Community Orchard — The South Woodford Society

Community Orchard & Eastwood Green

Do you want to volunteer?

Next Volunteer Day: Sunday 21 April 2024 from 11am. Celebrate National Orchard Day with us and help us map out and create woodchip paths around the site. We also need to weed the new raspberry beds and plant a new hazel tree in our hazel grove.

Need some help in making your garden more sustainable? Do you want to increase the wildlife and pollinators in your street or want to start rainwater harvesting but have no experience, then come along to one of our sessions and you can find out more about all of these initiatives to help with climate change, to increase biodiversity and manage flooding risks!

We run regular gardening days at the Orchard and Eastwood Green (corner of Eastwood Road,opposite Southdene Doctors Surgey), so please let us know via email to e18society@gmail.com if you’d like to come along, or just want some more information and we’ll make sure you are added to our mailing list.

Our plans for the future include a storage facility, seating, rainwater harvesting, and ideally, expanding the area into the pavement. This is known as depaving - you can find out more here.

Our overarching commitment is for everyone to feel like they “own” this space so if you have any ideas you think would be suitable for the space, do please get in touch.

The orchard is on the corner of Mulberry Way and Primrose Road, E18 1ED. We have tools and gloves but if you have your favourite tool and your own gloves, you are welcome to bring them along. Children welcome too!

Spring 2024

We’ve replanted the fig tree (creating a brick “box” to prevent it getting too big) and planted herbs, raspberries and two new hazel trees. One of our volunteers has concentrated on trying to kill the invasive sycamores - we’ll let you know how he succeeds in a few months!

Autumn & Winter 2023

We held a pruning day for the cherries as they need to be pruned later than the apple trees. The beds at the viaduct end of the garden have been further expanded, using the no-dig method of cardboard and mulching which helps to prevent weeds. You can see to the left an image of our hardworking volunteers showing how this is done

Summer 2023

Gardening days: July 16th and August 20th

The apple trees have now been pruned and we’ve weeded and remulched the main central bed. The beds at the viaduct end of the garden have now also been expanded, using the no-dig method of cardboard and mulching which helps to prevent weeds. You can see to the left an image of our hardworking volunteers showing how this is done

Spring 2023

Our second round of using the no-dig method, this time for the orchard. We also carried out some pruning, weeding and tidying up for the warmer weather and have tried to dig up some of the invasive sycamore - unfortunately to no avail! if you have any ideas on how to deal with this pesky trees, please let us know!

Autumn/Winter 2022

Orchard: The apple trees have been pruned but the cherries need to be pruned later in the year. They are all growing well and we also pruned back some redcurrants, blackcurrants and gooseberries. They had all suffered in the hot summer but hopefully will come back stronger this year.

Eastwood Green: The no-dig gardening method is, we’ve found, very labour intensive in the early days but we hope that all the hard work will be rewarded when the wildflowers come up and we are able to enjoy the flowers without having the mow the lawn! We’ve also noticed the crocuses are coming up and are looking very pretty against the lavender planted to the left side of the green.

As part of the Redbridge Big Green Week, we held a gardening day on Saturday 17th at Eastwood Green. We covered an area in cardboard and compost so that it's ready for planting and sowing seeds. This is the “no-dig” gardening method and we’ll be doing another session soon. Send us a message if you want to come along - all welcome (and please save us your cardboard!).

March 2022 - WE DID IT!

We reached our target - many many thanks to all our contributors and supporters!

At the Orchard we’ve been busy cutting down the last of the fruit tree cages and have planted Comfrey, Camomile, Himalayan Honeysuckle, Pineapple Mint, Gooseberries and a Fig tree. We’ve also been weeding the central bed and creating space for the existing plants to grow and to plant more.

At Eastwood Green we’ve been pruning the Forsythia and cleared away some old Fir trees and loads and loads of weeds! We will be replanting this area with more sustainable planting and installing benches and a path through the plants. Let us know if you’d like to help by clicking the “Join Now” button above or emailing us at e18society@gmail.com.

Finally at Bell Green we’re going to be planting some Rosemary and Lavender plants and have pruned the Viburnham to create a better shape and hopefully this work will encourage less littering!

Crowdfunding - February 2022

We’re nearly there! We have partially crowdfunded for the greening of South Woodford, for improvements to Eastwood Green (at the corner of Eastwood Green and George Lane roundabout) and for seating and a container at the Orchard, but we still need a few more pledges to bring us up to the total. Redbridge have already pledged to our fund but to received the funds we need to matching the funding and need to do this by 28th February! If you are able to help in any way, please go to SPACEHIVE to pledge - it only takes a minute and you can pledge as little as you like. With many thanks to all those who have already pledged funds.

If you’d like to pledge with your time instead, that would be great! Just send us an email or come along to our Planting Day on Saturday February 26th, from 11am at the orchard, where we will be planing a Mulberry tree!

Harvest - December 2021

We’ve successfully grown a brilliant crop of Jerusalem Artichokes! These vegetables are related to sunflowers rather than globe artichokes, and make a fantastic soup. Send us a message if you’d like to try some as there are still more in the ground and you can bake roast artichokes with bay leaves and garlic from Jamie Oliver via this link.

Fundraising - November 2021

We have started our crowd-funding for the continuation of our greening of South Woodford via the CIL* fund. If we raise some of the funds, Redbridge will commit to £2963.00 and we have already reached 56% of our funding target! Have a look at the project page here and if you are interested in helping with fundraising, or want to help us when the work actually gets going, please contact us as we’d love to hear from you!

*CIL stands for Construction Infrastructure Levy and is money paid by developers to be shared among community groups.

Eastwood Green

The above bid includes plans to transform the semi-circle of green space opposite the roundabout on George Lane. With seating and biodiverse planting, we hope this will be an enjoyable addition to our urban landscape.

Open day - September 2021

We held our first open/green day in September and while the rain came down at the exact time we opened the event, those that did brave the weather had a great time. The neighbourhood children helped us to build our very own bug hotel and also created their own to take home. There were electric bikes to try out and a quiz to test your observation skills!

Tree planting - February 2021

With funding from London Borough of Redbridge, and in conjunction with The Orchard Project and the Roots’n’Permaculture network, we have planted our first seven trees. These include cherries and apple trees and were lovingly installed on a beautiful sunny day in February 2021.

We are hoping to follow the concept of a Forest Garden in this location, which uses the principles of permaculture, an agricultural system or method that seeks to integrate human activity with natural surroundings so as to create highly efficient self-sustaining ecosystems. Forest Gardens can be described as 3D gardens, with trees, shrubs, and ground cover plants which can be used for food, dyeing, fibre and even making candles!

If you’d like to know more about Forest Gardens, this website is a good place to start. There is also a National Forest Gardens scheme, which you can view here.

Call out for volunteers!

We are actively looking for volunteers from schools and community groups as well as our members to let us know how you think you can use this facility. Please email us if you are interested in any aspect of this project.

The different tasks still need to be carried out are:

initial watering over the coming months
additional planting in due course
Planning a watering rota and maintenance

Future plans…

We are looking into further sources of funding to include a shelter/store (hopefully with a green roof!) on the site. An architect’s vision is shown on the bottom right of the page, and this, along with additional seating and paths, will give a focus to the site and include areas for socialising, relaxing and contemplation. We are also looking at better ways of accessing the orchard and for it to be suitable for all so if you know of any grant bodies or local businesses that may have funding available for this sort of project, or would like to be involved in gardening work or fundraising, do let us know via email.