protected by wire mesh guards. The uniformity is pleasing to the eye and the trees are all starting to blossom & bud. Many but not yet all have had mulch laid around them and the others will be mulched soon.
May 2nd 2023 - Update
During our monthly working session we mulched all the trees. We used compost that Dave had brought from his allotment as well as chippings made by the golf club team using the cuttings from the recent visit by the Green Gym - pleasing circular use of material.
We also secured some slightly wobbly stakes and fixed some loose mesh around a few of the trees
All looks fantastic especially as the trees are budding with leaves showing and some blossom.
Next evening working sessions are from 7pm on the first Tuesday each month - June 6th, July 4th, August 1st, September 5th.
May 2023 - Update 2
A few photos to show some of the blossom that has appeared this month and also the heathy growth of the trees. All - except perhaps one - seem to have survived the winter and are now thriving in the Spring.
June 2023 - Update
Delighted to see that our Limnanthes flowers have grown around some of our trees. They were planted earlier this year to encourage insects that will eat aphids and which will then help our trees flourish.
June 15th, Our first fruit has been spotted - a Morello cherry!
July 2023 - Update
July 6th - our monthly working date was focused tonight on raising the mesh of more of the trees. As they have grown some are showing out of the top and are potentially vulnerable to nibbling by deer. So raising the mesh will protect the taller trees for longer. It also allows us to strim away grass and weeds that have grown near the base of the trees and will be competing for nutrients.
Also Graham had earlier in the day driven his mower from home and cut the grass around and between the trees.
Sadly it looks like 3 of the trees have not survived and will need replacing when we plant again in the autumn.
Here's a photo of tonight's workers, in the evening sunshine
August 2023 Update
August 23rd: Graham has just cut the grass at the orchard on his marvelous mower. He cut the grass around and between the trees and also in the 2 strips where we plan to plant wildflowers on October 7th - all welcome as always. We put the grass cuttings on the strips to kill back the grass to make it easier to scarify and plant the seeds
Graham and Ian have cut a couple of strips near the orchard - on August 7th - which will be the site of our wildflower meadow. This follows on from a group of us meeting at the beginning of the month and deciding these areas were best and most attractive places. We have left the grass cuttings in situ to decompose slightly over the next weeks. We will rake the cuttings away and then hopefully have 50-50 bare ground when we come around to sowing in early October. Our planned sowing date is the morning of Saturday October 7th.
We have had a soil analysis carried out by FiPL for us recently and they recommend seeds from Emorsgate (mix EM5) plus Yellow Rattle as the optimal choice.
Our monthly working activity in August included a variety of tasks. We raised the mesh on the last few trees so we can weed easily around the base of every tree now. All the trees were weeded and grass trimmed around the base of each tree. We watered every tree and refilled all the buckets and used our newly 50m hose, purchased courtesy of a grant from FiPL.
We have messaged everyone on the village WhatsApp to encourage anyone who wants to donate and plant a tree this year to get involved now as the trees need to be ordered and purchased soon. A similar message was in the recent KEPC Parish Newsletter to ensure the message was broadcast as widely as possible.
October 2023 Update
October 3rd - we have done the final prep ready for planting of wildflower seeds on Saturday morning. The 2 strips have been cut again - thanks again Graham - and for easy planting each strip has been marked into five 5x2m sections. The hope is that people on Saturday will take a plot each or each family, scarify the section and then plant seeds - which we have bought from Emorsgate.
October 7th - A group of us scarified the strips - that had already been prepared for our wildflower meadow - and then scattered the seeds. We then trod them in. The seeds had been bought from Emorsgate and were chosen as best suited for the soil type in the field - which had been previously analysed. We included Yellow Rattle in with the wildflower seeds and look forward to seeing the blooms in future years.
Photos 3 and 4 show the scarifying and also the treading in.
November 2023 Update
November 15th
A small group - Dave, Henri, Ron & Ian - spent an hour in the lovely sunshine today weeding around the base of all the trees and laying a mulch "donut" around every tree too. The mulch will help retain moisture, restrict new weeds growing and also feed the trees. We have mulch left over which will be used in the same way for the new trees which will be planted next month
December 2023 Update
December 3rd. We planted 15 new trees this morning and every tree was planted by family groups who braved the rainy weather to dig the hole needed, bang in their stakes, plant the tree fix the mesh, lay out the mulch and fill the hole.
All done brilliantly and the orchard is now 59 trees strong.
December 2023 Update
December 6th: Here are some photos from various angles of our community orchard looking splendid in the bright winter morning sunshine. All the new, replacement and established trees are looking fabulous and the entire orchard looks very peaceful after the busyness of the planting session last Sunday.
Summary of 2023 - the main highlights include
expanding the orchard by planting another 15 trees to take us to 59
replacing 4 trees that had not survived
creating our wild flower meadow in 2 strips each of 30x2m alongside the path
watering the trees regularly during the long hot summer (remember that!)
celebrating our first fruit - a single but wonderful Morello cherry
updating the digital diary regularly on the Mapledurham PC website (thanks Ralph)
obtaining a grant from FiPL to provide very useful financial support
receiving donations from many neighbours and also raising money at our village Big Lunch