Bowling Park Community Orchard

The final task day before Apple Day. This will be a shorter day at the orchard as we have lots to prepare for the event, including working between Culture Fusion and the Orchard, loading and picking things up.

There will be a large variety of tasks to complete, so please get in touch if you would like to be involved. 

As Apple Day approaches, we need to finish attaching an awning to the food area at the orchard. We also need to harvest the fruit and cut the meadows using scythes and sickles, before mowing. 

Please get in touch if you'd like to come along. All help appreciated.

We will be weeding around the fruit trees.

Please get in touch if you would like to come along.

We will be netting and weeding the fruit bushes and continuing to build the beetle banks. 

Please get in touch if you would like to come along.

We continued our orchard management, weeding to prepare areas to make beetle banks as part of our organic methods of pest control. Beetle populations have declined because of loss of habitat including decaying wood, so hopefully we will encourage more into the site. 

Volunteers completed the path area around the apple store, laying and compacting a layer of sandstone on top of the hardcore laid the day before. 

The area looks very impressive, the sandstone colour complementing the trees in blossom. 

Constructing paths around the apple store.

Volunteers continued the task of preparing the hew hardcore area outside the apple store. They transported four tonnes of hardcore from the site entrance to the orchard, before and laying and compacting the hardcore in the area dug out the previous week. 

Volunteers worked really hard today to dig out the foundations for a new hardcore area around the apple store. This will make the ground more robust in bad weather and safer in periods of heavy use such as Apple Day, or with school groups. Other tasks included weeding and tidying/ renovating an old raised bed.

Volunteers did a fantastic job pruning the hedges around the orchard and preparing a sunny area for planting with hops. We also started clearing some Flag Irises that had firmly taken root, out of the pond. 

We made a great start carrying out the annual  meadow cut using traditional tools such as  scythes and sickles, raking off the arisings to keep the fertility of the grass low and to encourage the wildflowers to thrive. We collected wildflower seeds with a view to creating a nursery area in our roof garden for  propagating them.   

We will be making a start on the winter pruning of the apple trees.  There will also be other more energetic jobs to keep us warm.