Community Fruit Trees

In October 2023, we became aware of a grant from North Ayrshire Council Woodlands Trust Fund to help North Ayrshire Council reach their ambitious tree planting target and were keen to see if it was possible in our local community.

Community groups in North Ayrshire are being invited to apply for funding as part of an ambitious plan to introduce 108,000 new trees by 2030

https://www.largsandmillportnews.com/news/23835139.north-ayrshire-funding-available-groups-plant-trees/

Surveying Skelmorlie

A survey of the local community completed in October 2023 showed a keen interest in this project idea with 42 positive responses which is a high number for such a small community!

What did the community think?

We attended an event for community groups in the community centre to share our plans and get feedback on the possible areas we had identified. Again we were met with overwhelming positivity with everyone showing excitement at the fruit tree plans and lots of input into which areas would be best for the trees and community.

Applying for the grant

With that information in hand, we spent some time putting together a grant application in early November and crossed our fingers!

North Ayrshire Council did not approve our grant application quickly, as there were so many different bodies involved in the areas of land we had identified as possible sites. We spoke to various council departments directly – North Ayrshire Council had to ensure that they did the same and this took valuable time.

We were supposed to hear by 8th December and come February we were starting to lose hope. We finally received news of our positive application on 1st February – the trees had to be in the ground by the end of March to receive the grant.

Action Stations – The Race to Planting Day

From this point on it was a race to get to planting day with only 1 month to get everything organised.

Fruit Tree Expert

Our first action was to get our Scottish Fruit Tree Expert – John Hancox to come down the following weekend for a site survey. We needed to understand first of all if the areas identified were even suitable for fruit trees. We weren’t able to do this in advance as we needed the grant to fund this.

Thankfully he was happy with the planting locations and highlighted the best areas within those approved by North Ayrshire Council. He also advised us that we should plant them by early March which reduced our time even further. We formulated a planting strategy and defined the types of trees which would be best suited based on what the community had said in the original survey. We went for heritage varieties which would best help biodiversity and suit our climate.

Getting Skelmorlie Involved

In the short space of time left, we managed to meet with and involve

• the School Eco Group,
• the Scouts,
• Skelmorlie Youth Group,
• we leafletted all houses adjacent to the planting locations,
• shared the leaflet in the local shops and through the school newsletter,
• shared information on our website,
• on facebook and
• on the community facebook pages.
• We had two open community meetings, one in the library during the day, and one in the evening in the Skelmorlie Tennis Club.
• We had a meeting with the community centre and further refined our planting locations.

The fire station agreed to help us water in those hot summer months by involving the trees in their weekly hose checks! Great way to use that otherwise wasted water effectively and a massive help to us.

We had a fantastic turnout from planting day! Many of the kids who helped have been seen proudly visiting “their” trees since, which makes it all worthwhile.

Caring for the trees

Many respondents in our community-wide survey expressed an interest in long-term care for the trees. Within our group, we have a professional garden that can assist us with managing this and we will also be obtaining the advice of the Fruit Tree expert on pruning instructions next season.

The trees we have planted are semi-dwarf varieties and will be pruned to 2-3 meters to ensure maximum fruit growth and easy picking.

Harvesting

The fruit produced will be free for the community! We will provide some guidance around the best time to harvest to ensure the fruit reaches maturity before it’s harvested.

Skelmorlie Community Fruit Trees – News

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