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Plant fruit trees this autumn! New partnership urges communities to dig in

Thousands of Coronation Gardens for Food and Nature pledged since June
  • New partnership encourages communities to plant fruit trees this autumn
  • Events, recipes and harvesting tips – join us to celebrate Apple Day on 21st October!
  • Over 2,200 Coronation Gardens for Food & Nature pledged since June

Communities are being encouraged to plant fruit trees and to revitalise community orchards by the Coronation Gardens for Food and Nature partnership. It is estimated that around 90% of traditional orchards have been lost since the 1950s through neglect, development, and conversion to more intensive modern orchards.

Traditional orchards are prized for their value to wildlife – fruit trees that are free of pesticides are brilliant for insects and lichen, as well as birds and mammals that enjoy the fallen fruit. These special places often feature a mosaic of habitats including wildflower meadows and hedgerows. This provides homes for birds, bats and pollinators such as bees and butterflies – as well as producing food for people.

The UK Food Security Report 2021 identified climate change and nature loss as leading threats to the nation's food supply. Coronation Gardens for Food and Nature believes fruit growing has a key role to play in sustainable local food production – and that includes growing fruit in small spaces as well as on allotments.

People planting Coronation Gardens for Food and Nature are urged to avoid using pesticides and peat-based compost – and to ensure their gardens provide features that benefit wildlife. More than 2,200 backyards, balconies, school grounds and workplaces have been pledged as edible gardens and havens for wildlife since June.

blackbird

Bob Coyle

Autumn Barlow, Coronation Gardens project manager at The Wildlife Trusts, says:

“It’s fantastic to see the enthusiasm shown by people across the UK to champion wildlife-friendly gardening in their communities; growing nutritious food, and giving wildlife a boost. We have to help nature everywhere, and each new tree, pond or patch of wildflowers makes a difference. Fruit trees are wonderful for everyone – people and wildlife alike – and so we hope many will take up the mantle and get planting this autumn.”

Alice Whitehead, Communications Officer at sustainable gardening charity Garden Organic, says:

“Planting a fruit tree is easy to do, so if you’ve not grown one before, then we’d encourage anyone to have a go – they bring so many benefits. From free local fruit, to helping wildlife by providing a home and food for insects and birds, fruit trees provide joy all year round. What’s even better, is that no matter the space you’ve got available – be it patio, small garden or allotment – fruit trees come in all shapes and sizes. They don’t need to be huge, with dwarf varieties suitable for large pots or you can even train apple trees to be stepped over on an allotment!”

Matt Hancock, Master of the Worshipful Company of Fruiterers, says:

“As modern-day farming in the UK is experiencing something of a national crisis, it is vital that we grab every opportunity to shout about the merits of growing fresh fruit in our communities, whilst also improving our biodiversity. The wonders of the British apple and its rich diverse history should be celebrated, as we start a new British Apple season.”

As October signals the season of harvest, Coronation Gardens for Food and Nature will celebrate Apple Day on the 21st October – a reminder of the diversity of apples on our islands, as well as their cultural, social and historical significance. There are more than 2,500 varieties of apples in the UK, which means you could eat a different type of apple every day for more than six years. Apple trees are best planted between October and March when their roots have the best chance of establishing during the wetter winter months. In autumn and winter, it is possible to buy cheaper, bare root trees that have the added benefit of not being sold in plastic pots.

Fruit trees are sometimes planted in memory of people and pets, providing a living memorial that will last for decades to come.

Find Apple Day events, recipes and planting and harvesting tips here.

Read Garden Organic’s ‘15 reasons to plant a fruit tree’ here.

Coronation Gardens for Food and Nature is run by The Wildlife Trusts, Incredible Edible, Garden Organic and the NFWI (National Federation of Women’s Institutes). The scheme, funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund is empowering communities to grow food and help wildlife by creating space for nature in private gardens and in shared greenspaces.

Editor’s notes

Apple Day case study

Incredible Edible community garden groups host Apple Days throughout October, inviting the public to bring apples, pick apples, press apples, and sample apple-based treats. It’s all about coming together to celebrate and turn the harvest into something special. Paul Bradbury is a volunteer with Incredible Edible Totnes. He says that the reason people love Apple Pressing Day is that it is so hands-on.

