Small Scale Fruit Growing
I read the ‘Year of Living sustainably’ newsletter with interest, the contributions often provide a refreshing insight and reminder that there are many others who care deeply about our Earth and have found ways to take positive action.
It has got me thinking about what I'm actually doing, and have done, that may contribute to this collective sharing of good ideas, with the focus on what you can do, rather than what you cannot.
Last summer, we ate a variety of apples from our relatively small garden, several daily, from late June to the end of November, before we ran out. No packaging or food miles, and delicious! This success was largely due to:
purchasing affordable and relatively locally grafted varieties of apple trees at our local seed swaps, which I help to organise [date for your diary: Sunday February 11th - more info in a future edition]
rehoming some pot-bound fruit trees when my friends moved home, which have started to revive with their roots in the ground.
learning how to graft fruit trees - we're looking forward to these fruit crops for the first time this year. This is the fruition of my lockdown / pandemic projects. As I juggled my work, family and community life at that time (anxiously), I made the decision to do something positive within my control - to teach myself how to graft fruit trees at home.
I ordered some dwarfing rootstocks cheaply and was able to get scion (top cuttings) from existing fruit trees, including some from friends and community projects. My initial success rate was low, but learning from my mistakes I now have eight small fruit trees of differing varieties (early - late) on a mixture of M9 M27 & M26 rootstocks.
I live in a small rental property with a modest garden and know this could be a relatively temporary situation, so gardening in a low-cost way makes sense. Small fruit trees can be pruned and trained to fit your space, though they do need supporting properly. I would definitely recommend that you have a go, perhaps by accessing online as well as local support and expertise.
Online
Here are some pages online you might like to visit :
Bides Farm ran a course last year – keep an eye on their FB page: https://www.facebook.com/events/1669952340103981
You Tube - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SOu15VsEIuM&ab_channel=JSacadura
Community Orchards
In addition to these reflections on fruit growing, I’d like to donate my surplus trees to community schemes, recognising that not everyone can plant apple trees in their own garden. I know the magic of people coming together on a communal growing project.
My work at Somerset Community Food has involved updating our resources page on community orchards.
I'd like to remind everyone that there are numerous community orchards across Somerset, most are listed here: https://www.somersetcommunityfood.org.uk/community-orchards-forest-gardens
Maybe you could get involved in an existing project, or if you're really motivated you could get together and start one. There are lots of great resources out there to help you get started and some funding, Thatchers have an annual community orchard fund: https://www.thatcherscider.co.uk/thatchers-community-orchard/
I'll be pruning the apple trees here soon as I look forward to the brightening of spring and of course that early flush of apple blossom, it provides sustenance for the insects that emerge early in the year too.