Would you pick fruit from a Free Community Orchard?

[yesiamyesiamokaycallmeback]

There is some wasted land near my house and I asked the local MP how I would go about getting permission to plant an orchard for the community.

I will need to save up for about a year to be able to buy enough trees and bushes.

If someone planted an orchard near you would you use it? I am thinking of growing apple, pear, plum and cherry trees, raspberry and possibly currents. Maybe tomatoes as the seeds are so cheap to source and they usually do well.
Is there anything anyone would love to see in a community orchard? Possibly nut trees like Hazel or walnut but I haven't looked into this yet. would be nice.

do you think i should make signs for the trees telling people when best to harvest?

Tell me honestly would you like one in your community? would you use it?

My first thought would be it would ease the pressure on food banks over time but then I thought that maybe people wouldn't use it and it would just be a waste of time (except for me- i would use it!)

Sadly ours would get wrecked. We can’t have nice things. (Including blood donor/ breast screening vans)

There is a similar thing near us, but it has to be managed otherwise one or two people just come along with massive boxes and take as much as they can fit in their car or van.

A local market stall holder still gets tutted at by some locals after he was caught filling boxes to sell on his stall.

We have apple and plum trees in our front garden and it's amazing how often people will come in with a bag to fill and that's trees very obviously in someone's garden!

@agentcooper
brilliant idea. I have never grown peas before but if they are easy then I will definitely look into it.

I dont mind too much the idea of someone raiding the whole lot, I would much prefer someone nicking all the apples from down the road than having them imported from Africa and packaged up to the nines.

hopefully I can sort out a few over the years and there will be enough for everyone to be greedy!
goals.

Contact your local council/ parish council - they may be able to offer advice or suggest groups/ charities who would be able to help. Would it need planing permission?

It sounds like a great idea. In my area I think you could get a community grant to fund the trees etc. I think it sounds fab - I'd never use a whole tree's worth of fruit, but would be happy to help with a community gardening day.

You could do hedges round the edges of hedgerow fruits like sloes etc and maybe have a board up with info about the different trees etc, like they have at park entrances sometimes.

*planning permission!

If it’s near a school, you could see if the pupils could be involved in planting/ picking fruit.

We have a community orchard and we do use it. Not a lot of people realise its there though, or that you can take what you need, so much goes to waste.

There's an unused spaces grant in Scotland for community enterprises like this.

[quote yesiamyesiamokaycallmeback]@agentcooper
brilliant idea. I have never grown peas before but if they are easy then I will definitely look into it.

I dont mind too much the idea of someone raiding the whole lot, I would much prefer someone nicking all the apples from down the road than having them imported from Africa and packaged up to the nines.

hopefully I can sort out a few over the years and there will be enough for everyone to be greedy!
goals.[/quote]
@yesiamyesiamokaycallmeback if I can grow them then I swear to you, they must be easy so much fun for wee ones to pop the pods and eat them raw too!

Lovely idea! Our neighbour gave us some apples recently from their allotment and they were lovely, much fresher and they seemed to last longer. I'd definitely use it!

The ones in my town have been welcomed enthusiastically. The one that's closest to me hasn't had any apples yet, but I've seen comments on facebook from people who have harvested veg from the two veg planters that were erected.

Labels can be a target for vandals - consider the level of antisocial behaviour where you are placing yours. But, yes, people need information on when to pick - many apples are not ripe till Oct or Nov, or even later. The local nature area I help look after has one or two self seeded apple trees, and people tend to pick and spit out in August. Or you could concentrate on early ripening varieties so that they're ripe in August which seems to be when people expect apples to ripen.

Walnuts take a long time to be mature enough to produce fruit. But are interesting to have - most people don't realise the nut is the seed inside a green velvety fruit.

If you have space, consider fruits which are more unusual today - mulberry, quince, medlar.

There's advice available from The Orchard project

If the wasteland is Council, you'll probably find them amenable to the idea as long as you don't want funding. Previously Council members were able to make small grants to community projects in their area, but I suspect that will no longer happen because of Covid.

Think about maintenance, eg watering in the first year while the trees are still settling in. The veg boxes in my local orchard are maintained by the neighbouring children's nursery.

Look for sponsorship in return for advertising - local nurseries and garden centres for trees, DIY places for cheap tools. If you decide to go ahead make as much noise about it as you can.

At my local one you pay a small annual fee, and commit to x days of volunteering there per year (weeding, tidying, harvesting, watering, maintenance) and in return get a share of the spoils. Ours might be a bit different as a portion of the harvest is processed for the members (apples are juiced and bottled, I think they do some jams etc) as well as just the pure fruit they get given

I would try to set it up as a community project, that you run / are a committee member for. I'm not really sure on the rules but I'd worry that if it's something you've personally done then you are liable if someone falls climbing to get fruit, or a tree blows over and damaged something.

We've got one with 100 trees, we got the trees from a gov scheme about 3 years ago.

It's apples, pears, plums and cherries. I went to pick some and someone overnight had stripped every piece of fruit off them all (loads and loads of them)

When planting consider companion planting to encourage bees and other pollinators. Unless your choosing self pollination varieties you’ll need to have more than one of each type (some self fruiting still do better with more than one of each type nearby). And check what not to plant together too, can’t remember exactly but I think walnut shouldn’t be near pears for example. Finally, if you’re in an area of the country that has parakeets you’ll need to monitor your cherries closely. We’ve got a small flock of about nine birds nearby and as the cherries get closer to ripening I have to get out every morning to check and get them picked asap or the parakeets will get there first and they will take them all. This year was the first in four years I’ve won that battle outright (though I was helped by the pair of crows that has set up home in my poplars, they viciously defend their territory!). I’ve got a little orchard and we get masses of fruit every year. This year though so many apples and pears came down on one go due to the storms that my DDs took bagfuls to feed the pigs they look after as we couldn’t use it all in time. The pigs also got bags and bags of acorns. Been a bumper year.

We’ve picked fruit from a community orchard.

As a first step I would get your parish council involved... this is exactly the kind of thing they should be able to help with. They might even be able to put some money towards it.

I think it’s a lovely idea, but don’t think you should spend your savings on it.

We have them and people do use them. I don't to be honest, though I did pick and eat a ton of cherries earlier on the year from the trees on the green.

My friend picked loads of apples and took them for pressing and got 45 bottles of juice. So yes, people use them.

I wouldn't include raspberries, they walk and are a bit of a pain with birds etc.

Walnut trees take forever to grow, but the wood is valuable.

I would love one in my town and would go every week and probably make multiple crumbles etc for the local fundraisers

I'd love it!

Absolutely lovely idea - you should definitely do some fundraising though rather than it all coming from your own pocket.

[quote yesiamyesiamokaycallmeback]@Beamur we checked. it is not owned by anybody. not even the council. there are a few small spaces dotted around that are completely free

all quite small but big enough for a couple of trees[/quote]
It's probably still owned, just not registered. Not all land is registered.

It's a great idea. Someone has set up a fresh food in our area, this sort of thing would be wonderful for them too.

Yes i would (i already get my entires years jam supply from the local forest using their blackberrys) I think i's a really good idea.

There are a few around here, people just post on local FB group to invite others and everything goes!

I am thinking of walnut for when my children are older. I do love the look of medlars so scary looking ! haha !
I did think mulberry too but I thought you have to know what it is to pick it.

The place is right next to a school to I think cctv would be a good deterrent for vandals.

I would be upset if someone took them all to sell actually. but then again. its local so still good for the planet