Pruning the Orchard - Published in K&S Courier 22.2.13
There’s a thin smattering of snow
covering the orchard. The leafless trees
are gaunt against the grey sky. There are a couple of thousand of them to prune
and so far I’ve only done a couple of hundred. But it’s enjoyable and
therapeutic work. Cutting back excess shoots and branches. Opening up the
centre to let summer sunlight in. Creating that pleasing old-fashioned shape of
full-standard apples.
Myrtle enjoys herself keeping the
sheep at bay and chasing the cuttings I throw.
Occasionally another dog is walked through. Despite rebranding ourselves as a Community
Orchard a couple of years ago, few people roam over our 50 acres. And fewer still turn out on volunteer days to
plant trees or pick apples or tidy woodland. It’s more than apathy. In some
quarters there’s downright opposition to our existence. I got a small grant from the Big Lottery Fund
to replace rusting and ugly metal gates with traditional five-bar oak ones. And I installed a pedestrian ‘kissing’ gate
for easier public access. Then someone
complained to the council that we didn’t have planning permission!
But that was nothing to the furore
over our plans for a small pole barn to house tractor and tools. You remember that scene in the Boris Karloff
Frankenstein film when villages march on the castle with pitchforks and flaming
torches? Well, even if it wasn’t quite as bad as that, it felt a bit like it.
For years after the Orchard was
“land-plotted” in the 1970s it remained derelict. Brambles and rabbits abounded while trees
died but the occasional nightingale sang.
Locals seemed to prefer that to attempts of a Plot Owners Association to
clear the land, restore the mature trees and plant new ones.
Utterly unrealistic fears of it
being sold for housing estates or industrial units were raised. Our small barn
was regarded as the thin end of this wedge.
It’s proving hard to change hearts
and minds but we’re determined. It’s
possibly the largest traditional apple orchard left in the South East and a
fantastic repository of wild fauna and flora.
We want to open it up to as many people as possible so they too can
enjoy this wonderful piece of landscape heritage. Our application for
charitable status may allay some fears, but there’s clearly a way to go. In the meantime eight hundred trees await my
pruning saw. Back to work …
kentcountrymatters.blogspot.co.uk/
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