Rockness Orchard success and juicing tomorrow

Firstly see our last juicing and picking at Humphreys End orchard here - and see here about juicing and picking tomorrow plus plans for the future of that orchard and how you can get involved. Join us and hear about how you can be involved.

Photos: Bottle of Apple juice from my neighbour - some of the apples used had fallen into my garden from the tree behind the bottle in the pic - the apples were juiced with loads of others then the results shared out.

Next up in this blog is the success of the Rockness Trust - a not-for-profit community interest company acting for the benefit of the residents of Rockness Hill, Nailsworth. It was incorporated in June of this year, with the initial aim of acquiring an old orchard and turning it into a community orchard and meeting space. Their aims are to build community cohesion and resilience for the long term, and have fun doing it!

They are pleased to announce that they have received a £9,882 grant from Awards for All, part of the National Lottery, which will enable us to complete our project. They have delayed publicising this until the purchase of the land was secure - it now is.

They are now hoping to engage a landscape architect to design possible layouts, hard landscaping and planting. This will include a community orchard, a meeting space with seats, and a wildlife area. The initial work will be by a tree surgeon, who will remove invasive trees such as sycamore. A digger will then carry out the hard landscaping and remove excess dumped soil if required. After that, they will invite anyone interested to help plant local varieties of apple and other fruit, hedgerows of native species, and help build the community by getting to know each other better.

What about a similar project locally this side of Stroud?