Traditional Orchard but on a small scale
Byng Brook Orchard is going to be maintained as a traditional orchard1
but on a small scale. The orchard is on a corner of a friend's farm and is about 300m22 and I hope to create something that provides some of the
benefits that a traditional orchard offers but on a small scale. If this
works to create a bio-diverse environment for lots of lovely creatures and
plants then maybe I can inspire others to do the same with their little
strips of land.
One of my inspirations for this is Orchard: A Year in England's Eden
by Benedict Macdonald and Nicholas Gates3. They
write of an orchard in Herefordshire which they surveyed over the months of
a year to see the flora and fauna that flourished there. An orchard like the
one they studied is sadly a rarity in today's England. The orchard of our past was a melting
pot of habitats; dead or decaying trees, long grass, tough scrub, huge wild
hedgerows, log piles, fallen fruit, boggy bits, dry bits. A little bit
of heaven for everybody's taste.
Now I understand that the food needs of the masses require us to farm in a way that provides huge amounts of produce at supermarket standards and the human power required to work the farm in a traditional way at that scale is nigh on impossible in the modern age. But wouldn't it be a fine effort if our generation could attempt to improve our little bits of land by letting them be a bit more wild. Allow nature to guide us.
Perhaps it will take me years to arrive at the picture in my head of a scruffy
but abundant orchard but it will hopefully be an interesting journey along the way.
1 Traditional Orchards are defined, for priority habitat purposes, as groups of fruit and nut
trees planted on vigorous rootstocks at low densities in permanent
grassland; and managed in a low intensity way.↩
3 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/48836406-orchard↩
Hi Blake - Have you come across Suffolk Traditional Orchards (STOG) and Orchards East? They are very helpful. I'm not too far from Byng Brook!
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