Our next orchard workday is this Saturday 2nd April 11am -3pm.
Next Orchard Meeting – 6th April 7pm Bakers’ Arms
Follow us on twitter: @RailwayOrchard
Jenny managed to get her hands on a smart orange shredder, which was wheeled with huge amounts of huffing and puffing into the orchard, and set to work. We had quite a crowd this time, including four girls from the IB course at Thomas Hardye’s. Ian began feeding branches and brambles into the shredder, setting a sterling example for all of us, although his cardigan will never be the same again. Jenny and Kate followed, and found that it wasn’t as easy as it looked – the voracious orange mouth of the shredder devoured long straight sticks, sucking them down to its whirling blade at the bottom, but brambles were a different matter. They hooked themselves onto sleeves and threatened to drag less weighty people down towards the blade in an very alarming way. Then the brambles all got jammed at the bottom anyway and wouldn’t be shredded at all. Since many of the mountains of waste material consisted of brambles, this looked serious. Len then took over the shredder, we abandoned the brambles and things went a lot faster. (Jenny and Kate put this down to the lack of brambles, rather than Len’s superiority as a shredder operator…) We all kept the shredder well supplied with branches, sneaking in the odd bramble every now and then, but it became clear that a weekend’s shredding was not going to achieve our dream of shifting all the piles of rubbish. And then the shredder packed up anyway, so we called it a day. The problem then arose – what should we do with the shredder? It was too heavy to take anywhere, and we were afraid it would be stolen if we left it in the orchard. In the end, we had the cunning idea of camouflaging it (what, a big bright orange shredder??) It was done extremely effectively – one advantage of having so many piles of stuff left over, I guess… – and you would never have known it was there. As we walked away, some of us wondered what we had spent all day doing…
The following day, since we had hired the shredder for the whole weekend, we assembled again, with some new, fresh (to shredding) faces. The sun was shining and it was clear it was going to be a good day. And so it turned out to be. We uncovered the shredder and apart from a little hiccup when Murray decided to test his strength on the string pull of the engine, everything went smoothly. Everyone worked hard bringing branches, several hearty blokes operated the shredder and we got through huge amounts of stuff. The difference was quite amazing this time and we really felt we had achieved something by the end. The mulch produced by the shredder is all spread out now and is busily smothering baby brambles. We even had tea this time, sitting round our smart new table, during which we had a serious discussion about the bramble issue. There were those who momentarily considered tipping over the camping stove in their direction – they were so dry by now that the conflagration would have been brief and immensely satisfying. But we had assured Network Rail that we wouldn’t burn a single stick, so in the end we reluctantly abandoned that tack. Jenny said that she would contact Network Rail again to put our case for burning, but later, after several of us had seen a wren, we thought that piles of brambles would make a suitably cat-proof habitat for nesting birds, and since we weren’t going to be using the whole of the orchard area immediately, why not just pile it in one corner and let it rot. Task for next workday….
Next workday: 2nd April
Having got rid of most of the rubbish during the previous workday, we went back to the brambles and various other tasks. An old gentleman living in one of the Monmouth Rd houses backing onto the orchard had contacted Jenny and offered to donate £20 towards buying fruit trees. He also mentioned that he was having trouble keeping his back hedge trim, so two of us tackled that, resulting in some rather impressive hedge laying. Others worked on the bushes outside the fence and cleared up the path, while the rest of us carried on with the endless 20ft brambles. Further down the plot, those who favour the slash and burn approach (without the burning, obviously…) were busy annihilating everything in their path. Luckily, a more sensitive soul spotted a couple of currant bushes which were then lovingly unswathed of their cloak of brambles, then our soft fruit experts proceeded to hack them to bits anyway (it’s called pruning – Ed). We left the site feeling heartened that yet again, despite the daunting scale of the work to be done, we had manage to achieve real results. All we need now is a shredder 
We are hiring shredders to start on the mammoth task of shredding our great piles of brambles. Come along to the Railway Orchard on Monmouth Road to help.
The next planning meeting is at Tom Brown`s this Thursday. We need to discuss future workdays, progress on current projects and the arrival of our polytunnel! All welcome
Today, Sunday March 6th, four of us went on a factfinding mission to Tatnam Organic Patch in Poole, a “thriving community organic allotment, and an urban haven for wildlife, with many plants and trees introduced to raise the biodiversity.” We were made very welcome and shown round by Mark, who works as a gardener and is very keen and knowledgeable on wildlife – he was able to tell us all the species of butterflies which visit the plot and what their food plants were. He is also a keen forager and we nibbled a variety of hedgerow plants as we wandered around, the favourite being allium triquetrum which tastes like a garlicky leek. Unfortunately it is very invasive and a non-native species so we will have to think carefully about planting it.
Mike and Judy got some good advice on ponds – theirs has a butyl liner, is lined with the fibre we have been contemplating, and is fed the overflow from their water collection system. While I chatted about parsnips and the joys of sociable gardening with some volunteers, the others were shown round the greenhouse with its impressive plumbing. Rainwater harvesting is their only source of water and they have an ingenious system of hydroponics and many water containers inside and out.
They have many of the features we are planning – ponds, bees, raised beds, fruit trees, herb beds, compost area etc. It is all very relaxed and has a friendly feel. The place seems to be run on a shoestring, many things, including their large greenhouse, have been donated, they have a large fenced area where they store donations and it was pretty full, with pots, timber, windows and miscellaneous other stuff. They have an earth closet, which they say is no bother to tend and water is boiled in a storm kettle for tea – we were advised to bring our own mugs and enjoyed a hot cuppa before we set off for home with many things to mull over. Look them up here www.tatnampatch.org.uk
Come along to the next Farm meeting at 7.30pm this Thursday, 10th March in Tom Brown`s to hear more about it and help us plan what to do next on our patch.