8 March 2023
Planting an orchard with Grasmere School
This week we had a great day of tree planting at Common Farm with students from Grasmere Primary School. We planted 22 apple trees to create a new cider orchard featuring many traditional trees from around the country – these could be harvested for cider, apple juice and involve the community in future harvesting and apple pressing days.
This is one of three new orchards planned for Common Farm, the trees planted will have a small but valuable conservation role to play, providing homes and habitats for wildlife, sources of nectar for insects and pollinators and places to nest for birds in winter.
Grasmere primary is one of three local schools that have been working with us in Windermere over the last year, learning about all aspects of blossom trees and how they are ‘nature’s fest’ for wildlife. The other schools involved in the project are St Cuthbert’s Primary and Leven Valley Primary. Last year the children learnt about germination, they collected crab apples and had fun smashing them up to find their seeds, planting and labelling them in compost. We are thrilled to see that many of these have taken. More seeds were also sent on to the National Trust plant propagation centre for professional propagating, which we hope will be suitable for planting back out in future years.
