Rokeby Recreation Ground Community Orchard
2021: The pictures show an aerial view of the chosen planting site and the orchard planted by the tree sponsors after the first planting weekend of 27th - 28th November 2021
We have now created a community orchard as a lovely, long term space for the villagers of Tokers Green, Dyson’s Wood and Chazy Heath to enjoy.
It is located in the second field at Rokeby Recreation Ground, with the kind permission of Mapleduram Parish council.
We invited local residents to be part of this community project by donating and planting a tree. Everyone interested was asked to choose either an apple, pear, plum, cherry or quince tree.
The most suitable trees were selected, from a local nursery, based on appearance, rootstock and pollination characteristics, with an overall balance of varieties.
The 31 heritage trees were planted in the first year of the orchard as a community activity on Saturday 27th and Sunday 28th November 2021, and the slideshows below show the chosen site, its preparation the weekend before the initial planting, the activities over the first planting weekend, and the planted orchard. Scroll down to see pictures of our regular work to maintain the orchard as well as the community coming together to plant more trees in later years -
Although the trees were donated and planted by individuals or families, they now belong to the community so that maintenance, such as weeding and pruning, and harvesting of the fruit each Autumn, will be a collective effort. Hopefully, the trees should begin to bear fruit in 2 or 3 years.
November 2024 Update
November 2nd
A group of us planted 98 plants and sowed 12 packets of wildflower seeds today. The plants were grown and donated by Richard & Christine while the seeds were sourced from Greener Henley.
We used an auger to drill a hole suitable for each plant and they were all planted in an area opposite the benches. The seeds were sown into 12 patches of bare soil i 2 strips alongside the path, after we removed the turf. We planted a variety of flowers in both areas. Plenty of Yellow Rattle was scattered in both areas to help the wildflowers thrive.
TOKERS GREEN, CHAZEY HEATH AND DYSONS WOOD COMMUNITY ORCHARD - SUMMER 2024 UPDATE
Introduction
This short update is to provide everyone in the village with information on progress and plans for our community orchard. Information is also provided in the quarterly Kidmore End Parish Newsletter and online via the Mapledurham Parish Council website.
Maintenance of the orchard
All the trees are healthy, with much blossom evident in the spring and fruit now appearing. With a variety of trees planted the fruit will be ready to pick at different times during the autumn. Watch out for a WhatsApp message when fruits are ready for picking. As this is a community orchard we would like to pick the fruit collectively and then use the fruit in cakes, jams and similar which can then be shared.
We have watered the trees as needed this year – only about twice so far given the rain we have had. As we have a community orchard we aim to water every tree at the same time so please do not just water individual trees. Thanks to Monica and to Howard for the kind use of their taps. Going forward the trees will hopefully be sufficiently established to no longer require watering next year.
We do appear to have a “phantom waterer(s) as all the buckets have been emptied a couple of times shortly after being filled – that’s a bit of a mystery??? Anyone got some info??
The Limanthes have grown well around the base of some of the trees and the variation is due to different seed sources – so we now know where to buy the best from next year. Regular weeding has been done to keep the base of each tree as free as possible of competing plants. Much of this work has been done by our DoE volunteers – so many thanks to Zac and Max.
You may have spotted Graham on his mower cutting the grass regularly in and around the trees. It makes a fantastic difference to the orchard with the regular cutting – so many thanks to Graham. We have asked MPC to arrange a full cut of the whole field in October and this will be after any flowers have seeded and before we plant more wildflowers.
Benches
Two new benches were purchased and installed earlier this year, under the supervision of Trevor and with help from Zac and Max. They have been placed to encourage you to pause, to relax and to chat.
Next steps
We will expand the orchard again this year and are planning on around a dozen new apple trees. A message will be sent out on the village WhatsApp asking for interested neighbours to get in touch.
Ideas for an interpretation board are being developed and we hope to install a board early next year.
More wildflowers will be planted later this year to further enhance the diversity of plants in the field.
Each of the trees will need to be mulched and this will be done later in the year.
We are planning our next Wassail on January 18th – and that should be great fun again
Get involved
Everyone is very welcome to get involved in our community orchard, so please get in touch.
August 2024 Update - 3
2024 August 17th
Orchard looking lovely in summer sunshine and with 3 areas mown in advance of autumn wildflower planting. So some thanks needed - to Martin who arranged for the grass cutters from Mapledurham Golf club to cut the section opposite the benches, to Paul who cut one of the strips over several hours and of course to Graham who has once again cut the grass in and among the trees.
