planting on Saturday 19th March POSTPONED
A brief explanation of why we couldn’t do any planting on Saturday 19th: we inspected the ground and it needs quite a bit of preparation before we will be able to plant in it. The ground is obviously covered with grass and the soil is very compacted underneath. We had an exploratory dig to see how easy/difficult it would be to slip in the whips and it proved very difficult. We have come up with a solution. We need to remove the top grass layer, and then rotovate the exposed soil so we can then pop in the whips much more easily. Some whips are little plugs (about 10 cm deep) but the ones with bare roots are a bit longer so will need a deeper hole.
We need someone to prepare the ground using some sort of mechanical equipment to remove the turf layer and then rotovate the soil underneath. The area to prepare is about 60cm wide and 160 metres long. It will be marked out clearly ready to work on.
Is there anyone out there who could do this for us? Doing this by hand would take a lot of hard work so if anyone can help mechanically that would be great. We would like this done ASAP as the leaves on the whips are already bursting and they need to get in the ground, so ideally sometime in the next week, if at all possible.
Once the ground is prepared we will be able to progress the planting so we will be asking for help again when we get to that stage.
Many thanks
We are really sorry but due to unforeseen circumstances (it’s a long story), we are unable to go ahead with the whips planting on 19th March.
Another date will be arranged as soon as possible.
A (earlier) message from Penny Kinloch
Hi everyone. We have had the delivery of our whips for the Community Orchard and we would like to plant them at the Rec on Saturday 19th March. We will be there from 10.00 to roughly 16.00 so if you are able to join us sometime during those times that would be wonderful.
Please let me know when would be a suitable time for you so I can set up some sort of rota. There might be another planting session a bit later in the month or early April if we don’t get them all planted on Saturday.
Please come to the Rec prepared to get a bit muddy and dress appropriately for the weather. Bring sturdy shoes, gloves and a spade, fork or trowel and warm clothes. Refreshments are available at the Harwellian which will be most welcome. The whips are in little plugs of soil so we will have to make a bit of a hole to plant them in. If anyone has a bulb planting device then please bring that as that might come in handy.
Any questions please just ask.
Looking forward to starting our Community Orchard!
It’s about 700 whips – 420 whips from the Woodland Trust plus about 150 from Ashridge Nursey and another 100 or so from other sources.
Varieties are dog rose, rowan, elder, blackthorn, hazel, crab apple, wild pear.
We had a voucher for Ashridge Nurseries donated by the Alms House trustees which was originally for the replacement beech trees at The Bagg’s Tree Field which failed to thrive.
We have a secured grant from the National Lottery for further equipment – a water bowser, more mature trees and benches and signage, are the main items.
And we have had some very kind individual donations.
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