Over Christmas we put wassailing (good health) wreaths, made from willow from the the Park, in the apple trees of the community orchard.Then today, Twelfth Night, the trees have been wassailed or blessed.
Orchard Wassail
Category Archives: Ecology
Apple Picking Time in October with Apple Day on 20th
The apples in the orchard are ripening nicely, but they are not yet ready for picking. The majority of the varieties need another month or so to mature – and we could do with some sun. If you look in our orchard trail (download here) you will find the ideal picking dates for each type. Also whether the apple is a dessert fruit or better for cooking.
Unfortunately some apples have lost their labels during the year, so we need to renew them. Others we have still to confirm their identity.
We are having an apple day on 20th October; more information to follow later.
Above from left to right Charlestown Pippin a dessert apple, Balsam, which can be a dessert or cooker apple, and an Egremont Russet, another dessert fruit.
2nd Guiseley Guides Upgade Suzannah’s Meadow
2nd Guiseley Guides planting the wildflower meadow
On a beautiful May evening yesterday the 2nd Guiseley Guides and their leaders helped the Friends plant out flowers in Suzannah’s Meadow. This will help build up a nectar rich habitat to encourage bees and butterflies.
Wildflower plan plugs supplied by Leeds City Council Horticultural Grant
When the Bellway Estate was built the Friends suggested that the meadow at the bottom of the Park was restored – as it had been in the past. The area was duly landscaped back into a hillside by Bellway with plans passed for a path to come from the estate, up through the meadow and join the Greenshaw Terrace Path. The area was then planted up with rough grass, clover, vetch, birdsfoot trefoil and other early meadow establishing plants. We called it Suzannah’s meadow after the several ladies of that name who owned and farmed the land in past centuries.
Work on the meadow is a long term project of the Friends in conjunction with Meadfleet: a grass path has been cut along the bottom by the fence, joining it up with the central area of the estate for accessibility by less able residents, the planned gate entrance has been opened up for access to work on the meadow, orchard and lower levels of the Park (with a kissing gate due to go in over the summer). And, several local estate residents have put up bird boxes supplied by both themselves and Meadfleet, and planted crabapple trees to help pollinate surrounding fruit trees – one crabapple is in remembrance of a child who died at birth the others for siblings.
The next step is getting rid of the clumps of coarse grass and the planting and cultivation of more varied meadow wildflowers to build up a nectar rich habitat to encourage bees, which in turn will help pollinate the nearby community orchard .
Johanna and Peter Brooks preparing the ground for the wildflowers
Johanna Brooks of Brooks Ecological and Chris Parapia organized last night’s planting event with the 2nd Guiseley Guides, and prepared the ground over the weekend. The wildflower plugs were obtained by the Friends through a Leeds City Council Horticultural Grant. The Guides then spent an hour or so planting the plugs in the prepared ground last night, ensuring they were watered and mulched.
The plants now need to be kept watered to establish them and neighbours on the estate have volunteered to help do that.
Growing An Orchard
“Within the woodland flow’ry gladed,
By the oak tree’s mossy root,
The shining grass blade timber shaded
Now do quiver on the foot,
And birds do whistle overhead,
And water’s bubbling in its bed,
And there for me the apple tree Do lean down low, in Linden Lea.”
William Barnes
We are lucky to have the help of The Orchard Project to teach us the skills for looking after the fruit trees in the Park. We have both the community orchard which was planted between 2015 and 2018, and trees that have been planted in various places over the years.
In the winter we learnt how to do both the formative and regenerative pruning. We are now taking on the spring tasks of mulching and ensuring the right level of fertility.
A Cider Ladies Finger tree pruned in the winter of 2019 and below in flower in May.
Sadly the old horse-chestnut by the Orchard, planted by Parkinsons, had to come down as it was a danger – but we are now using the bark as a mulch which will protect the trees and feed the soil.
We have also been recording the apple blossom from the various trees to help with identifications – especially those we do not know. For that we have help from the Northern Fruit Growers Association
The White Blossom of Balsam
Our next task is to learn how to scythe the grass over the coming months, as we have been advised that it is much better than strimming – it is also a good exercise. :-). Let us know if you’d like to join us in looking after the orchard and learning the old skills, parkinsonspark@gmail.com.
