Loughborough Farm Orchard

We were working on a proposal for a public art scheme in Brixton, Root Down, with the aim of planting an avenue of fruit trees in an under-used park. While we were developing our ideas, we heard that two volunteers at Loughborough Farm wanted to develop the area into an orchard. When we started to talk together about our schemes, we discovered a massive synergy with their plans and ideals, and we were all delighted to combine the projects and work together. In this way, each project has benefited from the other. Our original plan for Root Down was to plant 10 fruit trees but working with Urban Growth we increased the ‘edible avenue’ to a total of 29 trees, which are a mixture of heritage apples, pears, damsons and plums. We also planted some cherry trees and a couple of mulberries.

On a wet weekend in February 2016, over 100 volunteers from the local community came to help plant the trees and the farm has been maintaining them ever since.

The Loughborough Farm Orchard is now planted and is being tended by the farm volunteers. Harvests are being utilised by the Platform, the farm cafe, and we hold a wassailing event there every winter to bless the trees. We also hold workshops on pruning so that the community can be better involved and more skilled.