Lambourn Orchard Update
The attached letter was circulated to the Lambourn Orchard volunteers and Gill kindly agreed that it be shared with a wider readership. Please note that the Orchard Project currently has sufficient volunteers since the number who can work together is severely limited by the Covid-19 distancing restrictions. You can contact Gill by email at orchard@lambourn.org
3 December 2020
Dear Lambourn Orchard volunteers,
Thank you for joining our working party. Our plans are really starting to take shape now. Yesterday we had a site meeting with Arthur and Tony from West Berkshire Council. With help from a couple of local residents, John and Lynsey, they have decided that the most sensible location for the orchard on North Farm Close Open Space will be at the top of the field, furthest from the road and away from the area which is prone to flooding.
WBC are drawing up a revised site map (which I can share with you soon) and will help us by marking out the planting positions for up to 20 trees on the grass using spray paint. We’ve decided that doing the site preparation (the digging of the holes!) is best done as soon as possible. Each tree will need an area of grass cleared which is approximately 50cm in diameter and a hole dug approximately 30cm deep. The “rule of 6” will apply of course to any group gathering. Hence, to allow everyone a chance to get involved with the digging, we propose to have two hole digging sessions:
Sunday 6th December 10am – 2pm
Sunday 13th December 10am-2pm
If you would like to help, please turn up on either Sunday and help dig one or as many holes as you would like! You do need to bring your own spade please because no tools can be shared at this time. We are not going to operate any complicated rota system so should you turn up and count the maximum 6 people already busy at the site, then please come back at a later point. There should be plenty of room to avoid being closer than 2m to each other but obviously use your common sense. I feel duty bound to ask you to take care when digging (no falling into the holes already dug please) and please also walk or cycle to the site if you possibly can. If coming by car, please park sensitively and avoid blocking any driveways in the surrounding roads.
If you can’t make either of these digging dates then feel free to come down to the orchard site at any other time during the week to do your bit of digging. The holes don’t need to be very deep due to the relatively small root balls that our young trees will have, so as long as we don’t hit bedrock or builders’ rubble, we should be able to have all 20 holes dug by the end of the 13th December.
Our little trees (donated by WBC) have been “heeled in” on some spare land in Newbury all summer. We have provisionally agreed that they will be carefully dug up and transported back to Lambourn on Friday 18th December, after which they need to be replanted as soon as possible before the roots start to dry out. Local resident, John Prendergast has kindly agreed to store the trees, some compost mulch and tree stakes etc. overnight and so the plan, at this point in time, is to plant the trees on:
Saturday 19th December (provisionally 10am – 2pm)
Please make a note in your diary of the proposed planting day if you would like to help! Getting the trees in the ground before Christmas will give them the best chance to get their roots established before the growing season starts next year.
I do hope that I’ll see some of you at one of the “Hole Digging Sundays” or “Planting Day” itself! If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me.
Best wishes,
Gill Temple
