Restoration: Creating an orchard and wildflower meadow 

In the first in a new series looking at community projects around the country, Richard Belcham tells us about the disused field in Essex that he and fellow villagers transformed into an orchard and wildflower meadow.

The Parish Field was originally given to the village in the 1920s and had been used for fruit orchards until they were grubbed up some years ago.  Since then, the field had lain dormant for over a decade, and had not been used except by a couple of people for dog-walking.

We hit upon the idea of turning the field into a community orchard and wildflower meadow when we saw how little of those habitats remain in the UK.  Some 96% of the UK’s wildflower meadows have disappeared and orchards are also declining at a rapid rate. As the field is next to allotments, we thought that the orchard would enhance the area, as well as protecting biodiversity.

Thankfully we faced very few hurdles throughout the process of transforming the field.  As the land was nominated for open space we didn’t need planning permission, so it was just getting the idea in place, presenting it to the village, getting full agreement and then seeking funding, which we secured from a number of local wildlife trusts and the council. The whole process had taken about a year from coming up with the initial idea to the actual planting.

Volunteers also chipped in to make it happen – in more ways than one – in fact, the project has been welcomed at every stage. We’ve had loads of people involved, from children right through to retired villagers who have seen the project through from helping to form the plans at an open meeting to actually planting the trees and wildflowers.

To turn the field back into the meadow, we had the existing grass cut quite short and then planted plug plants into the field.  As the plants develop they will colonise the field and over a period of a couple of years, and with a good regime of cutting, the meadow plants will come to the fore.

The planting itself took place just last month. The trees were supplied as bare rooted stems (about 2' high) and were planted into holes dug by volunteers.  They were then protected from rabbits and deer with plastic sleeve protectors and a large wooden stake.

The wildflower plug plants were planted in drifts, again by volunteers.  They were established by making a small hole in the ground through the grass and then planting the plug and pushing the grass back around the plant.  About 2,000 plants were planted in a day.

Now the trees and plants are all in, we will involve the village in pruning and harvesting. The fruit will be available to the villagers for free and hopefully we can pursuade the WI to hold jam-making sessions so that nothing gets wasted!  We've also got a local farmer who is going to lend us some sheep to keep the grass down in the orchard.

I'm very proud of what we've achieved. We’ve transformed an unused field into something which will be used and loved by the village for years to come, as well as protecting habitats which are disappearing from the English countryside.