Community Orchard, Butterfield Green

Butterfield Green Community Orchard, planted on Sunday 11th February 2007, is intended to improve Butterfield Green by providing a place for enjoyment as well as sharing knowledge about growing fruit.

Hackney Parks Service prepared the ground and supplied some of the trees. The majority of the trees were supplied by Hackney’s Growing Communities – they run community gardens in Hackney and the Stoke Newington Farmers’ Market.

Pesticides are not used, so the orchard will add to the biodiversity of our area as it will be ideal for wildlife and for wild flowers, which can be planted between the trees.

Local residents and businesses got involved by:

• Commenting on suggested plans and suggesting a fruit tree or fruit bush they would like to see
• Adopting a tree – helping to plant it and to look after it (All the trees have been adopted and all adopters have an Orchard Contact from the Shakespeare Neighbourhood Residents’ Association to call on for help).
• Sponsoring a tree – contributing to the cost of the tree and its care.

Commercial orchards have decreased in area by almost 70% over the last 35 years – most of our apples are now imported.

Farmers do not use fruit trees in hedging and fruit growing is done less and less in suburban and city gardens.

Community orchards use local varieties of fruit as far as possible – this preserves different varieties, as well as making sure that the fruit trees are best suited to our local growing conditions.

Click the picture above to see a larger (and clearer) version or click here for a PDF version.

For detailed information on the trees in the orchard, please click here for a PDF file containing lots of tree info.

Thank you: Paul Foinette of Hackney Parks Services for supporting the orchard in very practical ways – including supplying trees and ensuring a source of water for tree-adopters to use.

Thank you: Julie Brown of Growing Communities for inspiring the orchard and supplying trees and mulch.

Supported by:

Growing Communities: www.growingcommunities.org
Hackney Parks Services: michael.dixon@hackney.gov.uk
Shakespeare Neighbourhood Residents Association: info@shakespeareneighbourhood.org.uk (Keith Magnum, Information Officer)

New benches

The beautiful benches in the Community Orchard were bought with a grant from Groundwork East London in October 2007.

Ruaidhri MacArthur, of Small World Landscapes, made the benches from recycled hardwoods, sourced from within Britain.

The woods used are:

• Dark wood for legs – ekki, African hardwood, from old rail sleepers
• Orange wood on seat – angelim, Brazilian hardwood from old rail sleepers
• Paler wood on seat – French oak from old rail sleepers
• Dark wood on seat and crossbars underneath– iroko, South-East Asian hardwood, from old sea groynes

New Hedging on Butterfield Green- 28th January 2008

Hedging has been planted along part of the new wall of the Shakespeare Mews development (the old Victorian wall was unfortunately demolished) and along the railings bordering the play area near the development.

The hedging is funded by the London Woodland Trust and is all native to Britain. It will provide food and shelter for birds and useful insects.

There are six different types:

• Blackthorn (prunus spinosa): Masses of white flowers in early summer, purple fruits - sloes - eaten by wildlife
• Common Dogwood (cornus sanguinea): Small clusters of very small white flowers, stems are dark red, leaves turn red in Autumn, small black berries eaten by wildlife
• Dog Rose ( rosa canina): Scented, delicate pink or white flowers, red hips in Autumn eaten by wildlife
• Field Maple (acer campestre): Tiny flowers, leaves turn golden yellow then orange/brown in Autumn, seeds eaten by wildlife
• Hawthorn (crataegus monogyna): Masses of white flowers in early summer, red berries in Autumn eaten by wildlife
• Spindle Berry (euronymus europaeus): Tiny greenish flowers, in Autumn leaves turn pink or red, bright pink berries with an orange seed-casing, eaten by wildlife
  

Thank you: Michael Dixon, Hackney Parks Area Manager for permission, Junior Pierre and Richard Brooks Hackney Parks gardeners for all the planting work, and Butterfield Green Community Orchard Group for raising the funds and mulching the hedge