Pruning Day at the Children’s Orchard
The best time to prune fruit trees is at the beginning of February. It is always cold and miserable and in some years we have experienced horizontal sleet and snow. It is therefore not surprising that the Greener Leith volunteers who do turn up for the Children’s Orchard tree pruning event are really dedicated individuals who are not afraid of a little weather. It is great to see that the majority of the trees planted are now above man’s height and this will hopefully have a positive impact on next Autumn’s harvest. Apart from pruning we also planted 6 new trees – all of them Scottish varieties – Ashmeads Kernel, Thomas Jeffrey and Discovery – replacing some that had not survived for a variety of reasons. It was another good day for the trees. They are really starting to look like a proper orchard. Many thanks to Ben Dell from the Botanic Gardens and to the Out of the Blue Café who, as always, turned up with hot soup and sandwiches after which we all scuttled home to warm up again.