August 2024 Update - 2
2024 August 6th
A group of us harvested 586g of apples and 48g of plums this evening. Delighted that we are seeing the fruits of our labours. More to be picked and shared as it becomes ripe over coming weeks.
August 5th 2024 Update - 1
Farming in Protected Landscapes Programme
Installed a plaque today at the orchard as recognition of the support provided by FiPL during 2023 and 2024. Many thanks too to Gareth Clay who successfully helped us through the grant application process.
July 2024 Update
July 2024 - Last session Max and Zac fgrom the D of E were trimming the bases of the trees and tidying them up making them look nice.
3rd July 2024 - Evening views of the orchard showing the blooming Limanthes, apples on one of the trees and a profusion of daisies growing
June 2024 Update
2024 June 16th - Some good signs of fruit on several trees now starting to appear. Here's hoping for some to harvest later in the year.
May 2024 Update
May activity
During May we had our first monthly working date. We decided to celebrate the blossom and health of all our trees as well as water the trees and refill all the buckets.
The new benches needed oiling and with the grass growing Graham has been out again with his mower to cut a couple of times.
April 2024 Update (photos in chronological sequence)
April 23rd
The grass is growing quickly again and so Graham has again kindly got his yellow mower out and cut around all the trees. Likely we are going to need to mow every month to keep the grass down to a reasonable height. The new bench is also visible and looking splendid in the sunshine
April 21st
Today Zac and Mac,volunteers from the DofE, worked on installing a new bench and secured the legs in concrete. They assured us it was great fun!
April 14th
A group of us (see photo) spent an hour or so in lovely Spring sunshine at the orchard weeding around every tree, trimming the grass near the trees that the mower could not reach and also planting Limnanthes too.
Also, Richard & Christine Bisgrove dug up from their garden and donated 20 Cowslips which have been planted in the wildflower area (see photo) plus Sylvia grew and donated a Hesperis, an Ice Eye Daisy and a Valerian which have also now been planted.
March 2024 Update
March 31st
Max and Zac were with us again the weekend of the 31st at the orchard.
This week, they carried on with the stakes which involves adding and replacing stakes and re-stapling the netting on them. They completed about 8-10 and we're extremely grateful for their efforts!.
March 3rd
Last Sunday we had 2 local students, Max and Zac, start work with us at the orchard for a few weeks as part of their Duke of Edinburgh program. They took down the mesh and added replaced/added another stake to the trees then stapled the mesh back on, giving more supprt and protection to our growing orchard.
March 2024 Update
March 1st
The orchard looking splendid in the spring sunshine (in between torrential downpours) with all the trees pruned, some showing blossom already and the daffodils appearing around the bench too.
February 2024 Update
February 18th
We started pruning the apple and pear trees today under the expert guidance of Gill (who used to run Cross Lanes Orchard for many years).
It takes a surprising amount to time to assess each tree, decide on the main branches to retain in order to give a good shape to the tree going forward and to also decide which branches to remove this year.
There is more to be done and we hope to be back in the orchard over the coming days depending on the weather.
January 2024 Update
January 20th. Here are some photos from the Wassail gathering.
Follow this link for the words to the song Armalegaan had written and performed for us on Saturday - and part of it relates specifically to our orchard!
With Christmas and the EoY almost upon us we wanted to provide a summary of 2023 and highlights known dates for 2024
Summary of 2023 - the main highlights include
- expanding the orchard by planting another 15 trees to take us to 59
- replacing 4 trees that had not survived
- creating our wild flower meadow in 2 strips each of 30x2m alongside the path
- watering the trees regularly during the long hot summer (remember that!)
- celebrating our first fruit - a single but wonderful Morelo cherry
- updating the digital diary regularly on the Mapledurham PC website (thanks Ralph)
- obtaining a grant from FiPL to provide very useful financial support
- receiving donations from many neighbours and also raising money at our village Big Lunch
Dates for 2024
- January 20th from 3pm - our annual Wassail - all welcome to celebrate our orchard and help it flourish
- January 20th - tagging the new trees with plaques
- First Tuesday of the month from May - September from 7pm - various essential maintenance activities like weeding, repairs, watering, mulching, etc - and as always many hands help - so please put these dates in your new 2024 calendar
- May 7th
- June 4th
- July 2nd
- August 6th
- September 3rd
December Update
December 6th: Here are some photos from various angles of our community orchard looking splendid in the bright winter morning sunshine. All the new, replacement and established trees are looking fabulous and the entire orchard looks very peaceful after the busyness of the planting session last Sunday.
