What we got up to during planting season

The end of March was our last planting days for the winter. We’ve had an epic planting season, working with thousands of people to grow fresh, free fruit at home, at school and in your communites.

We’ve started and finished with schemes to get more people growing in their home gardens. Better Place Bradford got us in to visit 190 homes in the Better Start Bradford area with a fruit tree or bush each. Over in Beeston we’ve been doing something similar with 100 homes around the St Lukes Tenants’ and Residents’ Association.

Trees for Climate Action is an inter-generational Trees for Cities project to get children and adults planting trees together around Bradford District. As part of that we’ve planted two new community orchards in the Wycliffe area of Shipley and extended the Cliffe Castle Museum orchard. The involvement of Wycliffe C of E Primary School and Eastwood community respectively were highlights of the year. They got stuck in and will be benefiting from the fruit for years to come.

For part of Trees for Climate Action we worked with My Living Well to plant 7 new Bradford primary school orchards, mostly with a “jam hedge”. At each we’d done a summer design session with pupils and autumn juicing. Thank you Peel Park, Westminster, Poplars Farm, Feversham, Killinghall, Lower Fields and Thornbury primary schools. We will see you again in the summer to help you learn how to care for and maintain your orchards.

We also teamed up with Keighley Town Council Pollinator Project to help St Josephs Primary School to plant an orchard, jam hedge and hop yard.

With the White Rose Forest and Belle Isle TMO we’ve planted 3 new orchards around the Belle Isle estate. And over at Ravenshall School we planted an edible hedge.

This month My Living Well mini-orchards have been planted with St. Oswald's and All Saints, Bradford, Anchor Project Royds Community Association's Woodside Village Centre, Shine West Bowling , Ridge Medical Centre, West End Centre and Lister Avenue Community Garden.

Our tree nursery has also supplied hundreds of own grown trees to customers.

A mammoth planting season. Time for a rest! (Although we’ve already got 27 school and community groups confirmed for planting in the next year!) But for now, time to enjoy the relative calm of May!