Traditional Orchards
We're mad keen about all things associated with traditional orchards...
...but what is a traditional orchard, and what can you typically find in a traditional orchard in the way of trees, wildlife and flora?
What is a traditional orchard?
A traditional orchard will usually have 5 or more fruit or nut trees present. The trees will be grown in a 'low intensity manner', with few inputs.
The trees will be large-sized, typically with 6 feet of clear trunk at the base before the branches fan out. They will be widely spaced apart, usually in rows, often at ten paces (c. 30 foot) spacings between trees. The grass sward will commonly be grazed by sheep or cattle.
The trees will live for a long time (perhaps over 100 years for an apple tree or 350 years for a perry pear tree)
Orchard quotes
"In an orchard there should be enough to eat, enough to lay up, enough to be stolen, and enough to rot on the ground."
Samuel Madden
(Quoted in James Boswell 's Life of Johnson, 1783)
"An ancient tradition of collaboration between people and nature makes traditional orchards a unique example of simultaneous agriculture and conservation. If we can rewild England's orchards - favouring organic methods and harvesting with a balanced ecosystem in mind - not only wildlife but people will have a far richer England to profit from in the centuries to come."
Extract from frontispiece of Orchard - A Year In England's Eden by Benedict Macdonald and Nicholas Gates.
English Nature Research Report #707
For a far more detailed case study of the biodiversity of three traditional orchards in the nearby Wyre Forest area of Worcestershire please see the English Nature Research Report below.