December Update
December 3rd. We planted 15 new trees this morning and every tree was planted by family groups who braved the rainy weather to dig the hole needed, bang in their stakes, plant the tree fix the mesh, lay out the mulch and fill the hole.
All done brilliantly and the orchard is now 59 trees strong.
November 15th
A small group - Dave, Henri, Ron & Ian - spent an hour in the lovely sunshine today weeding around the base of all the trees and laying a mulch "donut" around every tree too. The mulch will help retain moisture, restrict new weeds growing and also feed the trees. We have mulch left over which will be used in the same way for the new trees which will be planted next month
October Update
October 3rd - we have done the final prep ready for planting of wildflower seeds on Saturday morning. The 2 strips have been cut again - thanks again Graham - and for easy planting each strip has been marked into five 5x2m sections. The hope is that people on Saturday will take a plot each or each family, scarify the section and then plant seeds - which we have bought from Emorsgate.
October 7th - A group of us scarified the strips - that had already been prepared for our wildflower meadow - and then scattered the seeds. We then trod them in. The seeds had been bought from Emorsgate and were chosen as best suited for the soil type in the field - which had been previously analysed. We included Yellow Rattle in with the wildflower seeds and look forward to seeing the blooms in future years.
Photos 3 and 4 show the scarifying and also the treading in.
August Update
August 23rd: Graham has just cut the grass at the orchard on his marvelous mower. He cut the grass around and between the trees and also in the 2 strips where we plan to plant wildflowers on October 7th - all welcome as always. We put the grass cuttings on the strips to kill back the grass to make it easier to scarify and plant the seeds
Graham and Ian have cut a couple of strips near the orchard - on August 7th - which will be the site of our wildflower meadow. This follows on from a group of us meeting at the beginning of the month and deciding these areas were best and most attractive places. We have left the grass cuttings in situ to decompose slightly over the next weeks. We will rake the cuttings away and then hopefully have 50-50 bare ground when we come around to sowing in early October. Our planned sowing date is the morning of Saturday October 7th.
We have had a soil analysis carried out by FiPL for us recently and they recommend seeds from Emorsgate (mix EM5) plus Yellow Rattle as the optimal choice.
Our monthly working activity in August included a variety of tasks. We raised the mesh on the last few trees so we can weed easily around the base of every tree now. All the trees were weeded and grass trimmed around the base of each tree. We watered every tree and refilled all the buckets and used our newly 50m hose, purchased courtesy of a grant from FiPL.
We have messaged everyone on the village WhatsApp to encourage anyone who wants to donate and plant a tree this year to get involved now as the trees need to be ordered and purchased soon. A similar message was in the recent KEPC Parish Newsletter to ensure the message was broadcast as widely as possible.
July 2023 - Update
July 6th - our monthly working date was focused tonight on raising the mesh of more of the trees. As they have grown some are showing out of the top and are potentially vulnerable to nibbling by deer. So raising the mesh will protect the taller trees for longer. It also allows us to strim away grass and weeds that have grown near the base of the trees and will be competing for nutrients.
Also Graham had earlier in the day driven his mower from home and cut the grass around and between the trees.
Sadly it looks like 3 of the trees have not survived and will need replacing when we plant again in the autumn.
Here's a photo of tonight's workers, in the evening sunshine
June 2023 - Update
Delighted to see that our Limnanthes flowers have grown around some of our trees. They were planted earlier this year to encourage insects that will eat aphids and which will then help our trees flourish.
June 15th, Our first fruit has been spotted - a Morello cherry!
May 2023 - Update 2
A few photos to show some of the blossom that has appeared this month and also the heathy growth of the trees. All - except perhaps one - seem to have survived the winter and are now thriving in the Spring.
May 2nd 2023 - Update
During our monthly working session we mulched all the trees. We used compost that Dave had brought from his allotment as well as chippings made by the golf club team using the cuttings from the recent visit by the Green Gym - pleasing circular use of material.
We also secured some slightly wobbly stakes and fixed some loose mesh around a few of the trees
All looks fantastic especially as the trees are budding with leaves showing and some blossom.
