To remember Andrew Beedham, who was an avid orchard enthusiast and very keen to establish more orchards in Ham, HUG in concert with the Orchard Project are getting together to create and plant some new orchards containing varieties of apple cultivated locally. They are running a grafting workshop on Wed 15th March from 10.30-1.30pm at Grey Court School and are looking for volunteers to join them!
This is a very special opportunity to graft some new trees of varieties which in all likelihood only now exist as specimens at Brogdale, the national apple collection. There are 2 varieties of apple which were actually developed in Ham over 100 years ago (May Beauty and Glebe Gold) and we will also be grafting some others of local provenance from Syon and Kingston.
This is a free workshop to learn the skills of grafting apple trees and start the process of creating some new fruit trees. Beginners are welcome, but if you have grafted before, we would particularly welcome you as we need to ensure we create successful grafts. The trees will eventually be planted out in 3 new sites in the local area in 2018. The workshop will be run by Lewis McNeil from The Orchard Project in conjunction with The Ham United Group.
Please contact Kath Rosen asap on katherinecelkarosen@gmail.com or call on 07977 457 395 to reserve your place, as numbers are limited.
