Jon Stokes, the Tree Council’s man on our patch and the instigator of our wonderful Hedgerow Harvest grant of fruit trees and bushes paid us a visit during our last Open Day. Jon was delighted with our progress with the hedgerow and said that he thought we had almost the most fruit from the 30-odd local projects that he has visited, so well done us!! Maybe it’s all that ground up pepper plant mulch that we get given by Tangmere Airfield Nurseries? Well, whatever it is, it’s good news for us!
Jon brushed up on our pruning required, especially for our nut trees, taking some dead wood out of the walnut in the north east corner of the Garden and also from the cob nut tree in the same area. Having cut away the damaged wood the trees will now ‘right themselves’ and head upwards again, in the case of the cob nut. We also looked at the damson and saw how to shorten the growth on that, and Jon said that the tree protectors should now all be removed and that has been done too. Our redcurrants were laden at the time of the visit and sparkled seductively. Jon encouraged us to all try the morello cherries, which disappeared in a flash, and brought some lovely preserves along for us to try too, including a gooseberry and elderflower pickle which we shall all want to make next year!
Jon is keen to enlist some volunteers to learn how to record fruity memories! Ah, have I got your attention now?! This is Stage 2 of the project and goes like this. Before people who have an in-depth knowledge of fruit growing in communities in the past are no longer with us, Jon want to train one or two people who are interested in social history in interview techniques. This will enable us to record the memories of people in our own community and near-by, and to pass on the info to The Tree Council for their archives and for use in future projects. The training would take place some time in the autumn, when there is not quite so much gardening to be done. We are so lucky to have been recipients of a Hedgerow Harvest pack. Can you help with the Memories campaign? Please let Rosemary know and she’ll pass on your details to Jon.
Jon is hoping to be able to replace the couple of trees that we have lost and maybe add in one or two new ones, as well as a few more bushes where we have gaps, e.g in the gooseberry grove. More digging – but not just yet!
Tangmere Community Garden 