Orchard August 2024 – before cutting, shows the dominant grass sward

Tom Bartlett, Head Gardener at Univ, provides an update on Sustainability and Biodiversity at the College’s Staverton Road annexe, where our Univ North development is taking shape:

The College gardens team have started rejuvenating the orchards at Staverton since September 2023, when I joined the College.

In 2022, the Fairfield Residential Home (FRH) section of the orchard was re-landscaped and planted up with new apple and pear trees. It has been my intention to re-stock the orchards with new trees. There are some lovely mature and semi-mature trees there and it is important to plant the next generation of trees.

In the winter of 2023/4, four new pear trees were planted along the hedgeline of the FRH orchard. This now completes the fruit tree planting in this section. These were slightly more familiar varieties such as “conference”, “Beth” and “William bon Chretien.”

Univ North orchard – September 2024 – just after we had cut the grass with a flail and had sown the yellow rattle seed

This winter we have removed four plum trees that had become diseased, decayed and were no longer fruiting. We processed the waste into woodchip, which will be incorporated into our compost and used on the beds next year.

To replace these trees and fill in other gaps in the planting, six new fruit trees will be planted in February. We have sourced these from a specialist local fruit tree supplier who grow heritage varieties; this means we will be planting historic Oxfordshire varieties. These have fantastically charming names such as:

“Eynsham dumpling” – Wastie collection
“Swans egg” – first mentioned in 1729
“Oxford hoard” – Wastie collection
“Jennifer Wastie” – Wastie collection

Wastie collection refers to Frederick Wastie who, in the early 1900s, grew and cultivated new varieties of apple and pear trees in the village of Eynsham. Jennifer was his daughter. So, growing these trees will help conserve local varieties, keeping history alive.

Univ North orchard December 2024 – the grass has recovered. The yellow rattle won’t germinate until Mid-February.

Alongside the tree re-planting, we are looking to improve the diversity of the grassland that grows in the orchards. This has become a very dense grass sward with little species diversity. So, last autumn we cut the grass hard back into the ground and sowed yellow rattle seed. Yellow rattle (Rhinanthus minor) is a native plant that is semi-parasitic of the grass roots i.e. it feeds off the grass roots. This then weakens the density of the grass, allowing other species to grow. This process will take several years, sowing each autumn. When the grass had become suitably thinned out, a native species rich meadow seedmix will be sown; this will then greatly improve the biodiversity in the area.

We have also planted 120 native plug plants along the hedgeline to establish on the bare soil that was between the new trees.

Alongside this we are also planning on siting two new honey bee hives in the orchards; after an encouraging summer with our hives in the Masters Garden, this can only help the pollination of the fruit trees.

All these individual things will culminate in the orchards being much more biodiverse and the fruit trees being more bountiful well into the future.

Published: 4 February 2025

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