14 people attended.
Group looked at site of the orchard - to think about considerations such as exposure, traffic of people and dogs, protection that will be needed etc.
Suggestions of other orchards to visit:
- The Field, Duddingston Village
- Megginch Castle,Errol - Megginch Castle’s orchard has an extensive collection of fruit trees – 380 cider apple varitiies and 40 Scottish apple and pear varieties. The orchard has recently been awarded National Collection status. The ancient orchard of Megginch was famous for the Bloody Ploughman variety. The orchard has approximately 1000 trees
- Small orchard in Cramond Village?
Main points or areas of interest to explore further that came out of meeting:
Would like to include -
- Heritage Varieties
- Apple Varieties chosen for different uses - juicers, cookers, eaters
- Other fruit suggested:
Plums
Cherries
Greengage
Mulberry
Damson
Medlar
Quince
Apricot?
(Offer of some Plum tree cuttings from John and a Damson from Nigel)
AP: circulate the varieties that we have already that can go in the orchard
- Different growing techniques -
- Understorey? - possible nitrogen fixers, legumes
- Mulch and Compost
- Biochar uses - AP:check the source of the Biochar given to us by Dandelion
- Tree Protection - is this needed? And if so what type?
- Set up an orchard e-mail group [email protected]
- Design Session date - AP: likely to be the 4th or 5th of Feb
- Planting the orchard - AP: look up Biodynamic principles to see best lunar phase for planting fruit trees
To organise for later
- Skills training
- Wassail Event for Jan 2024