On an exceptionally cold and wet February Sunday, students from five local primary schools braved the biting weather to plant young fruit trees to create a new orchard at Alscot.

Fast forward 8 months to autumn, with plenty of sunshine and TLC over the spring and summer months and the trees are all flourishing.

Tom Genders, environmentalist, and Eco Club leader at The Croft School, lead the planting workshop. Togged up in wet weather gear, the children worked in groups, with the help of parents and teachers, to dig the holes and plant the trees to Tom’s instructions. The trees were then guarded against rabbits and other wildlife to protect the young stems.

Many fruit trees, such as sweet cherries, apples, pears, plums, and peaches require another tree to pollinate them. Without cross-pollination these varieties will not produce fruit. Some varieties of apples, pears, peaches, and other fruits are also considered to be self-pollinating but to give them the best chance, even these self-pollinating trees tend to produce more fruit when a pollinator is present. For that reason and to boost the tree’s production of fruit, we planted 5 new trees. The pollination process relies heavily on the help of bees too so it’s important to avoid using insecticides whenever possible. Planting flowers that attract bees also increases pollination.

The children were all really excited to take part practically and keen to learn about the science behind planting and growing fruit fruits. In addition, the group planted hedging plants to thicken up the already existing hedgerow that surrounds the orchard.

The incentive to offer environmental learning opportunities through practical activities to local primary schools children, is part of the Alscot Biodiversity Project. In 2020 we held an art competition, and the winning art formed the logo that represents the engagement between Alscot and its biodiversity education opportunities with local schools.

Recently, we have installed a plaque for each of the schools that took part in the workshop, with the plaque bearing the Alscot Biodiversity Education Logo. The children can visit the site and we’re all watching very closely as the trees grow and flourish and hopefully, eventually, they will bear an abundance of delicious fruit.

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