From the archive
6 Sep 2026
There is a corner of Highbury Park in Birmingham, up against the old Chamberlain estate, where the fruit trees are looked after by whoever turns up. Highbury Community Orchard has run this way since 2010 - a decade and a half of people arriving with secateurs and going home with scratched forearms. A project that lasts that long becomes part of the furniture of a neighbourhood, which is its own kind of success.
The rhythm is fixed and modest. Volunteers meet every Thursday from eleven until two for orchard and garden tasks. On Wednesdays in term time the space fills with children - play sessions, forest school, learning activities - and the orchard works deliberately with families, SEN communities, schools and local groups. Once a month there is something larger: seasonal celebrations, including an apple day, which is the point in the year when a community orchard stops being a gardening project and becomes a calendar.
What is actually on the ground is a working list: a community garden, the orchard itself, a forest garden, compost toilets, and a space that can be hired. The blend is intentional - heritage craft skills alongside permaculture, play alongside pruning. It sits in a busy part of the city, reachable by four bus routes, and asks nothing of anyone except that they come back. Lasting since 2010 means the planting and the people have grown up together.
An orchard survives on a fixed, repeating slot, not on enthusiasm. Pick one three-hour window a week, put it in the same place every time, and hold it through winter - Highbury's is Thursday, 11 to 2. Add one annual celebration (apple day costs little more than a press and a date) and the calendar does your recruiting for you.
Permaculture Association · Read the source