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 an orchard maintenance course at FarmED and get out into the field with our orchard expert, Christine Elliott. For our courses in December and February, an emphasis will be placed on maintenance over the winter period, discussing 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. The afternoon will then be spent in the orchard again. The day will end around 16:00. Please bring weather appropriate clothing and footwear, as well as notepads and pencils or pens if you would like. Refreshments will be served at the start of the day, but will be available to purchase from the cafe throughout the day.

Please bring your own secateurs and pruning saws - and telescopic secateurs, if you have them!

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.