Paul Bradbury, volunteer with Incredible Edible Totnes, says: “First there is the scratting – turning apples to pulp by feeding them into a giant blender – and then the magic of pressing apples in a traditional press. There is such a sense of wonder on the faces of adults and children alike, as they wind down the press and see apple juice flowing out at the bottom.” Over 120 people came along to enjoy some juice, and it was a great opportunity to get people thinking about locally grown produce.

Coronation Gardens for Food and Nature – see New ‘Coronation Gardens for Food and Nature’ launches today | The Wildlife Trusts and website mycoronationgarden.org.

Fruit trees are the ultimate double-duty plant, providing food for people, for birds and insects as well as places for wildlife to shelter and nest. They also develop hollows, crevices, and fungi earlier than other trees – at around 50 years old compared with 300 for an oak – which means they’re also a priority habitat for rare species. Pollinators are vital for food production and healthy ecosystems, but they have decreased in distribution by almost a fifth over the last 40 years.

Evidence:

The Wildlife Trusts

The Wildlife Trusts are making the world wilder and helping to ensure that nature is part of everyone’s lives. We are a grassroots movement of 46 charities with more than 900,000 members and 38,000 volunteers. No matter where you are in Britain, there is a Wildlife Trust inspiring people and saving, protecting and standing up for the natural world. With the support of our members, we care for and restore special places for nature on land and run marine conservation projects and collect vital data on the state of our seas. Every Wildlife Trust works within its local community to inspire people to create a wilder future – from advising thousands of landowners on how to manage their land to benefit wildlife, to connecting hundreds of thousands of school children with nature every year.

Incredible Edible

Incredible Edible’s mission is to create kind, confident and connected communities, with raised awareness of the ways we can live more sustainably, through the power of food. There are around 150 grass roots, volunteer-led groups in the UK originating from the original group in Todmorden.

Incredible Edible is a movement of ordinary people who do extraordinary things. Incredible Edible has always been a bottom-up movement for grass roots change and through the last decade, the Incredible Edible network has been a loosely federated group of friends committed not by structure and constitution but by hearts and passion to create a different future and a kinder present. There are no rules, just a set of principles – a story of three plates and an inclusive welcome that reminds us every day that if you eat, you’re in.

NFWI (National Federation of Women’s Institutes)

The WI is the largest voluntary women’s organisation in the UK with approximately 180,000 members in over 5,500 WIs across England, Wales, and the Islands. The organisation plays a unique role in enabling women to develop new skills, giving them opportunities to campaign on issues that matter to them and their communities, and provides wide-ranging activities for members to get involved in. Over the past one hundred years WI members have campaigned on a whole host of environmental concerns, from pollution of the seas from oil thrown overboard from ships (1927) to a resolution calling for action to improve sewers to prevent pollution of watercourses (1958). The WI’s groundbreaking End Plastic Soup campaign, launched in 2017, brought the issue of plastic pollution from synthetic clothing to a mainstream audience for the first time. For further information please visit the WI’s website at www.thewi.org.uk Follow us on social media facebook.com/thewi or @womensinstitute on Instagram and Twitter

Garden Organic

Garden Organic promotes organic growing and composting, citizen science and research, and seed conservation through our Heritage Seed Library. Our aim is to help people grow 'the organic way', using natural methods to promote healthy, biodiverse, sustainable gardens. Founded in the 1950s as the Henry Doubleday Research Association, we have been leading the way in researching and demonstrating best practice organic growing for more than 65 years and bring together a movement of thousands of growers keen to have a positive impact on the green space they nurture. Garden Organic is the home of the Heritage Seed Library – the National Collection of vegetable varieties. Through seed conservation and sharing, we protect up to 800 heritage, heirloom and landrace vegetable varieties that would otherwise have been lost forever. The library is a vital resource to connect people with seed, keep our food heritage alive and preserve biodiversity. For more information visit gardenorganic.org.uk

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