Next evening working sessions are from 7pm on the first Tuesday each month - June 6th, July 4th, August 1st, September 5th.
April 2023 - Update 2
The Orchard now looks splendid with all the trees now protected by wire mesh guards. The uniformity is pleasing to the eye and the trees are all starting to blossom & bud. Many but not yet all have had mulch laid around them and the others will be mulched soon.
April 2023 - Easter Egg hunt and seed planting
Despite the rain just beforehand, 5 children from 2 families came along on Easter Monday. Felicity and family did a fantastic job of setting up the Easter egg hunt, also bringing along eggs and homemade biscuits; then the children planted Limnanthes seeds around 10 of the trees along the path…
April 2023 Update
On April 4th we had our first monthly work session at the orchard and our focus was weeding around each tree. Once the weeds are removed from each tree we can add mulch and also replace the sad looking cardboard guards which have degraded a lot over the winter.
March 2023 Update
Our original cardboard tree guards have not fared well and need replacing. As a first step, a group of us installed stakes on March 26th - 2 stakes for each tree. There was a ood sized group and so it did not take too long - after all the recent rain the ground was very soft. We will be fixing wire mesh to the stakes soon and removing the degraded carboard at that time. The new mesh should protect our tress from rabbits and deer for a number of years
2023 DATES FOR YOUR DIARY
- MARCH - On March 26th from 10.00am we will be installing stakes by each tree ready for fitting wire mesh and the more the merrier to help get this vital job done
- APRIL - Easter egg hunt on Monday April 10th from 2pm
- APRIL - Planting Limnanthes on the same day as the egg hunt - all welcome to come along and help
- Regular watering of all the trees on the first Tuesday evening each month from April to September - and many hands make light work, so please come along at 7.00pm whenever you can (we will provide plenty of buckets)
-
- April 4th
- May 2nd
- June 6th
- July 4th
- August 1st
- September 5th
- AUTUMN - Planting new trees - please let us know if you have a neighbour who wants to get involved this year
Spring Update 2023
We wanted to keep everyone informed about and involved in our community orchard and so we thought a short Spring update would be useful and of interest.
Many of you will be walking through the orchard regularly and will have seen that all the trees seem to have survived the winter - so far, but we need to hope that continues with more snow & cold weather forecast. The snowdrops and daffodils seem to pushing through around the plaque and the bench. And there are flowers starting to show in the wild flower bed too.
We need to raise some money for a number of reasons and so we want to ask you for ideas and support. For example, you will have seen that the original cardboard tree guards are not wearing well. They are recyclable and seem to be deteriorating faster than we expected. We thought they would last at least 3 years but many are already in poor shape. So we are thinking that we need to put stakes and wire mesh around them like we did with the 2023 trees. There may be some other needs for funds during the year too - so we are thinking of a target of £500.
We could perhaps raise money on the same day at the planned Big Coronation Lunch. Initial ideas include stalls selling cakes, and plants. Maybe face painting or a stall selling bric-a-brac. Do you have any other ideas and are you willing to organise and run a stall on the day?
Alternatively, maybe you work for an organisation that could provide some funds through their CSR or Sustainability activity. If you could please let us know. And any other fund raising ideas are very welcome too of course.
Please let us know how you can help by next Monday March 13th, thanks.
Going forward here are our current 2023 plans
- Easter egg hunt on Monday April 10th from 2pm - this is being organised by Felicity
- Planting Limnanthes on the same day as the egg hunt - all welcome to come along and help
- Regular watering of all the trees on the first Tuesday evening each month from April to September - and many hands make light work, so please come along at 7pm whenever you can (we will provide plenty of buckets)
- April 4th, May 2nd, June 6th, July 4th, August 1st, September 5th
- On April 4th we will also be installing stakes by each tree ready for fitting wire mesh and also laying more mulch around each tree - and again the more the merrier to help get these vital jobs done
- Planting new trees in the Autumn - please let us know if you have a neighbour who wants to get involved this year
February 2023
We were delighted to host the Chair of Kidmore End Parish Council at the orchard on February 6th. Caroline was keen to learn more about how we created the orchard and to have a little guided tour of it too. She was very positive and complementary about the community wide effort to create our orchard and interested in our plans for 2023.
