This guest post is by Jenni Cresswell from Brighton Permaculture Trust which has been planting orchards with communities across Sussex for over 15 years.
Traditional orchards are being lost from our landscapes at worrying rates. We’re doing something to curb that trend.
We believe that as well as the usual benefits from trees – such as removing carbon dioxide and pollutants from the air, providing habitats for wildlife, and making our urban areas more attractive, enjoyable and healthy places to live and spend time in – planting orchards together and learning to care for the trees to provide a healthy, local harvest can really help bond communities together.
Community Volunteers Needed!
We encourage and support community volunteers in learning to care for their orchards, motivating people to get outside and engage with nature while increasing biodiversity & climate resilience on their doorstep.
Aftercare for the trees – especially in the first 3 years – is vital to their survival. Our main focus during this time is to ensure the young trees get enough water and food to put down anchoring and feeding roots to enable them to become sturdy, independent mature trees.
We have secured funding from the Urban Tree Challenge Fund and with permission from Adur & Worthing local authorities, been able to plant 35 trees at 3 orchard sites. But we’d like to plant more! We have funding to allow us to pay for buying and planting another 75 trees, and to provide free specialist on site training to plant and look after trees for up to 3 years. Can you help? We can teach you all the necessary jobs such as feeding, pruning, repairing tree protection and monitoring tree health.
Where We Have Planted…
These orchards are waiting for their very own tree guardians! We have watering support from the council at these sites.
Click on each place to see it’s precise ‘what3words’ location.
…And Where We Might Be Able To Plant
- Shoreham: Adur Recreation Ground
- Shoreham: New Salts Farm (Ouse and Adur Rivers Trust are also involved in this site)
- Southwick: Southwick Leisure Centre (Also interested: Eastbrook Community Gardeners)
- Lancing: Larkfield Open Space
- Fishersgate: Fishersgate Park (Also interested: Eastbrook Community Gardeners)
Find Out More and Donate
If you can’t help out practically, would you consider donating to our community orchard work? We are currently running an Aviva Wild Isles campaign, so every £1 you donate, the funder matches with £2! This is for a limited time.
https://www.avivacommunityfund.co.uk/p/community-orchards
Find out more about our community orchards on our website:
https://brightonpermaculture.org.uk/orchards-and-fruit/our-work-with-orchards-and-fruit/
Got another location in mind? Why not contact our Community Orchards manager?
