Orchard Pruning & Maintenance Course

The heritage orchard at FarmED is 10 years old and contains 250 trees, with around 100 different varieties of apple, as well as pear, gage, plum, damson, cherry, quince, mulberry and peach trees. But having your own fruit trees and orchards isn’t all cider and blossom. To get the best out of your fruit trees, they need to be pruned and maintained throughout the year.

Join us for a half-day orchard maintenance course at FarmED and get out into the field with our orchard expert, Christine Elliott. Christine will demonstrate principles of thinning fruit and summer pruning, discuss the tools required and what to look for when managing your own fruit trees.

About the course leader

Christine Elliott, a locally well-known apple enthusiast, is passionate about heritage apple varieties. As part of the Kitchen Garden People at FarmED, Christine selected the fruit trees (including 60 varieties of apple) planted since the winter of 2021/22 in the agroforestry strips between the vegetable growing spaces.

Drinks and a snack will be served from 9:45, with the course itself beginning at 10. We will be out in the orchard for around three hours, before returning to the cafe for lunch. Please bring weather appropriate clothing and footwear, as well as notepads and pencils or pens if you would like.

Equipment and materials will be provided for the course, but feel free to bring your own if you would prefer.

Cancellation Policy

We understand that there may be times where you need to cancel your booking. Our cancellation policy is outlined here.

We like to take photos and occasionally videos of our events to use on our website and social media, please let us know if you do not want to be photographed.