January 2023
Thanks to Felicity who organised our first Wassail in the orchard on January 8th. We sang 2 Wassail songs while walking round the orchard and banging our saucepans and cans - all to drive our any bad spirits that could be present. We also drank mulled cider, sprinkled cider over the trees and left toast on trees all to encourage good spirits, welcome robins to visit and hopefully leading to a bountiful blossom and fruit. A lovely new local tradition has been started.
December 2022
The final tranche of trees for the year were planted over the weekend of December 3rd / 4th. This are the last trees to be planted this year and we have already had interest for planting more trees in 2023.
And we installed a plaque on the bench to visibly thank Glenn & Sharon who kindly donated the bench for the us to enjoy in the orchard.
November 2022
We successfully planted 10 more trees at the orchard this Saturday 26th November . A lovely large group of villagers, friends and families came along to dig the holes and plant the trees. We all even stayed dry as the rain held off. We have a few more to be planted but are waiting for them to be delivered.
Additionally we are trialling a different approach to protect our trees from being eaten by deer. The picture shows the first tree that's now protected by wire mesh up to about 1.5m and fixed to 2 newly installed stakes. It send to be solid and hopefully will both be an effective protection and last longer than the card based tree guards. We only installed them last year and none look like they will last the promised 3-5 years
October 2022
A small wild flower garden has been created adjacent to the orchard. Thanks to Felicity for making this happen and we are all looking forward to seeing them all bloom next spring. The flower garden has been placed to be visible from the bench.
September 2022
We laid mulch around the trees in the orchard on September 11th. Together with the piece of membrane laid around the base of each tree the mulch will slow the growth of weeds and grass around each tree and it will also provide some nutrients to them. Thanks to Dave for providing the mulch from his allotment and to Jim, Julie, Fiona and Karen for their labour spreading the mulch. Another good job done
August 2022, Watering
With the continuing dry, hot weather we have needed to water our trees regularly.
Our latest watering was on Monday August 15th and the group of willing water carriers are pictured here.
Rain is now forecast but if not enough arrives we shall continue watering regularly."
March 30, 2022
A bench has been donated by Glen and Sharon George for the enjoyment of the orchard as it matures.
We noticed that several of the trees had been nibbled by (we think) deer. So we've decided to try and protect them by rising the original tree guards and that meant we needed to also protect the newly exposed lower 25cm or so. We bought and attached plastic guards which we hope will protect the trees for the future.
February 2022 First pruning of the orchard
As mentioned in the Spring Newsletter - which was recently shared around the village - the first pruning of the trees was carried out on Thursday February 17th.
The goal is to ensure we manage the growth of the trees so that the best branches are retained and others removed. This will give the trees strength and great shape too.
We also had to reduce the height of the tree guards. After bud burst and the last frost e.g. after mid-May, a second pruning to be more selective, leaving the best 4-5 buds between 3-4 foot, reducing the height to above the top bud and removing any growth below 3 foot.
The ideal scenario will be 4 evenly spaced branches about 3-4 foot high, growing outwards in different directions. The photos show the end results for a couple of the trees and the others looks much the same.
Spring 2022 Update
Planting Weekend November 2021
The planting site and the preparation of the ground!
Saturday 27th. Planting weekend. Day 1!
Sunday 28th. Planting weekend. Day 2!
Photographs taken by the Henley Standard on Sunday 28th November
Orchard layout and tree variety
The Original Location and the final planted community orchard!
November 2021 - Why a community orchard?
A small orchard in the heart of the villages is a wonderful asset for present and future generations. Villagers and visitors can take pleasure wandering through the orchard and witnessing the trees’ growth and the fruit mature, or simply pause and enjoy some moments of quiet contemplation.
The future
We hope the orchard will delight our residents, and our children and their children. In its own small way it will act as a carbon sink as well as provide a reservoir for fruit varieties and a refuge for all manner of wildlife: birds, insects and small animals. We plan to arrange village events, especially when the trees are in blossom or when the fruit is ready to pick. Year round it can be a place of meditation and reflection for everyone to share.
Further information and contact details
To build enthusiasm for the community orchard we provided information to everyone in Tokers Green, Chazey Heath and Dysons Wood via a leaflet delivered to every property, as well as emails and our WhatsApp groups. In addition, we provided answers to Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) which can be seen at the following link www.tinyurl.com/rrgorchard
Please contact us if you have questions or want any more information
Dave Thornton, Cath & Ron Middleton, Gill & Ian Beale
[email protected]
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