The Oxhill News

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Wot2Grow Community Orchard

October has been another very busy month! This is just a snapshot of what we have done so if you want to know more do contact one of the team – details below. 

The sub-soiling was completed and 97 tree holes have been dug - a lot easier than the previous digging but showed that the soil is very dry. We made plant labels for all the bushes & canes and hammered them in and labels are ready for the trees to be planted this year. Again a big thank you to everyone who has joined in the sessions. 

We now have an orchard supervisor as Alan Franklin, from Tysoe, has been appointed to work with us on a part time basis over the next two and a half years. He will be getting us organised and writing a manual on what needs to be done in the orchard throughout the year, to enable us to carry on running the orchard ourselves.

Again we had a wonderful Apple Day on October 15th - a big thank you to all who donated cakes etc, helped on the day and came along and supported us. Apple juicing was the big attraction! We don't know how much juice was produced but it was a lot as we had many buckets of apples and people brought their own apples along as well. Like last year the apple bobbing was very popular with the children. We sold all the cakes and pies that were donated and a good amount of cider was taken away all of which helped us to raise some funds. This is necessary to cover items that we did not include in the funding bid.

Tree planting is planned for December 3^rd, 4th and 10th with sessions starting at 10:00am and 2:00pm on each day. We will also be planting more canes and bushes so there is plenty to do. Having dug all the holes it will be much easier to plant so come along and get involved.  Please come and help! 

Pruning and Grafting Sessions

John Edgeley will be running two training sessions early next year to cover pruning of the newly planted trees and then using these prunings to graft onto rootstock. The days will be January 21st for pruning and February 4th for grafting. 

This is an opportunity to learn some important skills, the sessions will be free for members but a small charge will be made for non-members. If you want to have a particular apple or pear for your garden or to give a tree as a present then why not come along and learn how to do it. 

We will only be grafting apples and pears and using the following rootstocks

M9 Apple trees on M9 are very productive and come into bearing within 2-3 years of planting, the tree reaches full size of 1.8-2.5m after about 5 years. A good choice for the smaller garden.

MM106 Produces a good sized apple tree, 2.5-4.5m, for the larger garden.

Quince A Produces a pear tree similar in size to MM106 

We need to order rootstock so please can you let us know before December 10th if you would like to come to the grafting session and if you require rootstock and how many.

The cost will be between £1.50 and £2.00 per rootstock. 

Or just come along and learn about grafting!! But do let us know.

Either call one of the team or e-mail membership@wot2grow.co.uk

Visit the website www.wot2grow.co.uk 

If you require more information please contact one of the team

This site is maintained by villagers of Oxhill for the benefit of the community and those interested in the history, news and activities that make the village such a pleasant place to live.

Last modified: December 06, 2011