Arthur the Awful Apple Arachnid – our Community Orchard's contribution to Lowick Village Halloween scary scarecrow competitionIf you drive past the orchard site you may be forgiven for experiencing disappointment at the lack of obvious progress but, whilst the practical work goes slowly, behind the scenes our efforts are considerable.
So far we have almost 60 trees sponsored in the orchard! This is absolutely tremendous and we are amazed and delighted at the support the orchard project has received. Thank you to everyone who has sponsored a tree! I know there are still more tree orders to come but I have reserved those already ordered with the nursery, as stocks of available varieties are becoming more limited. This weekend we tried to stake out tree positions on the orchard field; it proved a really difficult task as the spacing varies for many of the rootstocks and grouping fruit types whilst working around wiggly paths left us very bamboozled. I think we took out more stakes than we put in – but we did our best!
Funding for orchard paths, hard standing and seating is part of a Higher Level Stewardship grant application our tenant has made to Natural England. Rumours of imminent financial cuts to this scheme left us with a terrible scrabble to pull together information and quotes for the items we hoped to include but, I’m delighted to say, funding was approved and signed for, just days before further applications to HLS were suspended. We need to thank everyone involved for working so hard to push the application through before the deadline.
Natural England has agreed to fund the seating, paths and parking area as part of our farm’s Educational Access, which we hope will eventually include a classroom and toilet block in our farm buildings. Several of these items have been sent to Northumberland County Council’s planning department for a pre-planning application assessment. Unfortunately the access from the orchard onto the road is unsatisfactory and we have a meeting with the Highways department on 11th November to see if anything can be done to improve it. Formal planning permission for the car park and the sheltered seating area must now be applied for – planning isn’t covered by grants so we’re just funding it ourselves.
We have found a lovely sheltered seating structure made from recycled plastic which we would like to include in the centre of the orchard. It has benches around the inside and the sides may be removed if we wish to use the structure for small performances. Unfortunately Natural England has only agreed part of the cost but the company who makes the structure, Marmax Products Ltd., has offered to help us therefore, if we can find the difference, we may still be able to include this in our project.We’re waiting for quotes for fencing that will form the orchard/field boundary. This will be put up during the winter and then we’ll plant a hedge next to it which will include lots of fruiting shrubs. The orchard paths are due to be started at the end of November, though this may depend upon the outcome of our meeting with the Highways department.
Thank you to everyone who has helped the orchard project over the last few months. There’s an awful lot of work been going on to make your orchard grow... even if there isn’t a tree in sight!
Thank you to everyone who attended the launch of Lowick Community Orchard in Lowick Village Hall on the 7th of September. The enthusiasm, encouragement and support that the project received were greatly appreciated!
It was sown on the19th of August 2010 
A fine green haze of new grass now lies over the orchard and Tom has marked the position of the paths using an ingenious Heath Robinson affair. This involved our old Merry Tiller, part of a tractor welded on to form a spike and a garden cane - necessity is the mother of invention!