Brighton Permaculture Trust is proud to report that, working with a number of partners, last winter we planted 228 grafted fruit or nut trees and 3,505 seedling trees (planted for fruit, nuts, wildlife and shelter).
Brighton Permaculture Trust raised much of the funding for this work and began planting orchards sponsored by Infinity Foods. Contact us if your organisation would like to sponsor the planting of school and community orchards.
Here’s an update on the various projects we’ve been involved with this winter.
Brighton & Hove
Racehill Community Orchard, Whitehawk
Here we continued working in partnership with the Racehill Community Orchard Group and Brighton & Hove Food Partnership to plant more trees. Much more rubbish has been cleared from the site, 56 more grafted fruit trees were planted, and 1,100 trees have been planted in shelter hedges, including many more cherry plums, which are a much valued feature of the site. More fruit trees will be planted next winter.
Hollingdean Estate
Working with local residents and the Hollingdean Development Trust, we planted 80 fruit trees, 11 nut trees and 50 seedling trees around the estate this winter.
Meadowview
Four Sussex apple trees, 4 Normandy apple trees and 30 shelter trees were planted with residents, school children and our partners from Normandy.
Bevendean Recreation Ground and Walmer Close
Four fruit trees were planted at Walmer Close, and 50 shelter trees were planted at Bevendean Recreation Ground with residents of Bevendean.
Craven Vale Estate
Craven Vale Residents Association were helped to plant 6 more fruit trees around the estate.
Stanmer Park
Two rare Sussex apple trees were planted near Earthship Brighton as part of our National Collection of Sussex apples. Five fruit trees were planted at our plot, and 110 assorted seedling trees were planted around Stanmer Organics.
East Sussex
Big Park Project, Peacehaven
Last winter saw the start of an exciting new project with Lewes District Council and Peacehaven Town Council. Within the new ‘Big Park’ a 4-acre area has been made available for a community orchard. The site has good soil and a southerly aspect but is exposed, so this winter we started on site by planting 2,165 shelter trees around the site. A large diversity of species were planted. Fast growing species include Italian alder and Monterey pine; native trees include oak and beech; nut bearing species walnut and chestnut; fruiting species include cherry plum and crab apple. Next winter the plan is to plant around 100 hardy fruit trees in the area within the shelter trees.
Ditchling Community Orchard
A quince and another apple were planted with HKD Transition group.
West Sussex
Barlavington Estate, Duncton
Working with Brighton Permaculture Trust, the estate has started work on the creation of a collection of Sussex apples adjacent to a public footpath. The collection will act as a valuable second collection and will contain two trees of each of the Sussex apple varieties. This will complement our collection at Stanmer Park. Last winter 17 trees of 9 varieties were planted.
Buckingham Park Primary School, Shoreham
Funded by Infinity food, 11 fruit trees were planted. The day may have been wet and muddy, but the enthusiasm of the staff and pupils wasn’t dampened.
Herrington’s Field Community Orchard, Arundel
The orchard is managed by Herrington’s Field Community Orchard Group and Arun District Council. Previously we helped plant 20 assorted fruit trees here and 150 native shelter trees, mostly alders, to protect the orchard from the south westerly winds and provide wildlife habitat. Last winter we planted 10 more fruit & nut trees including apple, crab apple, plum & cob nut.
Roots to Growth, Washington
Working with volunteers from the group and our partners from Normandy, we planted 6 Normandy and 6 Sussex apple trees.
Thanks to our supporters
All orchards were planted in partnership with local organisations, but we would particularly like to thank Brighton & Hove Food Partnership for working in partnership on a number of projects.
Most of the planting would not have been possible without the dedication and hard work of our volunteers or other volunteer groups. Sign up to volunteer with us.
The following organisations and people helping to make these various plantings and associated activities possible:
- Barlavington Estate
- Biffa Award
- Big Tree Plant
- Buckingham Park Primary School
- Craven Vale Community Association
- European Social Fund Community Grants South East Region
- Herrington’s Field Community Orchard
- Lewes District Council
- Infinity Foods
- Interreg, European Development Fund
- John Horsfield
- Off the Ground local governance pilot project
- People’s Health Trust
- Turner Dumbrell Foundation
- Veolia Environmental Trust
Our thanks also go to the following local authorities for their support:
- Arun District Council
- Brighton & Hove City Council
- Lewes District Council
- Peacehaven Town Council