The Parkinson’s Park Apple Day will be on 20th October this year, with an apple crusher and press for juice, and apple goodies to taste.
I wandered lonely as a cloud ……
Well, we haven’t quite reached Wordsworth’s standards but over the years the Friends have planted many daffodil bulbs in the Park courtesy of the charity Groundwork who work to provide ‘green places’ with the aim that People who live in places that are greener, cleaner and safer are healthier and happier.
On this St David’s Day here are some of the photos of the work that has been done .
Dydd Gwyl Dewi ‘Hapus i bawb. Happy St David’s Day to All.
Enhancing the gate at ‘Old Man’s Corner.
Brightening up Jubilee Walk
Hillside Entrance – photo Vikki Clayton
Winter Work
The New Year has seen a number of maintenance jobs completed around the Park. Firstly, woodchip has been laid on the bottom path to help making walking easier. Thanks to Shaun Smith and helper from Elite Garden Maintenance for this.
Next, we have had work done to fix the broken gates, and to replace the vandalised gate on the Kelcliffe Lane entrance. Thanks to Ian Walker for this.
Finally, we have started renovating some of the old apple trees; this one is the one that is thought to be a cider apple tree, and was rather a thicket. We had the hawthorn tree growing too close removed, and have then pruned the apple tree back by around the recommended 25% to start forming an ‘open goblet’ shape. We’ll continue the work on the shape in future years. Hopefully, this will help improve the quality of the fruit – if we have done it right.
Apple Tree Before Pruning
Apple Tree After Pruning
Learning to Wassail
To get the Community Orchard into good shape and renovate some of the old apple trees in the Park some of the Friends are attending pruning courses run by the Orchard Project. We are also lucky to have people from the Northen Fruit Growers Association in the area to advise us, as well as the RHS at Harlow Carr.
So, on a cold (-2 degrees) January morning we set off to Tingley to learn how to renovate apple trees and also how to do an Orchard Wassail, an old Anglo Saxon customer to encourage healthy orchards: ‘waes hael’ means ‘good health’.
For us the Wassail involved, soaking the tree roots in rough cider, singing a Wassail folk tune, hanging cider soaked toast on the pruned trees, and eating ‘cake and ale’ (or in our case, as we were driving, warm, spiced apple juice). You can also 
process through the orchard making a noise with pots and pans to drive away ‘bad spirits’, and dress up as mummers.
An Orchard Wassail is done on ‘Twelfth Night’ – although this could be the modern calendar date of 6th January or the old calendar of 17th January. We thought that next year we’d give it a go and have our own Parkinson’s Park wassail event.
If anyone would like to help organize it let us know – parkinsonspark@gmail.com.
Damage to Clapper Brow Oak
Such a shame to see the damage done by the wind on 13th October to one of the old oaks that defines Clapper Brow. The tree is over 100 years old. Meadfleet have been alerted, and a tree surgeon will arrive to work on it soon.
Orchard Trail at Apple Day 21st October 2-4 pm
We have a new Orchard Tail leaflet to add to our collection of information on Parkinson’s Park. Come and help us identify the trees that have lost their labels.
The new leaflet will be available at Apple Day 2-4pm 21st October (postponed from 14th oct due to bad weather), or there is a downloadable copy here.
Thanks go to Martyn, Josie and Jenny for the research, Lucy Phillips for the Design and Darren Sanderson for the main photography. Plus the Heritage Lottery Fund.
Identifying Fruit In The Community Orchard
Martyn Hornsby Smith had written a run down of all the apples, pears and plums we have in the community orchard, which you can find on our website under the Environment header.
Sadly, there are a number of other trees in the Park that have been planted over the years whose variety we do not know.
If anyone would like to find out more, there is an Apple Identification Day on Sunday at Wakefield run by Helping Britain Blossom. Details here.
If anyone finds out the names of the unknown trees, perhaps you would let us know and we can label them.
Friends of Parkinson's Park CIC 
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