Strong communities need shared assets and ideas to bring them together. This was the idea behind the Cae Bodfach community orchard. The land has been generously donated by Bodfach hall to be managed by Llanfyllin council for the wider benefit of the communty.
We first submited design ideas to the council in 2010/ 11 and have been working down there periodically ever since. We have won support from Keep Wales Tidy, Cwm Harry’s Get-Growing project and now the Welsh Cider and Perry Association suported by volunteers from the community, Llanfyllin High school, Junior school and now via the Llanfyllin trnasition project have all leant a hand. Over the next few weeks helpers from a team doing community reparatrions work are working on the wetland area, thinning ut the reeds and mosses and providing some ideal mulch materials to support the trees. This is the key to ecological thinking, no waste, the outputs from one system are the inputs for another.
We are planting heriatge varieties of apple, plum and pear in what will become a commuity orchard and forest garden in a space where anyone will be welcome to harvest the fruit and enjoy the herbs and pollination plants we have also introduced. This is an open ended project, we hope to adding to it for many years and in doing so create someting of lasting value and beauty for everyone to enjoy.
We will be down there on alternate sundays over the next weeks, pruning and mulching, cropping the willow and making plans for the next phase of the garden development. Please join us if you feel like helping out.. we are there from 10.30 am on alternate Sundays.. not 5th as I am teaching in Reading but we will be back on the 12th Feb, so please join us.
Llanfyllin High School students from the land based studies GCSE group have been our most regular volunteers and they have designed plant guilds for the garden as part of their GCSE studies, we hope to broaden out involvement in this project to other subject area across the school. Jack from the project team is meeting with the Art department this week, so watch this space and please contact us if you wold like to be involved.