The Grounds for Learning School Orchards Project

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1 Dunipace Primary School Orchard Project

2 Introduction Scotland has a rich, diverse, but largely forgotten fruit heritage, with varieties like Coul Blush heralding from as far north as Easter Ross. Fruit trees have been cultivated here since the 12th Century as integral features of Scotland s monastic centres. Orchards were also common on farms and in communities countrywide. By 1813, 105 varieties of apple, 65 pear, 28 plum and 15 cherry varieties were recorded in orchards across the Carse of Gowrie in Perthshire alone. Folklore, traditions and popular affection for these unique habitats (and their produce!) were once central to Scotland s cultural heritage. Since the 1850s, agricultural changes, land pressure and foreign imports have resulted in the massive decline of Scotland s orchards as much as 95% in some regions. In recognition of the environmental impact of this loss, they were recently awarded protected habitat status in the UK s Biodiversity Action Plan. The Grounds for Learning School Orchards Project In 2010, the national school grounds charity, Grounds for Learning, was successful in securing funding to support ten schools across five local authorities to find out more about Scotland s orchard history and to engage with and celebrate orchards as a valuable habitat that links to our culture, our heritage and the natural environment. The two year project involved each school community in a wide range of activities including research, visits to heritage orchard sites in the spring and again in the autumn, artwork, support from visiting experts, storytelling, grafting new fruit trees, apple pressing and juice tasting, writing, photography and organising celebration events such as Apple Day (an annual event across the UK which takes place on the 21st October). Each school was involved in designing, planting and maintaining an orchard in the grounds of their school comprising ten traditional Scottish fruit varieties. Biodiversity and Orchards In year two of the project, each school spent some time focusing on the valuable role orchards play in supporting a wide range of plant, animal and insect species. Traditional orchards are known as mosaic habitats in that it is the sum of all the various parts (for example, gaps in the tree bark, long grass, shaded areas, wild flowers, hedgerows, marshy areas, deadwood, etc) that make them such a valuable place for biodiversity. Often occupying the same area of land for years and years, the oldest orchards have been known to support over 1,800 different types of plant, animal and insect! Following their involvement with workshops and research, the children in P5 at Dunipace Primary (session 2011/ 2012) have compiled this booklet highlighting fourteen different species that can be found living in an orchard, each relying on the orchard for different reasons such as for shelter or as a food source. The children discovered that there are four key ways to encourage or maintain wildlife in an orchard and these are the principles they will use in looking after their own orchard: 1) Plant new trees to include trees of different ages. 2) Keep decaying and dead wood in the orchard insects live in the wood and therefore provide a food source for birds. Also, nutrients are returned to the soils through decomposition. 3) Provide a wide range of feeding and nesting habitats, including areas of long grass. 4) Don t use chemicals. page 1

3 Dunipace Primary Orchard In March 2011 and March 2012, the children at Dunipace Primary planted ten traditional Scottish fruit trees (and several other donated fruit trees) in the school grounds to create an orchard. The fruit tree varieties planted were: Bloody Ploughman (apple) Galloway Pippin (apple) James Grieve (apple) Oslin (apple) Scotch Dumpling (cooking apple) White Melrose (cooking apple) Victoria Plum Stella Cherry In addition, soft fruits were planted (strawberries, blackberries and raspberries) along with forty-eight lavender bushes (to support bees and butterflies) around the trees to create a boundary hedge. Did You Know? Just five fruit trees make an orchard! You could eat a different kind of apple every day for more than six years and still not come to the end of the varieties we can grow in the British Isles! An amazing 2,300 varieties of dessert and cooking apples have been grown here in years gone by! Historically, two of the main areas for growing fruit in Scotland were the Carse of Gowrie in Perthshire and the Clyde Valley in South Lanarkshire. Traditional orchards still grow in these areas today. The rare Noble Chafer Beetle only lives in traditional orchards, specifically in the old, decaying wood within live trees such as cherry, plum and apple. page 2

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12 The Dunipace school orchard project was supported by the National Lottery through the Heritage Lottery Fund, The Robertson Trust and is part financed by the Scottish Government and the European Community Forth Valley and Lomond LEADER Programme. FORTH VALLEY & LOMOND Dunipace Primary School Designed and Printed by Falkirk Printworks Tel: Fax: