Volunteer Meeting - 12th April
Please join us at the Woodfield Pavilion on Saturday 12 April from 11am until noon for a volunteers’ meeting. We need your help with the care of fourteen newly-planted fruit trees and our immediate priority is to establish a summer watering rota before the hot weather arrives.
The Woodfield Community Orchard is enhancing biodiversity in the field at the Woodfield Pavilion on the edge of Tooting Bec Common. A vital aspect of this is to encourage local communities, including school groups, to nurture and appreciate the natural environment.
After two successful rounds of planting, we now have fourteen fruit trees, among them apple and quince. Thank you to those who have already supported us with this. We aim to establish an orchard of almost thirty trees by the end of the year. It is vital that each new sapling thrives. That’s why help will be needed with watering, mulching, pruning, harvesting and weeding.
Any support you can give will be hugely appreciated.
Welcome to the Woodfield Community Orchard page
WOODFIELD COMMUNITY ORCHARD
The second Woodfield Community Orchard Planting Day is coming up fast - Friday 31st January (10.45 - 12.00) by the Pavilion.
We'll be planting 7 trees - 3 x Pear (Beurre Hardy, Jargonelle and Pitmaston Duchess), 1 x Plum (Oullins Gage), 1 x Cherry (Stella), 1 x Medlar (Westerveld) and 1 x Quince (Portugal).
If you’d like to visit and discuss the Orchard with our volunteers, we’ll also be there on Saturday 1st February from 10.30 to 12.00 doing follow-up work.
Further trees will be planted in October this year and in January 2026, bringing the total to 28.
Launch celebration - and first planting - Saturday 16th November
Photography by Mark Weeks
Planting Schedule:
There will be 7 trees planted initially:
4 Apple Trees:
London Pippin - A now uncommon rare local variety
Ashmead’s Kernel - Late dessert apple
Beauty of Bath - An early apple best eaten straight from the tree!
Ribston Pippin - A juicy yellow & red apple
1 Black Mulberry - Luscious black fruit
1 Plum - Warwickshire Drooper - Egg sized, yellow speckled red plum
1 Wild Service - A rare native fruiting tree
More Info:
Supported by Wandsworth and Lambeth Councils, the Woodfield Community Orchard will provide a variety of benefits, including improved health and well-being, increased social interaction, opportunities for learning, physical exercise, and enhanced biodiversity. Local residents, families, and volunteers will play a key role in cultivating the orchard, benefiting future generations.
WCOP - The mission…
The aim of the project is to establish a Community Orchard on Woodfield, planting approximately 30 fruit trees across the winters of 2024/5 and 2025/6 at the south-western end of Woodfield (the end that borders Streatham and Clapham High School). The Orchard will occupy less than one third of the field in total. The variety of trees will be generously spaced and the Orchard itself sited in an area that will maintain wide avenues at both back and sides of the field.
A Community Orchard is a series of fruit trees planted in a specific area within a local community. It’s by and for everyone within that community. The active engagement and involvement in all aspects of the orchard is vital, and everyone and anyone is encouraged to join in. The more people involved, the more fun, knowledge and fruit is shared amongst our community.
Many volunteers have already spent time in gaining permissions, organising the layout, researching the most suitable trees, and raising the funds to start the WCOP. If you’d like to be involved please contact…