Blue-Skies Apples And Pears
Blimey I seem to be posting a lot today - Proper Work is getting a very sad time of it just now, but this is an urgent one that needs attention.Transition Westcombe - a jolly group I still don't quite 'get' but who do fun community stuff and seem to be an all round Good Thing, have been approached by a body who are trying to create orchards in London and who have the wherewithal to apply for funding for one in Westcombe Park.
Transition Westcombe are urgently looking for suggestions for where a community orchard could be situated - you don't need to worry about who owns the land or any icky stuff like that just now - it can all be sorted out later, apparently. They just want suggestions for good sites for fruit trees - large or small (you can put an orchard in a very small space, they tell me) so that they can make an application.
Off the top of my head, I'm thinking the bit of spare green land along by the railway at Westcombe Park station (good luck with Southeastern - but then they do need all the good publicity they can get just now...) the little corner of land at the bottom of Beaconsfield Road, possibly the funny little bit of green at the bottom of Woodlands in Mycenae Road (though I'd be less keen on that one - I like it being actual woodland) - or - how about this - the newly vacated site of the Old Friends?(not officially WP, I know but let's face it - Woolwich Road needs it more...)
This is a really urgent thing - they need to put the suggestions in in the next couple of days. So - if you've got great ideas, email them to transitionwestcombe@googlemail.com
with the subject line 'Orchard sites'. Then tell me, here, 'cause I'm one nosy Phantom...
Labels: Green Greenwich
posted by The Greenwich Phantom at
13:56
20 Comments:
Thanks very much for posting that, Phantom. What is "the newly vacated site of the Old Friends"? Do you have an address that would pin it down so we can check it out? Sorry for my ignorance of this one.
How about on the Heart of Greenwich site - it will be a long time before any buidlings take shape and they can then build round our orchard.
I suggested the not very parky park at the back of Mycene House which is in definate need of some TLC
Oh wait, the Old Friends pub, I know where you are now. Yes, a fair bit of razing to the ground to do before it would make an orchard. Nice idea though.
A bit of guerrilla gardening on the Heart of EG site, good idea. Why is nothing happening there yet?
It depends which bit you mean, Stephanie - the 'dell' between Beaconsfield Close and Mycenae Road, which is separate from M House, or the grounds of M House itself? If the dell, I think lots of people like its currently wildish nature (and the bounty of brambles there) and might not welcome the uprooting of the existing trees for smaller kinds.
If the grounds of M House - seems worth exploring and it can certainly go on the list for exploring.
Yep - we were talking about this a couple of days ago. http://www.thegreenwichphantom.co.uk/2009/11/old-friends.html
The old friends is the ghastly old pub that used to be (well - it technically still is for a week or so) on Woolwich Road, near the junction with Vanbrugh Hill. It's being knocked down, but there are no plans to build anything in its place, so it will just be a horrid building site. It's owned by Hatcliffe Charity (see the post about it) and they might be amenable to having a little corner of green on Woolwich Road...
I confess I'm very fond of the Dell as it is...
Yes - there IS a fair amount of razing to the ground that has to be done on the Old Friends - but it's being done as I write this...
D'oh my link went all wrong -here it is again - but if it gets lost again, just scroll to the bottom of the page - or look at the sidebar - we were only discussing the demolition of the Old Friends a couple of days ago.
http://www.thegreenwichphantom.co.uk/2009/11/old-friends.html
Found the post on Old Friends, thanks. It depends not just on what they plan to build but on how fast work takes place there, as time is an issue: If the orchard project came to, ahem, fruition, it would look to be planting in 12 months' time. One to look at, though.
I understand there is no plan to build there full stop. Mary Mills might be able to confirm that.
You should ask the owners, not me. Look - I am all for planting things all over the place but I can't bear to see trees dying because they have been planted in unsuitable places or have been vandalised, or pulled up. Please Transition Westcombe - or anyone - if I can help find reliable sites in Peninsula Ward (that is north of the railway) I will - and get proper advice as well. Yesterday I was at the Growing Greenwich launch which is all about food growing - happy to put people in touch with them - and the Peninsula Ecology Centre also have lots of good ideas and expertise.
Excellent, thanks Mary. We will pick your brains re the north side if that's where things look promising.
Agree on avoiding planting in unsuitable places.
Talking of things in the orchard, does anyone know of some kind of fruit picking charity. There are three apple trees in the communanl gardens of my flats and this year they produced a massive crop of apples, most of which went to rot. It seemed such a terrible waste and I didn't have the wherewithall to pick and disperse myself.
Latelygay, Transition Westcombe has been discussing a kind of 'harvest help' scheme to pick fruit from unharvested trees in the area, perhaps for a mix of personal use and distribution to schools, nursing homes, etc.
I suggest you email transitionwestcombe@googlemail.com with the address and details, and hopefully if it gets off the ground your trees would be included. If it's a bit outside Westcombe Park I doubt it would matter. And if you want to join the mailing list for TW, use that address too.
A vast orchard on the old hospital site - now there's a thought...
I'm agreed with scared of chives and Miller - why not incorporate some allotments in there while we're at it? It would be lovely to make East Greenwich's Heart a green one.
'Transition Westcombe' sounds like just the ticket. Thanks for the tip, TW!
Latelygay, you may want to read this article re fruit picking: http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2009/nov/18/fruit-abundance-picking
And can I make a recommendation of the Dwarf Orchard in the park, or is that redundant?
The dwarf orchard is going ahead, which is great, but it's not clear to me that it's going to be particularly resident-managed. What we'd like is real community buy-in and participation in a community orchard, so anyone who wants can help out, learn some skills and so on.
That's a great article, by the way, saw it at the time - and it's just the model we have in mind here.
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