The purpose of the Birmingham TreePeople Orchard Programme is to better understand the fruit tree resources already present within city orchards, bring under-managed fruit trees into management, and plant more fruit trees for communities to enjoy.

Working alongside orchard stakeholders in the City of Birmingham, such as Fruit & Nut Village and Birmingham City Council, we can provide services for communities to facilitate orchard planting.

We have several active orchard planting projects this coming season, including an orchard as part of The Zephaniah Forest in Burbury Park, and are seeking further opportunities to expand our planting programme.

Are you an individual or part of a group that cares about growing and sharing surplus food for the community? If you know of a space in your ward that you feel could be appropriate for an orchard, then please get in touch with us.

We can facilitate pruning workshops for volunteers, particularly in neglected community orchards, and offer training in grafting (the method of propagating fruit trees).

Using TreePlotter – our tree mapping software seen below – we are developing a map of the publicly accessible community orchards in Birmingham. In the near future, we will be running opportunities for volunteers to get involved with orchard surveying, to keep the maps updated with the correct data.

Frank P Matthews are our generous sponsors for the Orchard programme.