Cripley Meadow Allotments Association

2010 Cripley Island Orchard Year Two
 History

January 2008 Three year plan submitted to Local food project
Working Party Groups worked in February and March 2009.  Stacking logs (See photo gallery)
We received confirmation of Lottery Funding on March 11th, the day of our 2009 AGM.  Andy Howard of Mid Shires orchard group gave a short talk to members about orchards and we celebrated and shared plans for the 2 year project.
To get more information about Local Food funding the following links will help
www.localfoodgrants.org  
www.biglotteryfund.org.uk
Our Photo Gallery has more pictures and many thanks are due to OCC Parks Tree Team for their hard work and patience during what were some difficult times.
Year One 2009

April  Working Party  Green Warriors (See Photo Gallery) 
May - A smaller working party than usual because some committee members were carrying out the plot audit. Never the less a great deal of work was done.  Cleared willow branches etc from Fiddlers stream, helped by Edward in his boat. Burned remains of shed (wormy wood). Started stacking wood chip
Wednesday 6 May - We cleared the nettles from the flags round the pond and burned the rest of stream pile by the shed (with nettles and rooted willow) We also moved 3 piles of wood chip to main pile to rot down for low area use and took out the by now very sprouted willow twigs with frightening long roots.  It was a lovely evening, with a great aspect and pleasant temp for hard work

  In June, July and August we continued to level paths, tstack wood chip, remove tree stumps, remove the toilet building and burnt rubbish, cut comfrey and trimmed back where needed. We had our first harvest and stripped willow for stakes for marking out.   All wild flower patched were marked to avoid cutting. A new skip was ordered for rubbish.

June Information leaflet published and distributed at the allotment stall at Jericho Street Fair. This was updated for August and a  Open Day Information leaflet was published. It was a lovely day and we had 70 visitors form the neighbourhood and other allotment sites. Next year we hope more mebers will take this opportunity to be on site and take the chance to look at each others allotmnents and the island and invite their freinds.

 July brought another 25 hours of voluntary members work - the path was levelled, some tree stumps and rubbish removed, more wood chip stacked and comfrey cut. 

In August, we removed yet  more sprouting willow twigs, the ‘toilet’, the drop hole and holes left by the stump grinder as well as ‘cutting and stripping the willow’.  These rods are for marking out.  We removed bricks from the edge of the old shed and started levelling and had our first Open Day display.  In September, we were again cutting nettles and willow and built 13 "tumps" for the apple trees. These are raised mounds which will protect the new tree roots form the worst of the wet ‘til established. At the beginning of October the WP built another 10 tumps. In November we built more tumps and 15 students from St Clare's spent an afternoon moving rotted wood chip into the ditches around each tump.  Lots of good excercise, wheelbarrow work and good humour. At the end of November the island was beginning to show surface water and it was largely flooded by the beginning of December and under snow for much of February.

Year Two 2010

Reassuringly the tump tops remained out of water! Members should not go on the island when it has surface water as there are too many hidden pitfalls.  By early February the water had receded and we were able to start some coppicing  and Parks could complete  clearing Castle Mill stream.  We had a good show of spring flowers as the daffodils and primroses had survived the flooding.  We did the first tranche of apple tree planting in March, In April we burnt the willow tops left by Parks for clearing and by June we were weeding the tumps.  The flora is developing well now as the planting glades are more establ;ished and we had a great show of yellow iris in the pond.  Comfrey is in abundance so we will criop some of this to stop seeding and use for liquid feed.    The summer jobs are to dig more tumps ready for the Autumn planting and establish the bird and bat boxes.  

The island was opened up to all members for quiet walks in June 2009. Children must be directly supervised at all times while on the island. We don’t feel we need rules for the island but please let us know if you think otherwise.  Jamie made a notice board for the island entrance for the Open Day, and John Lansbury painted it. This will be developed further with more info on wildlife.  Thanks to Mr Douglas de-Lastic, who came to our Open Day and visited us at the June Fair and kindly made a donation of £50 for fruit trees for Cripley Island Orchard. 

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