Saturday 19 April is the proposed date for our next working party. (To be confirmed shortly on this site). Because of recent heavy weather, there are still many trees to plant, so a fun day is promised. The remaining trees have been heeled in on site until then. Come one, come all, from 10am, with refreshments and other facilities available in the vilage hall.

At a recent committee meeting in the Shoulder of Mutton some decisions were taken about tree sponsorship and membership schemes, which it is hoped will be launched in the Autumn. More news later.

We acknowledge with thanks the donation of tree sleeves by Tim Lowden, Manager of Playhatch Garden Centre 

As you will have seen from this week's Standard, more than twenty orchard enthusiasts, young and old, had a great day working together at the orchard last Saturday. Holes were prepared and around a dozen trees were planted with 120 8' poles being driven into the ground to make enclosures to protect the trees from deer. 

The younger ones had tremendous fun bailing water from the holes dug last week, and the older ones enjoyed barrowing in topsoil, planting and enclosure building. Everyone enjoyed Tim and Judy's flapjacks.

We still have most of the trees to plant (they have just been heeled in so far). Will you join us this Saturday, 22 March anytime from 10am onwards?

Putting down roots

Tomorrow, Saturday 8 March is the first of several planned working parties and you are most welcome to join us. Help bring this exciting new project into being!

We have 45 trees on order and expected for the following Saturday so we must prepare the ground for them. Phillimore Farms are kindly donating something to make the ground more suitable for them and Phil Dyer and his mini-tractor-powered augur will kindly be making holes for us. Tim Coulson will be leading the workers.

You will be most welcome to join in, even for only an hour or two, either tomorrow or next Saturday! Refreshments will be available. For information on the day, please call David Woodward on 07802 433058. Wear suitable clothes and footwear.

Adopt-a-tree?

At this week's meeting in the Shoulder of Mutton we discussed a scheme to allow local people to adopt a tree - a great way to commemorate a loved one, or to involve the whole family in learning about traditional fruit-tree growing. Would you be interested? More details later.

Going for a constitutional

We now have a draft constitution, which we hope to adopt shortly. You can also read the minutes of a recent meeting here.

Please forward these details to anyone you think might be interested: see you on the day! 

A reminder of our event at 11.30 this Sunday. A Blenheim Orange will be planted on the village green to mark the start of the orchard. There will be mulled cider and mince pies in the hall afterwards, with a progress update and news of a chance to join the planning group. Please pass on to anyone that might like to get involved in creating the orchard.