Hi,
Sunday 21 Oct is Apple Day. Please come to the Community Orchard (behind Macs papershop on Lamond Drive) at 2pm for a little tidying up session. I am then planning to hold an agm in my house (200m from Orchard) at about 4pm. Mulled cider will be on offer.
Henry Paul
Tuesday, 16 October 2012
Monday, 9 April 2012
Spring work party - Sat 28th Apr
Help is required on Saturday 28th April from 11am to 1pm to help clear the ground around the fruit trees. This helps the trees develop stronger roots and saves them competing with the grass for nutrients. It also means that the council workmen do not have to strim around the trees; a practice that can damage young trees.
Contact me (Henry Paul) if you have any questions.
Contact me (Henry Paul) if you have any questions.
Saturday, 11 February 2012
St Andrews Community Orchard – Wildflower Meadow project
We hope to change if from this:
Where the grass is cut every two weeks and no wildflowers are able to compete against the more invasive grass. To something more like this:
An area where wildflowers will be established and the grassland will be mown once a year and the cuttings removed. We will use Yellow Rattle in our Organic conversion of this area into a Wildflower Meadow.
Yellow rattle is an attractive, semi-parasitic, grassland annual. In the past this plant was a serious pest for farmers as it weakens grasses and as a result can reduce hay yields by as much as 50%. In a landscape or garden context however, this suppression of grass growth is welcomed as it produces a better display of wild flowers and eases the mowing required.
Yellow rattle germinates late February to early March, flowers in June, and sets seed in July. At the end of each growing season as the annual yellow rattle plants die away they leave behind gaps into which new wild flowers can establish. As a result, wild flower seed sown into an existing sward will establish more readily in areas where yellow rattle already does well.
Where the grass is cut every two weeks and no wildflowers are able to compete against the more invasive grass. To something more like this:
An area where wildflowers will be established and the grassland will be mown once a year and the cuttings removed. We will use Yellow Rattle in our Organic conversion of this area into a Wildflower Meadow.
Yellow rattle is an attractive, semi-parasitic, grassland annual. In the past this plant was a serious pest for farmers as it weakens grasses and as a result can reduce hay yields by as much as 50%. In a landscape or garden context however, this suppression of grass growth is welcomed as it produces a better display of wild flowers and eases the mowing required.
Yellow rattle germinates late February to early March, flowers in June, and sets seed in July. At the end of each growing season as the annual yellow rattle plants die away they leave behind gaps into which new wild flowers can establish. As a result, wild flower seed sown into an existing sward will establish more readily in areas where yellow rattle already does well.
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