The sun was shining, it was not raining (for a change) and there was no wind! Perfect weather for a working bee! It was encouraging to see 20+ volunteers turn up for our June orchard working bee and we achieved heaps!
We harvested all the kumara, prepared the bed & planted our peach seeds, expanded the mulched area and did a lot of weeding and cardboard stripping.
Some wondered why were we chopping back some of the apparently-successful avocados? This is because the strong and successful rootstock from those trees had overtaken the grafted variety we had chosen. Now that the growth from the rootstock has been removed, the grafted variety should have much more energy pumped into it and begin to grow more vigorously. Thanks to Richard for spotting that.
Peter was also having an observant day. He realised that the mulch around our trees was getting so close to the bottom of the trunks that it was beginning to rot away the bark. Note going forward that each tree needs a donut of space between the trunk and the mulch. It’s okay for cardboard to be in this space to reduce kikuyu growth. The volume of rain we’ve had recently may have contributed to this as when very wet, the mulch settles to an even depth (including around the base of our trees).
Peter also began pruning the espaliered apples and pears. This job might continue at the next working bee.
The next working bee is on Saturday 2 August at 2pm, in fact we are running Working Bees every first Saturday of the month – click here for details.
Our final 2025 event on Saturday 6 December is planned as a working bee followed by our annual volunteer celebration in the orchard – always a favourite of our ever-hungry community loony vollie Juan Unda. Make a note of these dates and join us!
More Community Orchard articles
- Compost Winter Workshop 2025
- Perfect Weather for our Aug Orchard Working Bee
- Great Turnout for our June Orchard Working Bee
- Māngere Bridge – It’s a Hive of Wastewise Activity!
- Community Orchard Budding Workshop
- That’s just peachy!
- 2024 Volunteer Celebration and Thank You
- Autumn Orchard Working Bee – Mulching, Weeding and Feeding
- Locals learn grafting & cutting at community orchard workshop
- Friends of the Farm turns 10!
