The Arduaine Friends have donated generously to help Arduaine Garden carry out a new orchard project. The purpose of this project is to create an orchard on land that historically has been outside the garden and used for agricultural purposes. This land was acquired with money raised by donations, including a substantial one from the Jeniam Foundation, and since then it has been managed lightly to encourage wildlife.
Over the years bracken has dominated this area and last year a new orchard was planned to make better use of this land.
Arduaine Garden originally had a food production element to it, but that has been lost as the focus shifted to more decorative plantings. The creation of an orchard brings the external field back in to food production and as it is external to the fenced area of the garden, it will be left open for the local community to use the produce.
The varieties of apples have been carefully selected for this site, grown on semi dwarfing rootstocks to suit our climate and supplied mostly as Maiden stems, for better establishment in this exposed location. The varieties will be labelled to indicate which are culinary (cooking) and dessert (eating) as both types have been planted. In total there are 47 trees, 40 apples, 4 plums and 3 Damsons all listed in the table below.
Arduaine Orchard. First row during planting.
Arduaine Garden staff will shape, prune and maintain these trees, and they have been laid out in such a way that if they grow more vigorously than intended, they can be thinned and reduced in number to allow for better development and health of the individual trees while keeping the number of varieties. Fruit may appear this year in very small quantities, but it will be 5- 10 years before any significant quantity is produced, so please be patient!
In the next few weeks protective wire cages will be fitted to the trees to reduce animal browsing and a weed suppressing mulch will be applied on top of biodegradable coir mat to help with successful establishment.
I would like to thank the Arduaine Friends for the donation of £2000 that made this project possible. I hope everyone can enjoy the fruit grown in this orchard for years to come.
Gregor Anderson.
In the next few weeks protective wire cages will be fitted to the trees to reduce animal browsing and a weed suppressing mulch will be applied on top of biodegradable coir mat to help with successful establishment.
I would like to thank the Arduaine Friends for the donation of £2000 that made this project possible. I hope everyone can enjoy the fruit grown in this orchard for years to come.
Gregor Anderson.
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