Growing Newbury Green

Who Are Growing Newbury Green?

Growing Newbury Green was formed in 2012 after founder member Jeremy Gorbold suggested growing fruit trees on open spaces and parks in Newbury. With the agreement of Newbury Town Council we planted our first orchard at Barn Crescent that year and kept going from there! We now have over 60 apple trees in several sites around the town and awaiting our first major harvest any year now.

Alongside that we branched (sorry) out to filling shopping trolleys with herbs and lettuces and displaying them around town to publicise the Newbury In Bloom competition and in 2018 had a larger raised bed sited on Lock Island by the canal to try out a more substantial planting of crops - have a look at the photos further down this page.

We want to make more free food available in the town - it'll be local, fresh and an asset to the community over the coming years. Please join us on this growing journey.

Activities 2021 update 22nd August

Apple Day 2021-Sat 9th October

Sadly, Newbury Apple Day 2020 was cancelled due to the current social distancing requirements, but will return in 2021 on Saturday 9th October.

Look out for updates during next year on the Newbury Apple Day Facebook pages or contact NewburyAppleday@gmail.com.

We are now looking for volunteers on the day and also people to collect apples from local residents during the week leading up the Apple Day.

Expanding Barn Crescent orchard 2021 - Edible Hedge preparation and grass mowing - Sun 12th Sept

The next stage of expanding the Barn Crescent orchard starts on Sunday 12th October. We will be hay cutting and collecting across the site alongside the Lockdown Wood team, and also preparing the revealed fence line to plant a new edible hedge later in the autumn & winter.

Please feel free to turn up on the day and join in.

Lock Island Raised Bed - planting June 2021

We have an edible food bed on Lock Island - just by the Newbury canal lock in the centre of town.

First planted in 2019, it was left fallow last year due to the various lockdowns, but here we are in June finally getting it planted up again.

Many courgette plants were donated, so here's hoping for a decent crop.

Expanding Barn Crescent orchard 2021 - Easter planting

Newbury Friends of the Earth has teamed up with West Berkshire Council, Newbury Town Council and Hungerford Town Council to create three woods in the district as living memorials to the traumas of the coronavirus pandemic. You can find out more by searching for Lockdown Wood on Facebook or go to https://www.newburyfoe.co.uk/lockdownwoods.

On Good Friday and Saturday 3rd April we successfully planted 13 trees, including 2 pears, 2 plums and a damson with a small group of volunteers in 4 sessions. Many thanks to those who came along so we could finish the first phase of Lockdown Wood.

Possible new micro-orchard in Glendale Avenue, Wash Common 2021 - Virtual Consultation in March

Newbury Town Council approached us in the summer about planting a new, small orchard on the green space by the bus stop in Glendale Avenue in Wash Common.

We have decided not to proceed with this one due to two reasons: firstly although the response from residents was very positive to the proposal we could not find enough volunteers to look after the trees for the first few crucial years; Secondly a second site visit revealed that the existing trees were larger than originally thought when we visited in the winter and that there was a risk that the new trees would be overhung by branches as well as limiting space for root development.

We are looking for other potential sites in the Wash Common area that may be more favourable.

You can find out more about our approach on the Glendale FAQ page.

Images during lockdown 2020

Despite the lock down members of the group can still pass by some of the orchards during their daily walk. Here are some photos of some early blossom:

Here's Barn Crescent, on the left in late March and on the right mid-April. The warm weather over Easter really making a difference.

Winter Orchard Pruning:

Here's photos from our first winter pruning event held on Jan 18th, organised with Newbury Town Council as part of their Britain in Bloom entry community work for the year.

Whilst below are happy goats owned by Kathy, one of the volunteers on the day, enjoying a winter treat of apple wood. Goats really do eat anything.

Apple Day 2019

This year's Apple Day was on Saturday 5th October.

Here's some of the team in action with our hand-cranked juicing machine.

We identified (probably!) some half dozen apple varieties brought in by visitors and seem to be getting better each year.

Many thanks to all our volunteers on the day.

Lock Island raised bed planting for Britain In Bloom

The judges have come and gone and the town is awaiting the result.

They saw the raised bed and other displays done by the town council and Newbury Secret Garden around the lock and took a short canal boat trip where we made a brief presentation about our Community Orchards. Here's hoping we all did enough to impress them.

and here's two photos showing our journey raising the orchards, from planting on the left to May Bank Holiday weekend this year on the right.

Barn Crescent City Rec

Grafting Success:

Our first attempt to graft trees onto rootstocks! A great way to propagate rare tress and replace damaged stock. This is a Charles Ross about 6 weeks after grafting - you can still make out the roll of tape in the middle where the graft is. Admittedly this was the only success of 5 attempts, but the remaining rootstocks are healthy and give us the chance of trying again.

Newbury In Bloom 2018:

The trolleys are getting into place for this year's Newbury In Bloom. Here's some photos from Newbury Station, who have once again given us space on each platform, even, even during the electrification upgrade work for the station.